Berkeley Law offers more fascinating activities than any student can possibly plumb. But student life doesn’t end at the school’s perimeter. It spills spontaneously across the Berkeley campus, the city of Berkeley, and the San Francisco Bay Area. The options are infinite, whether a person’s interests run to politics or poetry, food or film, nature or nightlife. Restaurants within a one-mile radius represent more than 30 cuisines from every continent but Antarctica. And our music, dance, and film scenes are every bit as international as our culinary landscape.
Want to learn even more? See the sections below for some information and our recommendations for things to do and see in the area.
Visas
An admitted international student will normally come to the United States on an F-1 student visa or a J-1 exchange visitor visa. Students are expected to return to their home countries at the completion of their studies.
Please visit the Berkeley International Office website and New Students page to learn about the process of obtaining your visa. Berkeley International Office (BIO) is the resource for all UC Berkeley immigration-related matters.
To contact the Berkeley International Office, please send an e-mail to internationaloffice@berkeley.edu, or call (510) 642-2818. For questions on the NIF, please e-mail nif@berkeley.edu.
Housing Resources
We have curated these housing resources to get you started in your housing search.\
The LL.M. and J.S.D. Admissions Office is happy to answer general questions about housing. For help with the housing search, contact graduatestudenthousing@berkeley.edu for university-owned housing and homeinfo@berkeley.edu for off-campus housing.
A cautionary note on scams and deposits: In the city of Berkeley, landlords can only ask for a deposit of up to 1-2 times the amount of monthly rent. If you are looking for a place in Berkeley and they ask for more than this amount (or have no set price at all), be wary. On-campus housing has a $500 deposit payable through Cal Central.
When sending a deposit, make sure you have the name of the person you are issuing it to. Write a check, cashier check, or money order and mail it to that person. This will ensure that the payment is traceable and you have an address for the individual. Do not wire transfer or Western Union.
Food
It’s never been a better time to be a food lover in the East Bay. Oakland’s exploding food and drink scene is recognized nationally and has been spilling into neighboring cities. Near campus, a walk down Telegraph Avenue can transport the adventurous diner around the world in the space of a few blocks. Vietnam, India, Thailand, Indonesia, Korea, Turkey, Japan, Jamaica, China, France, Italy, Ethiopia, Greece, Burma, Mexico, and Lebanon all have culinary embassies here in Berkeley—many within lunch distance. Across the bridge in San Francisco, diners can select from a planet’s worth of choices, whether their tastes run to the hot, the haute, or the hybrid.
Some of our favorites:
Film
The list of local film festivals offers something for everyone. The grande dame of them all is the San Francisco International Film Festival, which celebrated its 60th anniversary in 2017 with showings of over 180 films to more than 80,000 people. Not to forget, a collection of more than 18,000 films and videos can be found just down the road from the law school at the UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Festival.
Music
Music is a through-line of the Bay Area cultural scene. Berkeley itself boasts dozens of music venues, from small jazz and bluegrass spaces, to DJs spinning dance music. Over in Oakland are the Fox Theater and Yoshi’s, where music lovers can take in a set of Incognito or Tower of Power over a plate of sushi. In San Francisco, the possibilities run from the sublime—Beethoven’s Ninth at Davies Symphony Hall, say—to the rambunctious: Indigo Girls and Patti Smith at the Fillmore or Lavay Smith & Her Red Hot Skillet Lickers at Biscuits & Blues. For big-name rock acts, there are major venues dotting the region, of course.
Some of our favorite venues:
Sports
When it comes to sports, we have major-league venues including Oracle Park, home of the San Francisco Giants, and the Chase Center, home to the World Champion Golden State Warriors basketball and WNBA team, the Golden State Valkyries. And if you’re into pro hockey, the San Jose Sharks are just 45 miles down the road.
But our athletics scene is far richer than that. When World Cup soccer time rolls around, fans tap into the madness by watching the games with frenzied expatriates of almost any nationality in their favorite hangouts: Italian cafés, Algerian coffee shops, or Brazilian bars. And for a very local form of madness, thousands of people sign up to walk or run in the annual Bay to Breakers race across San Francisco—a serious race for the few, and a jubilant, costumed stroll for the many.
Recreation
Just east of campus is Tilden Regional Park, with a golf course, swimming spots, and more than 30 miles of hiking, biking, and horse trails. On the far side of the Berkeley Hills is Wildcat Canyon, with 22 miles of hiking trails. And fewer than 200 miles farther to the east lie three national forests, the soaring granite splendors of Yosemite National Park, and Lake Tahoe, home to nearly two dozen winter ski resorts. And that’s to the east. A look to the north, west, or south will yield comparable opportunities for hikers, boaters, campers, surfers, rafters, picnickers, bird watchers, and wine lovers.
Some of our favorites:
Festivity
The diversity that characterizes Berkeley Law and U.C. Berkeley makes for a lively local scene. The blocks bordering the law school are practically international fairs in themselves, offering a microcosm of global cuisine, clothing, and music. And throughout the Bay Area, cultural diversity and pride play out in the streets via countless festivals a year: Cinco de Mayo; Carnaval; Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Pride; Aloha; Urdu; Filipino; Bulgarian; Dragon Boat; Mandolin; and Moon. Between Berkeley and San Francisco, some group of like-minded people is dancing in the streets almost every week.
Transportation
It is easy to get around Berkeley via foot, bicycle, or public transportation. U.C. Berkeley runs a campus shuttle service, with routes that connect with city bus stops and the downtown Berkeley subway (BART) station. Plus, UC Berkeley students get a Bay Pass during the school year.
For information on how to get around the City of Berkeley, visit our Getting Here page.