<p>I’m transferring to UCD or UCLA from Pittsburgh. I’ve visited both and love them both. I am excited to transfer. I guess I’m just wondering what to expect from both of these school & the comparison between them two.</p>
<p>You say you’ve visited both, so you know that UCLA is a beautiful campus in LA, in a very nice part of town. LA has a warm, Mediterranean climate, with more than its share of smog. Davis has a lovely sprawling semi-rural campus, a classic college town, and mild, 3-season weather. UCLA has the bigger-time national sports program, but Davis has its Division 1 rah-rah too. Both are very large, full-featured, research-based universities.</p>
<p>Let’s get the obvious out of the way. UCLA is ranked higher by most, but not all, of the 20 or so rating entities, but the gap has been closing. On average, you will find slightly higher-performing students at UCLA than at UCD. If you’ve got to maintain a highest-possible GPA for grad school or professional college, always keep the level of competition in mind.</p>
<p>But the important questions are what are you looking for and what is your major. Seventy five percent of their academic offerings overlap, but the other twenty five percent is where the action is. You don’t come to Davis for its Film School, and you don’t go to UCLA for Animal Science. I would normally tell you to look at each school’s list of majors, but if you’re a transfer, I’m guessing you are already transferring into a certain major. If you tell us what that is, we can probably comment more accurately.</p>