How to Apply to Biology at UC Berkeley: Biology Majors Are Mostly in the College of Letters and Science (Integrative Biology, Molecular and Cell Biology and Others) and Are Declared After Enrolling Once You Meet the Conditions, with Admission Routes and Prerequisites for Domestic, International (Including Chinese) and Transfer Applicants

Biology at UC Berkeley sits mainly in the College of Letters and Science (L&S). The admissions majors list places these majors under “Biological Sciences”: Integrative Biology (IB); Molecular and Cell Biology (MCB), with emphases listed as Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Cell and Developmental Biology, Genetics, Genomics, and Development, Immunology and Pathogenesis, Molecular Therapeutics and Neuroscience; Neuroscience; Public Health; the Robinson Life Science, Business, and Entrepreneurship Program; and Undeclared – Biological Sciences. This article concentrates on Integrative Biology and Molecular and Cell Biology, both in L&S and both leading to the B.A.; the Neuroscience pages were not read. The same list shows further biological majors under the Rausser College of Natural Resources (for example Genetics and Plant Biology, Microbial Biology and Ecology) and Chemical Biology under the College of Chemistry; these are not covered here, so see the official site. Public health, medicine, nursing and pharmacy are outside this article. Here is what the official pages say for fall 2027 entry, for US domestic applicants, international applicants (including those from China) and transfer applicants.

1. Degrees, tracks and how you get into the major

• You apply to the campus and name an intended major: apply with the UC application, choosing Berkeley and L&S and entering an intended major. The admissions “high-demand majors” page says L&S first-years who want a high-demand major should select it as their primary major on the application; if admitted they are guaranteed a spot, subject to completing the prerequisites, maintaining good academic standing and filing a declaration form, while changing into a high-demand major after enrolling goes through a review and opportunities are extremely limited. The page does not give the list, so ask L&S whether a biology major is on it.
• Molecular and Cell Biology (MCB): the department states “MCB is not an impacted major” and accepts any interested student who meets the minimum course and GPA requirements and can realistically complete the requirements in the remaining time. The requirements page lists six emphases: Biochemistry, Biophysics & Structural Biology (BBS); Cell Biology, Development & Physiology (CDP); Genetics, Genomics, Evolution & Development (GGED); Immunology & Molecular Medicine; Molecular Therapeutics; and Neurobiology. The department’s page for high school students says “five” emphases and the admissions names differ slightly, so check the department site.
• Declaring MCB (department’s declaring page): you need a 2.000 MCB major GPA (all lower- and upper-division courses for the major) and, if you have completed any upper-division requirements, a 2.000 upper-division GPA; Bio 1A either completed or still being taken after the add/drop deadline (or a 4 or 5 on AP Biology); Chem 3B completed or being taken after the add/drop deadline; and a chosen emphasis (which can be changed). You must finish declaring by the end of your 6th semester (or the semester before your graduating term if that comes earlier). Most upper-division MCB courses give enrollment priority to declared majors, and you must have declared before Phase 1 enrollment to benefit. The process is an online form, a confirmation email (2–3 business days), an appointment with a staff advisor, faculty advisor approval, and returning the signed form. After declaring, you meet an advisor each semester to have your registration hold lifted.
• MCB courses (department’s requirements page): the lower division is Math 51 and 52 (or Math 10A and 10B; AP Calculus cannot substitute for the math requirement), Chem 1A/1AL (Chem 4A may substitute), Chem 3A/3AL and 3B/3BL, Biology 1A/1AL, Biology 1B and Physics 8A (Physics 7A may substitute). Physics 8B is no longer required for students whose expected graduation term is fall 2026 or later. The upper division varies by emphasis, with core courses including MCB C100A or MCB 102, MCB 104 or 140 and MCB 110, plus emphasis electives and laboratories (for example MCB 133L, 140L, 150L or MCB 170L, which is offered only in summer). All major courses must be taken for letter grades. To stay in the major you need a 2.000 in both the full set of major courses and the upper-division major courses; below that students enter the Student Success Program and may be dismissed from the major if they do not recover.
• Integrative Biology (IB): the department has two emphases, Ecology, Evolution & Organismal Biology and Integrative Human Biology, with the same lower division: two math or statistics courses (taken from lists A, B and C, at most one from each list: A is Math 10A, 16A or 51; B is Math 10B, 16B or 52; C is Stat 2, 20, 21 or Data C8), Chem 1A/1AL, Biology 1A/1AL, Biology 1B, Physics 8A (Physics 7A may substitute) and IB 77A or 77B. The upper division is at least 24 units, with courses from requirement groups A (Evolution & Genetics), B and C and two upper-division labs (at least one a field lab for the first emphasis; for the second emphasis at least one Group C course must be IB 131 or IB 132); at most two non-IB courses count toward the upper division; research is not required.
• Declaring IB (department’s declaring page, effective fall 2023): you must be enrolled in or have completed IB 77A (fall) or 77B (spring), and have a major GPA and an upper-division major GPA of at least 2.000. You can declare in your first semester at Cal, and declarations are accepted only during fall and spring instruction. L&S expects students to declare by the time they have 75 units, otherwise a registration block is placed.
• Thesis and laboratory requirements: neither department’s major page requires a thesis (a thesis belongs to the honors programs, below). MCB laboratories depend on the emphasis, and IB requires two upper-division labs, as described above.
• Moving into the major from another one: the MCB declaring page says any student who meets the conditions above can declare; the IB declaring page gives conditions and no separate transfer-in procedure.
• Where graduates go: the MCB page for high school students calls the program “an excellent preparation for medical school, health professional schools, graduate school”, and the IB freshman page gives pre-medical planning advice (most medical schools also require organic chemistry, a second semester of physics and biochemistry). Neither department prints employment rate or salary figures, which are not published there.

