This is my fourth year at UC Davis in the ESM major + geology minor. Now that people are applying to colleges, I thought I could share my accumulated wisdom of the city of Davis, my major and all of its tracks and courses, choosing a minor, class planning, getting out of English classes, GEs, housing, clubs, etc… anything really. 
I applied for the Geology major at Davis. Do you know how big that department is? And also, how hard/easy is it to switch majors?
Switching majors just requires meeting any potential requirements prior to switching, and getting a couple signatures. You’ll need to go on to the department website for the major you want to switch into to determine if they have any prereqs prior to switching. If there aren’t any, you’re good to go once you’ve been at UCD at least a quarter, if you have at least a 2.0. If there are, you’ll need to complete those. And naturally, if there’s a GPA requirement higher than the general 2.0 requirement, then you’ll need to meet that too. But you’ll be allowed to switch as long as you meet any requirements.
Switching majors is easy to do, just talk to your major advisor. My roommate switched his major when he was a junior because he realized he didn’t like chemistry (epiphany during ochem). So it’s not like you need to know exactly what your major is right away.
But, the Geology department is pretty cool. I’m not sure how big the department is, but it has a pretty active Geology Club that has a Facebook page if you want to join. Everyone is also very friendly and seems to know each other well after being in the same classes for a few years, especially from all the field work ^^. The class sizes for GEL are very large for lower-divs (people like GEL classes for GEs) and are moderate for upper-divs – many upper-div classes are also taken by other science and engineering majors, so you meet people from outside your major. The main building is the Earth & Physical Sciences Building, and on the first floor is a little room for students with a fridge and a REALLY comfy chair, so make sure you swiftly locate that.
The prep for the major is fairly standard, so you could likely switch to a different science or engineering major pretty easily with that foundation (math, chem [try to get Prof. Enderle!], physics, etc.) if you decide geology isn’t for you. From what I’ve taken, the courses in the major are interesting and each one is valuable; I think the major is formatted well and has good professors. My favorite was GEL108 with Spero, and 107 and 109 were fun (and pretty easy compared to the other ones) too :3.
Nice to hear good things about the Geology dept. My dd applied with that major and UCD is one of her top choices, so I hope she gets in.
i’m wondering if the env. sci. major requires the same prerequisite bio, chem, physics classes as those majors do or is there a less intense and competitive option for non bio, chem, physics majors that env. sci kids can take? Overall what are your thoughts about the env. sci major?
Not to hijack this thread from the original poster, but here are the pre-req’s for the different Environmental science majors at UCD.
Most of the majors give you options for the Math and the Physics track you can take. Some major track options may require more classes due to their emphasis. The Chemistry courses are the same for all science majors. The Physics courses have two tracks: one of Bio majors and one for Engineering majors.
Biology courses are all the same for science majors.
Environmental Science and Management (6 track options):
3 quarters Biology
2-3 quarters of Chemistry
2-3 quarters of Physics
http://catalog.ucdavis.edu/programs/ESM/ESMreqt.html
Environmental Toxicology:
3 quarters Biology
6 quarters Chemistry
3 quarters Physics
http://catalog.ucdavis.edu/programs/ETX/ETXreqt.html
Environmental Policy and Planning: (7 track options)
3 quarters Biology
2-3 quarters Chemistry
2-3 quarters Physics
http://catalog.ucdavis.edu/programs/envpol/envpolreqt.html
Evolution, Ecology and Biodiversity and Wildlife, Fish and Conservation Biology:
3 quarters Biology
4 quarters Chemistry
2 quarters Physics
It’s the standard bio series (BIS2ABC). I only needed two quarters of chem for my track (Ecology/Conservation/Biodiv), while other tracks and similar majors need 3. You can do the physics 7 series or the physics 1 series – I did 7 and it sucks but I got an A. I’ll mention that you can take the math 17 series, which is “math for biosci,” and is definitely easier than the 21 series, which is the “engineering math” series.
So the prereqs have some variety, but in general they’re the same as other majors. This is good because it lets you swap majors fairly easily. The bio/chem/physics majors only start to get serious with their upperdivs. In my opinion, lower-div bio, chem, and physics are so universal that you won’t be at the bottom of the pack just because you’re “less sciency” as an envirosci major than others. And I mean, in BIS2A everyone’s a freshman – a bio major might be more enthusiastic about the material, but they don’t know any more about it than you do. Also, only BIS2A is microbiology cell-type stuff, BIS2B is about ecology and BIS2C is about evolution so I REALLY enjoyed those.
Overall, I think the ESM major was a good choice for me, mainly because it is very versatile in what classes you can take (a lot of options) and in what careers you can go into. So I can say that I have experience in field ecology, lab work, biology, policy, economics, GIS mapping, etc. Very diverse. I feel like the EPAP major is more narrow in that it strongly focuses on policy.
The main drawback of the ESM major is that I wish there were more science-based classes and fewer policy-based classes. (I really don’t like policy.) The Ecology & Evolution major is one I strongly considered, but I decided to go with ESM just to get that wide range of options after graduation. ESM kind of leaves both the sciences and the humanities open to you. To alleviate this, I took on my Geology minor, which gave me the science I was looking for :D. I also took the CA Ecology & Conservation field studies course, which was 19 units (!!!) and super awesome.
Overall, good major, good variety of classes, good outlook after graduation. ESM vs EPAP depends on how much you enjoy policy and law. If you’re super-science focused and are positive you want to become a researcher or something, maybe try a major with less policy/econ. The end 