[California Residency Requirement for UC Berkeley]

16 hours ago, Sigaba said:

She must have an extraordinarily high opinion of you if she's going to take these kinds of risks to spend time with you.

Why not prove you're worthy of such high esteem by finding ways to visit her at Cal rather than making her shoulder the burden?

She has no class Friday so basically 3 day weekends every week and also academic breaks, whereas I only have the standard 2 weeks/yr. I already do plan on visiting at least once per semester. Also she is living in international house for first year and you’re not allowed to have guests >3 nights per sem. 

[California Residency Requirement for UC Berkeley]

2 hours ago, BabyScientist said:

Is that 6 weeks total or 6 weeks in a row...?

It’s 6 weeks total in a 366 day period. If you go on approved summer travel that does not count. 

[California Residency Requirement for UC Berkeley]

Hi everyone,

My girlfriend is starting a PhD at UC Berkeley soon and I live in DC. I know that students need to establish residency in their first year to avoid additional fees. From the website it says you can only be out of California for 6 weeks and that they will ask for plane tickets, bank account statements, etc for proof. This seems a bit OD to be honest. Would any current or former students be able to weight in on the strictness? 

For example if she went to visit me on a long weekend would they know and not give her the residency? Do they need entire bank history for the entire year? If I bought the plane tickets for her would they be able to find out by searching flight databases? Do they track students IP address?

[Long distance relationship]

Hi everyone, new to the chat here. I work in  Washington DC at a trade association (lobbying). I am considering applying to part time masters programs because I may want to get a PhD in poli sci or Econ down the road. My girlfriend is in the humanities and was accepting to Yale, Princeton, and Berkeley PhD programs. Although it was a hard decision for both of us, she ultimately chose Berkeley because it was the right fit for her interests. 

I’m just getting worried about the distance. Berkeley is so far from DC We would only see each other a few times a year. Should she have chosen Yale or Princeton because it’s closer to DC?! I don’t really have an option since policy and lobbying is incredibly geographically limited. Does anyone have experience in long distance relationships while in grad school? How did it work out for you?