For many community college students in the Bay Area, the University of California, Berkeley is a popular choice for transfer. Often shortened to Berkeley or simply Cal, the school is world-renowned for many of its programs. On May 3, 2025, UC Berkeley hosted the Golden Bear Welcome. This was an event for admitted transfer students and had many booths, tours, and presentations. For engineering students at this event, presentations such as the welcome ceremony and the introduction to the College of Engineering, which included a transfer student panel, provided important information about UC Berkeley and how to succeed as a student. 

The welcome ceremony of the Golden Bear Welcome, which took place in Haas Pavilion, provided admitted transfer students with an introduction to UC Berkeley and its relation with transfer students. As this event started, there were multiple speeches from prominent UC Berkeley staff members, such as the chancellor, which congratulated admitted students and described parts of the Berkeley experience.

In one such speech, Lisa García Bedolla, who is both a vice provost and dean at the college, noted that UC Berkeley is the number one public university because it has strong programs in all subjects; Bedolla described that a student majoring in one subject will still get a strong education in all others as well, proving the benefits that UC Berkeley can provide to its transfer students. After those introductory speeches, Joshua De Miguel, Berkeley’s transfer representative, spoke to the students. He told the future transfer students that “Every part of your story belongs at Berkeley.” 

Immediately after the welcome ceremony, the admitted students split into groups by future department and the engineering students attended the introduction to the College of Engineering. Once the introduction started, Oscar Dubon, the Associate Dean of Students, revealed that UC Berkeley accepts one transfer student for every two first-year students. This was later followed up with a statistic about the admitted students, which have been included in the photo below. 

In all, UC Berkeley College of Engineering admitted 374 transfer students, distributed among many engineering majors. Combined, these statistics show that transfers are a significant portion of the engineering student body. In order to support these students, UC Berkeley has many programs, which were introduced during the presentation. These programs include academic counseling, a mentorship program, and a summer course to prepare incoming transfers for UC Berkeley. Program managers described each of these to the audience, making  sure to elaborate on how their program is used and how it benefits transfer students. 

While each is slightly different, the programs all focus on preparing and supporting students in their academics and beyond. The introduction showed incoming transfer students that support is available for them at UC Berkeley and how they can use it to succeed. 

During the introduction, the College of Engineering also hosted a transfer student panel where two transfer ambassadors answered questions from the hosts and audience. One ambassador,  Elena Saleh, is a mechanical engineering student. Through her answers, Saleh provided insight into her experiences as an engineering transfer student and woman in engineering at UC Berkeley. She described a bit about the classes she has taken and the extracurriculars she joined, but gave lots of advice for future UC Berkeley transfers. In one notable example, Saleh advised incoming students to “take advantage of the opportunities [they] are given,” highlighting the importance of the programs that the engineering department offers and how they can be used to their full advantage.

Saleh went on to explain that while it is important to stay organized and focused on studying, “you honestly learn more when you have fun too.” While this advice may not apply to all students, Saleh informed all the future students in the audience about techniques that allowed her to succeed. 

During UC Berkeley’s Golden Bear Welcome, the welcome ceremony included the transfer students as a part of the university, the College of Engineering introduction brought up support programs, and the engineering transfer student panel offered advice from current transfer students. Together all these events informed admitted engineering students about all of the benefits that UC Berkeley has to offer them.