2. Prerequisites, AP/IB credit and first-year courses

• High school (MCB page for high school students): the department advises a strong background in math, chemistry, biology and physics and a balanced high school education including activities such as volunteering and research, with college-preparatory courses encouraged. Most first-semester freshmen take Math 10A and Chem 1A/1AL. The IB freshman page suggests IB 77A, Chem 1A/1AL and one math course (Math 1, 16A, 10A, 32 or 51) in the first semester. This is departmental advice; the campus-wide requirement for every applicant is the UC A-G subject pattern (see sections 4 and 5).
• MCB and AP/IB/A-Level (MCB page for high school students): AP Chemistry 4 or 5 stands in for Chem 1A/1AL; AP Biology 4 or 5 for Biology 1A/1AL and 1B; IB Chemistry 5, 6 or 7 for Chem 1A/1AL; IB Biology 5, 6 or 7 for Biology 1B only; an A-Level Chemistry grade for Chem 1A/1AL; and an A-Level Biology grade for Biology 1A/1AL only. The page also says MCB will accept these scores to waive prerequisite courses but does not recommend doing so, because most high school AP programs lack the in-depth labs of the Cal courses and do not prepare students for upper-division work to the same degree. AP Calculus cannot substitute for the math requirement.
• IB department and exam credit (freshman and major pages): “The Department of Integrative Biology does not accept any test scores (AP, IB, A-Levels, etc) to waive the lower-division IB requirements.” The major page adds that standardized test credit cannot be used to satisfy any major requirement; AP Calculus can place you into a higher-level math class but cannot replace a math option.
• Honors: MCB honors (department’s honors page) requires a lab and an MCB faculty sponsor, a cumulative GPA of at least 3.300 and a GPA of at least 3.500 in either all courses required for the major or all upper-division courses required for the major, and enrollment in MCB H196A/B after at least two major requirements are complete; graduating with honors requires an honors thesis approved by the sponsor, a presentation in an approved forum, and at least two semesters of research including 4 to 8 units of H196A/B. IB honors requires a 3.300 GPA overall and in the IB major, H196A and H196B (3 units each, letter-graded), an independent research project, an honors thesis and a poster in the spring.
• Undergraduate research: the MCB research page says over 40% of MCB majors work in a lab; credit courses are MCB 99/199, H196 and MCB 191, with applications due by the Friday of the third week of instruction. The IB research page says a large percentage of IB majors do research before graduating; routes include the Undergraduate Research Apprenticeship Program (URAP, applications typically open the week before instruction and close two weeks later), contacting faculty or graduate students directly, and labs in other departments or off campus with a Berkeley faculty sponsor. One unit is about 3 hours a week, independent study credit tops out at 16 units toward the degree and 4 units a semester, and IB unit credit is available only for unpaid research.
• Competitions: the department and admissions pages read do not say how biology olympiad or similar results are viewed in admission; this is not published there.

