sustain81080

What usually happens is that the funding packages paid by Graduate Division, your school, whatever, only pay the amount of in-state tuition. What happens (at least in some of the UCs) is that if your department wants you, they'll pay the difference in tuition for the first year. During that time, you're expected to establish in-state residency. If you don't, you can get into some serious financial trouble with your program. But like the other poster said, they won't bring in an under-qualified in-state resident over a well qualified out-of-state applicant.

Out of all the UCs, Riverside receives some of the smaller numbers of applications (about 150 last year). This means that they will probably look at every application file that comes. I got in last year, and my verbal was 600. It's pretty much what the UC's list as a minimum. Honestly, though, a lot of schools know that the GRE won't be an indicator of performance in seminars requiring critical thinking rather than rote memorization. If you can get another testing of the GRE in before the deadline, do it. If you top your last score, mention on the electronic app your new score and note that it will arrive here once processing is complete. My advice: focus as much energy as possible on revising and perfecting your writing samples and SoP.

Go to departmental sites and check out the faculty listings. Many of the UC sites now categorize faculty based on research areas in order to make it easier for the curious or prospective grad students. Off the top of my head, I'd tell you to check out Irvine and Riverside. I don't want to discourage you from applying to Berkeley, but I have to tell you that they get around 500 applications a year (if not more). Same with UCLA. If your numbers are great and SOP focused and direct, then by all means go for it.

This season is going to be tough and financially tight. The UC just underwent some serious budget cuts, staff losses, etc. So, here is my advice: If you have the time and money (app fees aren't cheap) to put into this application, you might as well do it. However, you must remember that you'll be competing with more people for fewer spots. Among the people with whom you'll compete are people who already possess BA's and MA's in Literature (whether English, comp lit, comp and rhet, etc). Of these, many will have substantially high GRE scores and GPAs. Writing samples include items such as a few essays (when they say 25 pages cumulative, don't submit more than two papers totaling 25 pages. Go for two papers of around 12-15 pages in length, since you probably won't have a min. 25 page paper on a lit. specific topic as an English minor). Also, in regards to your language ability, they don't look for conversational fluency, they're looking for literacy. So, you would have to convince them that you can read Spanish texts fairly well. Of course, they'll admit people whose language skills need work, but that's usually because those individuals had stellar applications. Remember that applying takes a lot of time, and the fee can be pricey. I'm not totally discouraging you, but you should find out what they average GPA's and GRE scores of prior applicants were. If you could find out how many entered with a non-humanities bachelor's degree, that might be more telling as to their flexibility.