I'm a senior at UC Davis - Ask me anything

Hello all, I’m currently a 5th year Biomedical Engineering and Computer Science and Engineering double major at UC Davis. I understand building up your college applications is a long process and the idea of going to college (maybe even moving out) might still seem surreal. I’m here to offer advice and help! Please feel free to shoot me any questions you have about not just college applications, but also about the culture of studying and living at a college town, what clubs to join, and what not. Or even AP courses that are worth taking. Will try to answer to the best of my abilities.

Hi, what industry do you plan to work in after you graduate? Also, do you think that biomedical engineering and comp sci is a good combination, or would bioeng and chem eng make more sense? Thanks!

Hi . What fun thinga are there to do ? Like not just clubs but things like kayaking , horse riding , stuff like that . And also what are the best places to go in Davis and the best food places . Also do you like Davis still after 4 years already ?

macaroonpenguin: I have a plan of starting with firmware, then embedded systems, then towards medical devices. Honestly, it really depends on which specialization you’re choosing (i.e. medical devices, cells/tissues engineering, biomechanics, etc.). If you were planning on going any devices/robotics route, having a CS background would be much more helpful for you can program your own microcontroller. Otherwise, if you were along the lines of cells/tissues, chem eng would make more sense. Ultimately, it depends on what you would like to do.

Eager4acceptance: Davis isn’t exactly the most exciting town. Sacramento is filled with rivers and have water rafting and kayaking available. Horse riding can be found in Dixon. Davis is mostly just food. I believe food is a personal preference thing, but if you private message me, I can tell you my food/places preferences (I don’t think this site allows advertising of any sort, and not sure what will violate their agreements). I still like Davis and the area around it. I did take half a year to study abroad (which I strongly recommend if you have the time to do so, some programs take financial aid for those who worry about that). Davis people are just really nice, and the area is generally very peaceful, yet within reach of exciting places around Sacramento. Ultimately, it really depends on your preference on how you want your environment to be when you study.

What’re the best places to live in Davis?

What are you looking for?

This is what I always heard: Between nice, cheap, close to campus, and quiet, pick two.

I lived in west Davis for three years, at Arlington Farm for one and Aspen Village for two. I can go into details on those if you’re curious. In my personal opinion west Davis is the nicest area of town aesthetics-wise. On the other hand, you’re looking at at least 10 minutes to campus (not a big deal to me, but to some people it is) and you usually have to go to north Davis for major shopping. Your main grocery option is Westlake Market, which is nice but gets pricey.

For incoming freshman what english class do you recommend? I’m currently registered for Major Books Ancient World which is fine, but what class helps improve writing while not being too boring? and which is preferred by most students? Thanks in advance!

If you want focus on writing, UWP is the way to go. I recommend a UWP class for everyone regardless of if it’s actually required for you, just because it’s really helpful for getting personal feedback on your writing. Everyone has some weak points to their writing, and the whole point of UWP is to improve on those. For later on, they have helpful classes about writing in particular professions and disciplines.

As far as not being too boring, that really depends on your interests. I personally love writing, so I loved UWP 104T when I took it. On the other hand, I tend to get bored with heavy required reading. Comparative lit probably wouldn’t have been a very good choice for me.

So I guess it boils down to: Do you prefer reading or writing? You’ll have to do both in any of the classes that count towards English composition, but you’ll mostly focus on writing in UWP and will have more reading in comparative lit (at least compared to UWP). I’m guessing English would be somewhere in the middle (maybe leaning in one direction or the other depending on the professor), but I tested out of it and don’t know from experience.

Of course, if there’s only one class you can get into to begin with then I would just get the requirement out of the way so you don’t have to worry about it later. If you don’t like the class you end up taking you can always take another one as an elective later on if you want.

Soon to be 3rd year aggie here, but I was wondering how did you discover and declare the major that seemed to be the best fit?

Given that OP hasn’t come back, I guess I’ll share my experience.

I graduated this past spring with a double major in computer science and linguistics. The short version of how it happened: I came in with linguistics, tried computer science my first year, and ended up loving it enough to declare it as a major. I kept linguistics because it has a pretty low unit requirement, plus all the classes I needed (besides a couple) were ones I’d take as general interest electives anyway. Might as well take the couple extra classes I wouldn’t otherwise and get the second major at that point, right? And I could’ve graduated early with this too, but decided to spread my last classes over the last two quarters so I could have a more relaxed senior year, thus graduating in four years.

The long version:

I was talking to my Spanish teacher of three years about college applications my senior year and not being sure of what to major in. She told me that I seem to be really good at picking up languages, so a foreign language major would be a good fit for me. I told her that that sounds cool, but I’m more interested in learning about how languages work than in learning them. At that point she told me that linguistics would fit the bill nicely. I looked into it more, and it sounded perfect! So I applied for it and got accepted. Sure enough, I took LIN 1 my first quarter and absolutely loved it!

Now before I started college and during my first quarter, people were periodically telling me that programming is a very useful skill to have, and that I should at least learn the basics. I was scared thinking that it’d be impossibly difficult, but when my at-the-time uncle showed me some simple programming it actually looked kinda interesting. So I signed up for ECS 30 my second quarter, not realizing that that class assumes programming experience and that ECS 10 would have been a better fit in terms of experience.

