1. LSE – University of California, Berkeley Undergraduate Exchange 2017 - 18
Bethan Ovens– International Student Visa Advice Manager & Erasmus Coordinator

2. The Exchange
10 places for 2nd year, undergraduate students or 3rd year PPE students;
You will spend an academic year at the University of California, Berkeley campus based in the College of Letters and Science.
The exchange is in addition towards the full length of your programme – you will be expected to return to the LSE to complete your third year in 2018 – 19.

3. Funding You pay: Fees for Home / UK students: £1350 (to be confirmed)
Fees for international students: Amount to be confirmed (£4500 in 2016)
You can apply for:
LSE Exchange Bursary: £ £3500 (up to eight bursaries available)
Home UK students:
LSE Bursary (if you receive this in UK, you will also receive it for your year in the USA)
Home/EU students:
LSE EU Bursary (if you receive this in UK, you will also receive for your year in USA)
Limited funding is available for students with widening participation needs.
In 2016, the international student fee was £5680.
The funding is intended to be a contribution towards the year in France; it is not intended to fund the entire year.
If you receive an LSE scholarship for living costs in London, that will be frozen for the year in France.
If you are in receipt of a student loan from Student Finance Direct, you can still get that for your year abroad but you will need to inform them that your course duration will be 4 years due to the year in France.
If you currently receive funding for Widening Participation or a Disabled Students Allowance, there may be some additional funding available for the year in France so please do let us know about this if you are selected for the exchange.
If you have questions about your specific circumstances, you can contact the Financial Support Office directly.
Student finance, LSE Bursary, Exchange Bursary, Erasmus Grant

4. The LSE Selection Process
Part One – Deadline Monday 12 December 2016 at 12:00pm
You submit the following:
Application coversheet including your details, details of your referee and your grades for your first year assessments. We are looking for a 2:1 average (60).
Your personal statement (maximum 1,250 words) covering:
Your educational journey so far, including reflections on your experience of LSE to date;
Why you wish to participate in the year abroad at Berkeley including which courses you are interested in taking and how it relates to your degree,
Your future ambitions and how the exchange will contribute towards your plans.
TIPS
Your referee cannot be a GTA, check if your referee is happy to write a reference for you before giving their details;
Be yourself in your application – over clichéd applications that look like applications for “The Apprentice” are generally not the ones that are selected. We want to find out more about you and what you will get from this experience.
Look at the UC Berkeley information, as you will need to select a Major subject.
LSE’s agreement is with the College of Letters and Science, so it may not possible to choose subjects outside of this area.
You need to ensure you have the relevant pre-requisites for some subject areas e.g. Economics
You should not choose modules that will give you a strong advantage in your third year at LSE
We had 150 applications for the exchange last year, this is likely to be higher this year.
You can only apply for Berkeley or Sciences Po not both.
your educational journey so far - including reflections on your experience of LSE to date 
your initial thinking about the year at Sciences Po – which campus you would like to attend and why, which courses you want to take and how they relate to your degree programme at LSE, which languages you might want to study
your ambitions beyond your LSE degree, and how the Sciences Po year would contribute towards your future plans.
Basically – why SP and why you out of all the other students?

5. The LSE Selection Process
Part Two: Shortlisting
After the deadline of the 12th December, a panel of selectors will consider the applications and create a shortlist of 30 students.
We will let you know immediately after the Christmas closure if you have been shortlisted. LSE closes on the 21st December and re-opens on the 3 January 2017, so there would be no benefit in contacting us during this time for an update.
After shortlisting has been completed, we will contact the referees of the 30 students chosen.
All application documents will be complied and considered by a selection panel headed by senior staff at the School (TBC).
We will get the decision to you before the end of January due to Berkeley’s application deadlines (Friday 10th February).

6. When to apply Application deadline:
12pm (noon) on Monday 12th December 2016
with ‘University of Berkeley application’ as the subject and attach:
Application cover sheet
Personal statement

7. After you apply
We will select 15 candidates from the shortlist. There will be 10 successful candidates and five reserves.
We have reserves as people’s plans change over the year.
We will all applicants with the outcome – we are unable to provide individual feedback on applications.
Even though you have been selected by LSE, you will still need to complete the UC Berkeley application. These must be submitted by the 10th February 2017 and are coordinated by Fiona Conlan in the Academic Partnerships Team.
If you wish to apply for an LSE exchange bursary, you will need to complete additional paperwork which will be sent to you.
More detailed advice will be given to successful applicants.

8. More information Coversheets and application details:
UC Berkeley application details:
Further questions:
This presentation will be available on that webpage shortly.

9. Thank you! Any Questions?
Thanks so much for taking the time to join us. We’d like to invite any questions or comments.