3. Rounds, deadlines and materials

• No early admission (admissions “Dates and Deadlines” page; it prints no year, so check it applies to fall 2027 entry): Berkeley does not offer early admission or early decision. The UC dates page for the 2026–27 cycle, which covers fall 2027 entry, shows the application opening August 1 and a filing period of October 1 to November 30; the Berkeley page gives November 30 as the deadline and says receipt is confirmed by early December. First-year decisions are posted at the end of March (the UC page says March 1–31, with some campuses earlier), the deadline to accept is May 1, final transcripts are due by July 1 and official AP and IB results by July 15. Berkeley may also admit some students from the waitlist to start in January.
• Platform and fee: the single University of California application. The UC page for international applicants says the fee is $95 per campus ($80 may apply to international students enrolled in a US institution); the domestic fee is not given on the pages read, so check the UC website.
• Essays: the UC Personal Insight Questions: 8 prompts, of which you answer 4, each up to 350 words.
• Recommendations: UC’s international applicant page says not to submit letters of recommendation with the application, though some campuses or majors may request them in a supplemental review, so watch for email from the campus. The Berkeley admissions pages read do not describe letter arrangements; check the Berkeley admissions website.
• Testing: Berkeley states it is “test-free”: SAT/ACT scores are not used in any part of the application process; any scores submitted are used only for placement or subject credit after admission. Other non-required exam results (AP, IB and so on), grades and course rigor are still assessed.
• Interviews: Berkeley offers no alumni or admissions officer interviews; international applicants may optionally submit InitialView materials by November 30, which cannot replace a required English score.
• How applications are reviewed: holistic review with no pre-assigned weights. Academic factors include weighted and unweighted UC GPA from 10th and 11th grade UC-approved courses, planned 12th grade courses, the pattern of grades, the number of college-preparatory, AP, IB, honors and transferable college courses, and achievement relative to other UC applicants at your school; the review also looks at personal qualities, likely contributions to the campus, academic enrichment programs and other achievements.

4. US domestic applicants

• Minimum requirements (admissions first-year page): complete the A-G subject courses and earn a 3.0 GPA in A-G courses taken in 10th and 11th grade (3.4 for non-residents). The page adds that because Berkeley is competitive, meeting the minimums is often not enough to be selected.
• Residents and non-residents (UC out-of-state page): non-residents meet the same requirements as residents except for a 3.4 minimum GPA in the A-G courses with no grade below C; honors weight is given for AP or IB courses only, not school-designated honors courses; and “As a public institution, we prioritize admission for California residents. However, all of our campuses offer admission to out-of-state students.”
• 2026-27 fees (Registrar fee schedule, per semester, 2026-27 cohort, new student): $11,890 for California residents and $31,525 for nonresidents. The pieces are tuition $7,101, Student Services Fee $693, Berkeley Campus Fee $936, Transit Fee $236, Instructional Resilience & Enhancement Fee $141, Health Insurance Fee $2,533 and a $250 document management fee for new students, with an additional Nonresident Supplemental Tuition of $19,635. The admissions cost page separately prints 2026-27 estimates: tuition and fees of $18,214 (it does not say for which residency), living expenses of $23,640 in a residence hall or $20,500 in an on-campus apartment, and a Student Health Insurance Plan cost of $5,066.
• Aid: the cost page says more than $1 billion in financial aid is awarded annually, 38% of students pay nothing out of pocket for tuition because of grants and scholarships, and around two-thirds receive some form of aid. Federal, state and need-based university aid goes only to US citizens, eligible non-citizens and AB 540 eligible students (financial aid office page).

