Haas Spieker is the primary goal. Apply in March 2028 and receive the decision in mid-June. If admitted, enter Haas in Fall 2028 and graduate in May 2030. If rejected, finish the Economics B.A. in May 2029.
The continuing-student application is once only and may be used in the sophomore or junior year. Submit it in March 2028. The mid-June answer creates two different graduation dates; there is no Haas version of the three-year finish.
The post-admission plan is a fixed four-semester junior/senior sequence. It requires at least 38 upper-division business units + 12 upper-division non-business units. That is 50 upper-division units after entry.
Declare Economics with the prerequisites already completed, use Fall 2028 and Spring 2029 as the two senior-residence terms, and graduate one year earlier. The direct-charge saving is $62,550.
Two semesters would require 25 upper-division units per term, above the 20.5-unit cap. The published sequence also places UGBA 102B after UGBA 102A. Fall 2028 entry therefore ends in May 2030.
The window opens March 2, 2028 at 12:00 noon PST and closes March 31 at 4:00 p.m. PDT. Decisions arrive mid-June. Have at least 60 units and every prerequisite complete by the end of Spring 2028. Haas prerequisites should be letter-graded at C– or higher; P/NP needs a professor's letter and can hurt the decision. MATH 54 clears the calculus prerequisite outright. UGBA 10X is the remaining fall/spring-only prerequisite.
The shared spine runs through Spring 2028. It finishes the Haas prerequisites, builds a complete Economics declaration file, keeps breadth moving, and reaches at least 90 units before the decision fork.
21.44 AP units + 4 units from POLSCI 1 in Summer 2026 + the locked 16-unit Fall 2026 schedule = 41.44 units entering Spring 2027. POLSCI 1 satisfies American History & Institutions and Social & Behavioral Sciences breadth (verified on the class page). AP units satisfy no breadth areas.
Do not plan both endings. The Haas answer selects one.
Fall 2028 through Spring 2030 carries the ten-course core: UGBA 100, 102A, 102B, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107 — with ECON 100A and 100B standing in for UGBA 101A/101B (never take the UGBA versions: they are credit-exclusive with the ECON ones you need, and Economics rejects UGBA 101A outright), plus the published 38 upper-division business and 12 upper-division non-business unit minimums. Haas B.S. alone is not STEM, so the structural fix is a simultaneous degree with Economics. It requires a 3.0+ GPA, a packet by July 1, and both degrees conferred in the same semester. Graduate May 2030.
Admission is guaranteed once every prerequisite is letter-graded at C or higher. Fall 2028 and Spring 2029 are the two senior-residence terms; together they must carry at least 24 residence units, with at least 6 in each. Graduate May 2029, save $62,550 in direct Berkeley charges, and use the Economics degree's 36-month OPT runway.
The May 2029 fallback is legal even without front-loading. Reaching 90 by Spring 2028 is still useful because the automated degree audit can miscount senior residence.
Academic Notice begins only with a term GPA below 1.5, a cumulative UC GPA below 2.0, or zero letter grades in a fall/spring term. The 16 / 16 / 17 load should be managed for course composition and Haas grades, not for a nonexistent unit-count rule.
This is the load-bearing rule behind the May 2029 branch. The governing text is Berkeley Division Regulation A291.A.2, not a student-facing summary.
“the semester in which the 90 units are exceeded, plus at least one additional semester”
The current Economics pages say students who meet the listed requirements are guaranteed admission. The major is not capped and has no comprehensive review. It left the L&S High-Demand Major list in Summer 2024; the current list is Art Practice, Operations Research & Management Science (Analytics), Political Economy, Public Health, and Social Welfare. Ignore the stale legacy page that still calls Economics "impacted."
The Economics exam-credit chart is dated 7/2019. It is still the authority for Micro 5 + Macro 5 = ECON 1 and Calculus BC 5 = both calculus courses, but it is seven years old. Confirm the compressed plan with an Economics undergraduate advisor. If the AP Economics credit fails to post, ECON 1 is the fallback; Fall 2026 is running in person at 354 / 500.
The early finish saves one year of direct Berkeley charges. Keep the bill and the living-cost ceiling separate.
Summer costs $436.00 per unit with no Nonresident Supplemental Tuition, about 4.8× below the fall/spring effective rate. That fact does not change the belt decision: front-loading in the flat-price fall/spring terms costs $0, while the six-unit Summer 2027 route costs $3,085.00 and its grades still enter the Haas GPA.
Economics B.A. = 36 months of potential work authorization. Haas B.S. alone = 12 months. The asymmetry follows the degree CIP codes.
AP exams satisfy zero breadth areas. PHILOS 12A finishes Philosophy & Values in Fall 2026 and POLSCI 1 already cleared Social & Behavioral Sciences, leaving five of seven areas open: Arts & Literature, Biological Science, Historical Studies, International Studies, and Physical Science.
For the Fall 2026 cohort, the transcript route requires a primary language of instruction other than English starting in grade 6 or above. The old three-years-of-high-school-language route is gone. Andy spent four years in Hong Kong secondary school and three years at Suffield Academy, but whether the Hong Kong school was CMI or EMI is not verified. In an EMI school, Chinese is a subject rather than the medium and the route fails. Fallbacks: an APR Correction Request or the EALC proficiency exam.
The Data Science major is no longer the plan of record. The minor remains a low-cost option; a CDSS major bid is optional and cannot delay the May 2029 branch.
No comprehensive review, no college change, and no CDSS senior-residence rule. It is 7 courses and can be declared as late as the first day of the graduating term. DATA C8 already counts, and MATH 54 is the DATA C100 co-requisite. The minor does not change OPT.
Under a May 2029 graduation, only the January 2027 and January 2028 cycles can produce a usable admission. A January 2029 decision may arrive as late as June 1, 2029, after commencement. ⚠ CDSS does not state on a fetchable primary page whether one student may apply in more than one cycle; its authoritative FAQ is an inaccessible Google Doc.
These are not settled facts. Do not build a compressed term around any of them until the record or office confirms it.