..........

does anyone of you know how generous berkeley is with their financial aid?

I haven't any news from Berkeley, even rejection or waitlisted. What does it mean? Will I receive a rejection soon?

Perhaps I let my temper guide me in this impulsive act, but I just withdrew my application. The waiting list just got a lill' bit shorter :) Good luck to you all.

I'm on the waiting list too.

okay, straight from the horse's mouth, spoke with a lady in the graduate admission's office, she stated that they send out 50 admission offers in the first round, and another 50 on the second, the rest of the population gets either an outight rejection and others are waitlisted. But here is the interesting (rather disheartening issue) they waitlist two people for every available seat, in other words, there are currenty two hundred people waitlisted.!!! :(

really???

I haven't actually applied to Berkeley, but in response to someone's question on financial aid - I had mailed them some time in November/December last year, and the reply wasn't very encouraging so I didn't apply. This is what I was told,

"Because financial aid funds are extremely limited at this time, only partial awards (in the form of grants or tuition waivers) can be offered to a few LL.M. students each year, based on need. No full fellowships are currently available"

Hi I am from Costa Rica, got admission email on 03/06, recently received the Financial Aid info package (basically pamphlets), i was not granted in aid or tuition waivers, they state that such aid is very limited, instead they provided with a list of local foundations that offer grants for local students wishing to pursue studies abroad, it seems that they cut and paste this information out of the Ministry of Education's website. I have contacted some of this organisations and they tell me that they are very short of funds this year and that they are most likely not able to materially assist (ie. since i need approx $70,000 tuition+living expenses, etc).

I sent an email to Berkeley about possibility of getting a student loan either for the school or a private party and was told UCB does not provide student loans, and that because i am foreiner i probably do not qualifiy for student loans issued by US govt or financial instituions. I dont know what to do!!! Anybody, please give me suggestions/ideas regarding funding!!

Twelfth Monkey,
I hope I could make a decision like that. Waiting list sucks, but is all I have for now. What are your choices? where did you get admitted?

waitlisted too... Do you think all the waitlisted folks have a better chance of getting into the Summer LLM program as suggested in the waitlist email sent out uesterday...

Yes...I did that..!! was admitted instantly !!!!

It is a good option but most people dont want to wait a year...

the "problem" i have with Summer Program in addition to the fact that you have to wait another year (and that is only for the Summer of 2010, and then ANOTHER year for the Summer of 2011, since the program is over TWO summers), is the fact that the faculty is a junior non-tenured one, their is a smaller selection of offered courses (since the JD and regular LL.M folks are not around during Summer). Also you miss the best parts of the student life, since most regular students return home for the Summer.....so in short, the Summer Program is not imparted by the senior-tenured faculty, the course selection is drastically reduced, the full "student life experience" is lost, and it takes tooo long (TWO summers), and at the SAME cost as the regular LL.M. My personal opinion is that this is not but a shameless revenue generation driven program, i am not sure if it is worth the same (at least not in terms of time and money) as the regular LL.M. .....but that is jsut my opinion, it may well fit the needs of other candidates.

Prof Guzman teaches in the course!! and some others... I have the list if you want to see it!!!

sure, why not. What i am more interested to see is the list of courses available. If they only admit 50 students, i can only imagine that the availability of courses to chose from will be somewhat skimpy, since no one else is around that time of the year to take any such courses. As to Prof. Guzman, i don't really cae much for him, i am more interested in corporate/finance/business/IP subjects, where is his concetration if public international law. Don't get me wrong i am not "dissing" the program, if its worth your time and dollar go for it, i just find it, again, a to shameless revenue-driven exercise. (a good source of a couple of million dollars for the School, with very little given in return to the payee).

@Pedrinus

Please check you P.M.

IP yes...that is Berkeley...

the rest you are better of in other schools... They have a good curriculum and some electives for you to pick!!!!

It is not a bad programme specially if you already have an LLM.

So, i went on to the UCB Summer Program website:

http://www.law.berkeley.edu/161.htm

This is an absolute armed-robbery, you are forced to take the following subjects, so basically, you only have TWO electives, for the entire progam; this requirement curriculae is more reminicent of a PRE-LAW program than a Masters degree:

Course "offerings" (read mandatory courses) for the two summer terms are as follows:

"Initial summer term:

Introduction to U.S. Law (2 units; required)
Contracts (3 units; required)
Civil Procedures (3 units; required)
Choice of electives: Introduction to Intellectual Property (3 units); Corporations (3 units)


Second summer term:

Legal Writing and Research (1 unit; required)
Constitutional Law (3 units; required)
Pofessional Responsibility (3 units; required)
Choice of electives: Introduction to Intellectual Property (3 units); Corporations (3 units); Advanced IP course (to be determined); Advanced Business Law course (to be determined)"

This is pathetic, again, reinforces my opinion about this program, UCB needs to be ashamed of itself for this (taking peoples monety for nothing).

I agree this course doesnt make much sense at all.