The University of California undergraduate programs cover dozens of academic majors, hundreds of degree programs, and nine distinct universities scattered around California — a state in the United States that is larger than Vietnam, the U.K., and France (although not combined). Some of these campuses are predominantly popular among California-based students and fairly accessible for those outside of the state, while others are globally-recognized as top-tier universities and are very hard to get into.

The nine universities, UC Berkeley, UC Davis, UC Irvine, UCLA, UC Merced, UC Riverside, UC San Diego, UC Santa Barbara, and UC Santa Cruz are distinct and operate individually. However, there is a shared application that is separate from the Common App. There are also a shared set of requirements and expectations — which is why we are addressing the nine schools here as one group. This doesn’t mean that the schools are interchangeable, though. There is a campus and a community for anyone within the University of California system. They welcome nearly 40,000 freshmen each year, and are home to students from over 100 countries.

The acceptance rates for the UC schools are heavily skewed by a higher rate of acceptance of students from California, who are given preference in the admissions process, so they aren’t actually that helpful in determining your chances of getting in. For example, UC Berkeley had an overall acceptance rate of 11.6% in 2023, but when California residents are excluded the acceptance rate was 6.9%, and when we only look at international applicants the acceptance rate was 5.3%. And the acceptance rates vary widely between campuses. At UC Davis, the overall acceptance rate in 2023 was 41.6%, the non-California acceptance rate was actually higher, at 53%, and the international student acceptance rate was 49%. Your takeaway from this should be to not be too fixated on acceptance rates. Instead, look for the UC school that is the best fit.

If you’ve found a UC school that you are excited about, you need to plan well in advance the application deadline to make sure that you are eligible to be considered as a candidate for admission. The UC school system has a lot of requirements for, and expectations of, applicants that require pre-planning. Let’s break it down.

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What are the University of California schools looking for in International Students?

First off, let’s confirm that you fit the UC definition of an “international student.” For the University of California schools, an international student is any applicant who is not a U.S. citizen or permanent resident of the U.S., and who will require a nonimmigrant visa to study in the United States.

Courses + Grades

Whether you are or aren’t an international student, the UC schools have very stringent college preparation requirements for applicants. These requirements are even stricter for international students, though, so you need to review them long before applying to make sure that you will be qualified for consideration for admission.

For international students, the college-preparatory course requirements are for 15 courses across the following distribution.

History: 2 years
Composition and Literature: 4 years
Mathematics: 3 years
Science: 2 years
Foreign Language: 2 years
Visual and Performing Arts: 1 year
One additional course from any of the areas above: 1 year

There are also minimum grades that you need to achieve in these courses. You must have the equivalent of a “C” or better in every class, and a cumulative GPA or 3.4 or higher.

There may be additional requirements based on what country you are coming from, so be sure to check this page for any additional expectations the UC system may have.

Essays

Because the UC system has its own application, you’ll also need to do separate essays for it. You will be given eight prompts, and will need to pick four of them to respond to in 350 words. There are no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ prompts to choose, but there will be prompts that are particularly right for you. And you’ll know this when you read them. Pick the ones that resonate with you, instead of fixating on which will ‘look good’. What looks good is representing yourself fully!

If you are applying to colleges outside of the UC system, you can often find ways to rework or reuse content from the Common App essays you may have already written. But don’t try to cram a square peg into a round hole.

Start working on your essays, which they call Personal Insight Questions, during the summer. This will give you tons of time to draft, edit, and refine. These essays need to represent who you are beyond your transcript, so don’t waste your time trying to be what they want. Instead, show who you are.

Tell a story with each essay with specific examples. Your transcript is dry and boring. These essays need to be dynamic and add color, showing them your full self within the context of being a committed and passionate student and community member.

Standardized Tests

If you’re stressing about taking the SAT or ACT test — or even tackling both — you’ll like this. The University of California schools do not consider SAT or ACT scores as part of their admissions process. Seriously. They do not consider them at all. But test scores can help you fulfill minimum requirements once you’ve been accepted, can place you into particular courses as a first-year student, and can even serve to meet the English Proficiency Test requirements.

You may be required to submit a score from an English Proficiency Test, or otherwise illustrate your ability to speak and write in English. The UC schools all expect you to arrive on campus ready and able to learn in and contribute to a learning environment that is conducted entirely in English, and they like to know that you meet this bar before you arrive. If you attended “high school or secondary school in a country where English was not the language of instruction” and you have had “less than 3 years of instruction in English,” you’ll need to proactively illustrate to UC that you’re ready to study in English on their campuses.

There are a variety of ways that you can demonstrate proficiency:

Score 24+ on the ACT English section
Score 31+ on the SAT Writing and Language section
Score a 3+ on the English Language and Comp or the English Lit and Comp AP exam
Score 6+ on the IB Standard Level exam in English (Language A)
Score 5+ on the IB Higher Level exam in English (Language A)
Score 6.5+ on the IELTS
Score 80+ on the TOEFL
Score 115+ on the Duolingo English Test

Admission by Exception

We’ve written a lot in this post about the various requirements the UC system has for applicants, but each year the UC system schools offer spots to students who don’t meet the strict criteria we laid out above. The UC schools see that these students have the potential to excel, even though they haven’t been able to fulfill the requirements. This could be because of your school system, your resources, or other circumstances that limited your access to things that would otherwise be required.

Don’t bet on Admission by Exception, but it’s good to know that it’s a possibility if it is truly impossible for you to meet the standard requirements for applicants.

If you’re looking into the UC system of schools as an option for college, you have a lot to pick from. Start by studying up on each school and then pick your top three to aim for. Having a particular ‘prize’ in mind makes achieving your goals much more attainable.

Navigating the University of California system can be overwhelming. We can help.