5. International applicants (including those from China)

• Basic requirements (admissions international page): finish secondary school and earn a certificate of completion that allows admission to a university in your home country or country of graduation. If your curriculum requires further certification (French Baccalaureate, IGCSE, A Levels, ATAR and so on), you must submit those results as part of the official record once admitted. Students who have only completed IGCSE or O-level have not yet met the requirements and need further study: the two-year A-level program with at least three academic exams, the IB diploma, or a similar curriculum. Students from countries with required military service should not apply until it is met; Berkeley will not guarantee deferred admission.
• Entering records: do not convert your grades; fill in the educational history exactly as on your school records and choose your school’s grade scale. There is no pre-approved course list outside California. UC’s international applicant page asks for 15 year-long academic courses with a 3.4 GPA: 2 years of history (your country’s history in place of US history), 4 years of composition and literature in the language of instruction, 3 years of college-preparatory mathematics, 2 years of college-preparatory science (covering two of biology, chemistry and physics), 2 years of a second language, 1 year of visual and performing arts and 1 additional course, plus any country-specific requirements and English proficiency.
• English proficiency: Berkeley’s international page lists these ways to demonstrate it, to be satisfied by January 31: TOEFL minimum 90 / 4.5, IELTS 6.5, Duolingo 115; AP English Language or Literature 3–5; IB Standard Level English (Language A only) 6 or 7, or Higher Level 5–7; ACT English Language Arts 24 or higher; SAT Writing and Language 31 or higher; or three or more years of English as the language of instruction (mixed instruction languages do not count). Scores must be valid for two years from the enrollment date; the ETS code is 4833. The UC English proficiency page reads differently: TOEFL iBT minimum 4.5 from January 2026 and 80 before that, IELTS 6.5, Duolingo 115, with the exam completed by December of your final year of secondary school. Berkeley’s page says 90 / 4.5 for the TOEFL and January 31, so the two pages differ; check the application site. UC does not accept IELTS One Skill Retake or TOEFL MyBest, and the digital SAT Reading and Writing section score has not been approved to show English proficiency.
• Credentials and transcripts: you self-report academic records when applying and do not submit transcripts; if admitted, each institution must send an official academic record listing dates attended, course and examination titles, grades and credits (UC international applicant page). The pages read describe no required third-party credential evaluation; this is not published there.
• Funds and visa: the Berkeley International Office handles visa and funding documentation after admission. You must prove sufficient funds for all expenses and explain the source; admitted students complete a Non-immigrant Information Form, and a financial sponsor’s guarantee of first-year funds is required before the office issues the visa document.
• Scholarships: the financial aid office says international students are ineligible for federal, state and need-based university aid and suggests researching private scholarships in the US and home country and asking the department of interest about awards for incoming students. A second page says the university has scholarships for undergraduate international students that need no separate application, with all admitted undergraduate international students considered automatically: the Regents’ & Chancellor’s Scholarship; the Robinson International Scholars Program (for refugees or stateless students from Sub-Saharan Africa and developing nations as defined by the United Nations, or graduates of secondary schools there, with a need-based scholarship of up to four years); and the International Leaders Scholarship (need-based, up to four years, with priority consideration for students of Peruvian residence).
• International students on a visa cannot be classified as California residents for tuition purposes (admissions international page).

6. Applicants from China

• UC’s “additional information by country” page treats China in three cases. If you follow the IGCSE/GCSE/GCE curriculum, you must complete at least 5 IGCSE/GCSE/GCE O-Levels and at least 3 academic GCE A-Level exams, reported on the International Exams page of the application. If you follow the Chinese national curriculum, list all courses and marks from grade 9 through grade 12 exactly as on your official records, and be prepared to submit your upper middle school graduation certificate and official lower and upper middle school academic records (grades 9–12) if admitted. IB students follow separate instructions (report grades exactly as on the transcript and the IBO exam report; enter predicted scores if your school releases them).
• Whether the Gaokao is used: the Berkeley and UC pages read do not mention how the Gaokao is used; this is not published there, so ask the Berkeley admissions office.
• Huikao records: the pages read do not specifically address the huikao (high school proficiency exams); this is not published there.
• English, funds and scholarships are covered above.

