nerdfighter

Indeed! Although, I applied to the UCSF BMS program, not the neuro program, because I haven't yet decided whether I'll end up in a neuro or bioinformatics lab. Can't agree more about spacing things out. My schools are all in California like yours, except I live in Maryland, so I'm looking at at least 10 cross-country flights in 6 weeks already. Althonse & uberneuron, which Berkeley interview did you take?

I'm interviewing there, too! Which interview date did you take?

My application status just says 'submitted' and I got an interview invitation this weekend. Don't give up hope yet!

Thanks for all the responses, everyone! It's good to hear that they don't really care. It's hard to get the actual numbers of in-state students UC schools admit since they tell everyone to get California residency, so the percent of students that are CA residents is inflated.

Does anyone with experience applying to schools in California have any advice for us out-of-staters? I'm from the East Coast (home state and undergrad), but I'm applying mostly to PhD programs in California. From the stats I've seen, UC schools seem to cater largely to in-state students, and I'm concerned that admissions panels might think I don't know what I'm getting myself into. None of my professors have professional contacts west of the Mississippi, so that doesn't help, either. In your experience, is applying to California schools any different from applying to schools elsewhere? Will my East Coast home state be a strike against me, or can I convince the admissions panel through my personal statement that I do want to move west?