ECS 30 kicked my butt, but I loved it. I wound up passing with flying colors despite the lack of experience going in. At that point I started toying with the idea of double majoring, but figured I should take more classes first. I had to anyway to declare the double major, plus I figured in the worst case I’d jump ship and still have programming experience that goes beyond basic programming. Either way, it’s not a bad deal.

Obviously I continued to love my CS classes, and between sophomore and junior year I officially declared my double major.

At one point junior/senior year I realized I could easily fit in classes for a professional writing minor (I only needed 3 I believe?), and that I love writing enough to do it. Then I realized I’d get pretty much no freedom my last year, so I settled with just taking technical writing. On one hand I’m glad I didn’t do the minor because I got to take extra language and religious studies classes just for fun, but on the other hand it’d be kinda nice to just point to the minor as “proof” of communication skills with regards to qualifications. As it is now though, just mentioning a technical writing class seems to impress people at work (tech company), and most never took such a class. So ultimately I don’t think the minor would have been worth much other than the personal satisfaction of knowing I did it.

So there you have it, my rather straightforward journey into my double major, plus my contemplation of an additional minor that I ultimately decided not to do. Seeing the kind of changes some of my friends have gone through, I suppose I’m rather lucky to know my strengths and interests and be able to quickly identify if something new is worth continuing for me.

I’m a transfer student and this fall is my first quarter at Davis. How’s parking on campus? Is there a certain time of the day that’s hard to find parking or any lots that are always a pain ?

^ Just don’t do it if you can at all avoid it. The parking permit is ridiculously expensive, it’s hard to find parking (even in the areas around campus), and you can easily reach campus by bus or bike.

If you do need to do it, my only advice is to leave early for class so you have plenty of time to find parking. I can’t think of any lots that aren’t crowded during typical class hours during the week. Weekends actually tend to be okay as long as there’s not an event going on.

how challenging and how rewarding has he biomedical engineering program been? also what is the overall atmosphere like there? does it feel rural there because it’s near farmland or does it feel urban because it’s near Sacramento?

Overall atmosphere: It’s suburban. People over-exaggerate the rural aspects. For just about anywhere you’d be living and visiting in town, you’d be in a suburban environment unless you were specifically looking for something else.

I was wondering how competitive it is to get into UC Davis CS? Is there any preference for women in CS? Thanks!

It’s pretty competitive. I don’t think female applicants get much preference over male applicants; even if they did, you’d still need to have competitive stats to begin with if you want a good shot at getting in.

If you mean preference in the classes in general, no. I don’t recall it ever affecting anything.

Don’t drive in Davis. Get a bike or walk and use the bus. I know this is an unpopular opinion but, don’t even bike. The biking thing here is so insane and overcrowded and people bike like idiots.

^ One of the things that shocked me while I was here was how bad the cyclists are, despite being a “bike town”. Good luck seeing people actually stop at stop signs, and some take that a step further and don’t even bother to stop at red lights. Don’t be surprised seeing people bike against the flow of traffic (most common at the beginning of fall quarter). Expect some clueless cyclist to ride on the sidewalk, straight past the multiple signs that say to dismount your bike. In fact, expect there to be someone on a bike attempting to cycle through a crowd of pedestrians, no matter how dense it is.

I walked as much as possible while I went to UCD. You get really good at dodging unruly cyclists and predicting when someone is about to do something stupid/illegal on their bike. That said, it’s frustrating at peak hours. Such evasion and prediction skills also came in handy once I graduated and started commuting to and from work every day. Every cloud has a silver lining!

Not trying to scare anyone…it’s just something I don’t see a lot of people mentioning, and I personally wish someone had told me beforehand how bad the bikes can be so I wasn’t surprised when I was actually dealing with it.

^ I agree. I really wish someone had told me before transferring instead of me figuring it out once I got there and becoming outraged at the general terribleness that is bike traffic and behavior at Davis.
Davis is totally doable by walking and bus. Unitrans is really not the greatest IF you come from a major city where busses usually come around every 4 minutes or so. Not the case here. You have to follow the schedule from the website and use a NextBus type app and BE THERE when the bus gets there or wait another 20-30 minutes, sometimes 40-60 on the weekends, for the next one to come along. BUT, it is reliable and free and will get you to campus in a short amount of time. I recommend it over biking.

Also, now that i’m here and thinking of everything, here’s something else:
If you want to study in actual quiet, don’t go to the main reading room at Sheilds. Go to the 3rd or 4th floor, in the stacks. Those are the actual quiet areas of the library. The main reading room is almost like an extension of the MU, everyone is talking, most of the people in there is just eating food and hanging out.

Also, the food at the MU and some of the DC’s is absolute garbage. Luckily, Shields ave will take you downtown where there are plenty of other places to eat and it takes 10-15 minutes to walk to downtown from campus.

There are lots of bad cyclists, but I think biking is totally worth it, especially when there aren’t that many people around. Occasionally walking is fine during peak traffic hours if you’re not super confident while biking. But over the years, you get really good at not crashing.

I agree with the Shields point. The best places to study are the lines of desks tucked away behind the bookshelves. Good luck finding an outlet though…