7. Transfer applicants

• Who counts as a transfer applicant: anyone who has completed coursework in a regular session (fall, winter, spring) at a college or university after high school; the summer session immediately after graduation does not count. Berkeley accepts transfer applications for the fall term only. California community college applicants have priority, but applicants from other institutions are also accepted.
• Unit limits (admissions transfer page): up to 70 semester (105 quarter) units are granted for lower-division coursework at any institution or combination; AP, IB and A-Level units are not counted in this limit. Applicants whose transferable units exceed 80 semester units (89 for Engineering) are ineligible; coursework completed entirely at two-year community colleges would not normally run into the excess-unit problem.
• International transfer students: same requirements as other transfers, with no TOEFL or IELTS required because English proficiency is satisfied by the UC 7-course pattern. Your institution must be recognized by your country’s Ministry of Education or a US regional accreditor, and courses must be university-level, comparable to a US associate’s or bachelor’s program. UC’s international applicant page adds that it does not accept English composition courses from international universities where English is not the language of instruction toward the two English composition courses. All post-secondary coursework must be reported on the application.
• Deadlines (admissions dates page; it prints no year, so check): transfer applications are also filed October 1 to November 30; the Transfer Application Update has a January 31 priority deadline; transfer decisions are posted at the end of April; the deadline to accept an offer is June 1.
• L&S transfer requirements (admissions “by college” page): the UC 7-course pattern, at least 60 UC-transferable semester units, the major preparation courses advised on ASSIST, and a UC-transferable GPA of at least 3.0 by the end of the fall term when the application is submitted. The admissions office states that effective fall 2027 all transfer students offered admission to L&S are admitted directly into the major selected on the application, and its direct-admission page lists Integrative Biology, Molecular & Cell Biology and Neuroscience among the 30 participating majors. The IB department’s declaring page says that “effective fall 2026, transfer students are admitted directly to IB” and that they still submit the online declaration form to choose an emphasis; the effective years differ, so check with the department or admissions.
• MCB transfer prerequisites (department’s transfer page): MCB welcomes more than 75 transfer students a year. It advises completing all lower-division prerequisites before transferring, generally at least two semesters (three quarters) each of general biology (Bio 1A/1AL and Bio 1B), general chemistry (Chem 1A/1AL, and 1B, which the page says is required for “BMB track 2” only), organic chemistry (Chem 3A/3AL and 3B/3BL), calculus (Math 1A and 1B, or any two-semester combination of Math 1B, 53, 54, 55, Stat 2 or 20) and calculus-based physics (Physics 8A and 8B; strongly recommended but not required to declare, and it can be completed at Berkeley). The page says failing to complete the lower division can affect admission. Community college students follow ASSIST; students from four-year or out-of-state institutions whose courses are not in the articulation system are evaluated case by case, so keep detailed syllabi.
• IB transfer prerequisites (department’s transfer page): the department advises completing all lower-division courses before transferring; for transfer students who begin math in fall 2012 or later it requires the equivalent of Math 1A/1B, because the Math 10A/10B series has no community college equivalents. It advises transfer students to wait until their second semester to start research.

8. Costs, scholarships and career information

• Costs and aid are in section 4; funds documentation for international students is in section 5.
• Department awards and research funding: both departments’ menus list awards sections (MCB’s annual awards, IB’s department awards) that were not read here. The MCB research page suggests attending a workshop at the Office of Undergraduate Research and checking the scholarships website, and the IB research page suggests attending a research workshop; no amounts are given, which are not published there.
• Career data: both departments print only the qualitative statements quoted in section 1, with no employment rate or salary figures; these are not published there.

Checklist

US domestic applicants:

• Submit the UC application by November 30, choosing L&S and your intended major (IB, MCB and so on); answer 4 Personal Insight Questions; no SAT/ACT is needed
• After enrolling, take Math 51/52, Chem 1A/1AL and 3A/3B, Biology 1A/1B and Physics 8A; MCB declaration needs Bio 1A, Chem 3B and a 2.000 GPA, and IB declaration needs IB 77A/77B

International applicants (including those from China):

• Meet the A-G-equivalent course pattern and country-specific rules, show English proficiency (TOEFL 90 / 4.5 on Berkeley’s page and 80 before 2026 on UC’s page, IELTS 6.5, Duolingo 115, among other options); enter grades exactly as on your transcript
• No need-based aid is available, so prepare funds documentation; ask admissions whether the Gaokao is used; note that the IB department accepts no exam credit to waive its lower-division courses

Transfer applicants:

• Apply by November 30 selecting IB, MCB or another major (direct admission to the major for the listed majors); complete the 7-course pattern and the departmental prerequisites with a transferable GPA of at least 3.0
• Finish biology, chemistry, organic chemistry, calculus and physics prerequisites before transferring where possible

Sources: UC Berkeley and the University of California, Molecular and Cell Biology: the major; Molecular and Cell Biology: major requirements; Molecular and Cell Biology: declaring; Molecular and Cell Biology: high school students; Molecular and Cell Biology: transfer students; Molecular and Cell Biology: honors; Molecular and Cell Biology: research; Integrative Biology: major requirements; Integrative Biology: declaring; Integrative Biology: new freshmen; Integrative Biology: transfer students; Integrative Biology: honors; Integrative Biology: research; Admissions: first-year applicants; Admissions: first-year policies; Admissions: international students; Admissions: dates and deadlines; Admissions: transfer students; Admissions: transfer information by college; Admissions: majors; L&S direct admission to major (transfer); L&S high-demand major policy; Admissions: cost; Registrar: 2026-27 fee schedule; Financial aid: international students; Financial aid: international scholarships; UC: international applicants; UC: additional information by country; UC: English language proficiency; UC: out-of-state students; UC: personal insight questions; UC: first-year dates. Information is for fall 2027 entry (costs are 2026-27 rates; the Berkeley dates page prints no year, so check). Check UC Berkeley for the latest details.