UC Davis is one of my top choices right now, but literally the only thing not making me commit is that I’ve heard it’s very hard to get a solid GPA. I was talking to my mom’s friend whose son went to Davis and she was saying students at Davis have the lowest average college GPA among all the other UC’s. Is this true? Could anyone shed some light on this? I know animal science and biology would be pretty competitive since they’re literally the best in the country, but how competitive is the liberal arts side of Davis? I’m majoring in International Relations btw so I will be taking classes like Political Science, anthropology, economics, philosophy, a foreign language.
What is the academic rigor like at UC Davis? What are the advantages/disadvantages of using the quarter system? Do you prefer the quarter system? How hard is it to maintain a good GPA while still having fun? And how hard is it to get into the classes you want to get, especially for liberal arts? Obviously I don’t want to go to a school where I’ll get easy A’s, but I also don’t want to go to a school where I’ll be drowning under competition, and since I want to go to graduate school, I would like to get a 3.5+ GPA. And is Davis more self-competitive? Or is it competition amongst peers?
Also, please don’t tell me “it’s what you make of it,” because I really want to hear YOUR experiences to help me get a better picture of what life will be like there! Please tell me the classes that YOU wanted to take but filled up quickly, and YOUR overall experiences with getting good grades.
When people talk about grade deflation, you hear UCLA and UCB mentioned most often. I have never heard of UCD being pegged as having bad grade deflation, but when you compare students in the STEM majors vs. other majors I am sure you will see a GPA discrepancy. You have to remember, UCD has many students in the Engineering/Biological Sciences and Animal Sciences majors, where a high GPA is needed to continue on with post graduate degrees (Medical/Dental/Vet school) so you will have a high level of competitive students and “weeder classes”.
On the parent orientation, I remember one speaker stating if you are an A student now, do not be shocked when you get your first C or a couple of C’s your first year, it is all part of being at a UC.
All UC’s will be academically rigorous, since you will be competing with top students from within state, OOS and International, so do not expect any of the UC’s to be a cake walk.
As a parent of a UCD student, I can answer some questions but not all since I am not a student. The quarter system requires diligence and organization. You need to hit the ground running to keep up with the pace. The advantage is you get classes over with very quickly (10 weeks), but the disadvantage is the material also needs to absorbed quickly. If you find you are struggling, look for help as soon as possible.
If you set your mind to it, you can achieve a solid GPA. My son had a rough Freshman year, but eventually figured things out will be come out with a solid 3.4 GPA as a STEM major.
Getting classes is very dependent upon your credit standing. The more credits, the higher the priority. That said, you need to be flexible with class times and professors and should not have too much problem getting your classes. If you are within the top 10 spots on a waitlist, you usually have a good chance of getting into a class.
Hopefully some UCD students can chime in with their experiences, but overall my son has been very happy a UCD and finds the school more collaborative than cutthroat.
thank you for your thoughtful response! I really loved UC Davis, but I still want to have a good GPA since I would like to go to law school, so I definitely have some more research to do! @Gumbymom
I am a Political Science major and Sociology minor third year at UC Davis. I have a 4.0 GPA and also plan to attend law school. Classes are not easy, and if you cannot maintain organization, and have proper time management a high UCD GPA is nearly impossible. Most other peers I know that did okay in high school (About a 3.5-3.8 GPA), have a 3.2-3.4 GPA right now at UCD. But I can almost guarantee you will find any of the UC’s just as difficult. You just have to work very hard. It’s about liking where you go to school, not just worrying about the ability to get a high GPA. If you don’t like where you are going, you will not do well.
I would ask your mom’s friend’s son where he got that information.
Here is the UC 2016 Accountability Report. It compares graduation rates and other data between the different schools but I don’t see any comparison of average GPA. http://accountability.universityofcalifornia.edu/2016/chapters/chapter-3.html The average GPA is so dependent on major. Have you seen this report about UC Berkeley? It shows you how variable GPA can be between majors. http://projects.dailycal.org/grades/
I just looked at some of your other threads. With your entering GPA and test scores and your interest in having a 4.0 at graduation, you might look at other schools.
@allied123 I know this is a super late post but I currently attend uc davis and the information you said is spot on. Im currently in that huge loop hole were do to my teacher assistant being unsympathetic of passing me even after going to her office hours. This caused me to be dismissed academically and on top of that I lost my ucla acceptance after not liking davis that first few quarters. With that said yes allot of students here have low gpa I met two engineer students who have 2.5- 2.6 gpa. I found that no matter the amount of times I wrote an essay I couldn’t get into that A range for some reason I cant understand why. I am currently at uc berkeley taking summer courses and the teacherss are so chill but uc davis is just plain horrible and stingy especially teacher assistant in passing a student and giving good grades. That why I plan to take courses at another uc as opposed to uc davis biggest regret was going there when I could have easily been at ucla when I applied in 2016 and was accepted. sorry this input is super late
@“osazuwa ogbeide”: Why should a TA be sympathetic on passing you (even if you do attend office hours) if they feel that your work is not up to par? Yes, there are some TA’s/Professors that can be unreasonable, but you cannot blame being academically dismissed on every TA you have dealt with. Being academically dismissed means you have had a low GPA for several quarters, so there are issues with you in studying/grasping the material etc… not the TA’s/Professors.
Regarding Engineering students, a GPA below 3.0 is common among these difficult majors. Different majors have different GPA expectations and ranges. You cannot compare an Engineering major GPA to a Philosophy major GPA (apples to oranges).
To me your post sounds like sour grapes so hopefully you will succeed where ever you end up. As stated by @AndrewEsq in the above post, if you do not like the school you attend, you will not do well.
Remember “Hindsight is Foresight without a future”.
I think it depends on your major and on how hard you work. Difficult science majors/engineers will likely have lower GPAs. I have an ESM major and a minor and I am graduating with a 3.99 GPA. I actually study and practice and I get my grades. Someone up above said “don’t be surprised to get your first C” – people kept telling me that, as an A student in high school, my grades would go down in college. It’s up to you whether that happens or not. Liberal arts generally has a rep of easy-As, so… but as a non-liberal arts major, I can’t tell you from experience.
I prefer the quarter system, DEFINITELY. 10 weeks per class. Go through it, study, get it over with, move on. You get to take way more classes per year. Plus, semesters just stagnate when you’re part of the way through. Sometimes midterms come up pretty quick, like in the third week, but it makes you stay on top of the material. I’ve never crammed or pulled an all-nighter. I know you don’t want to hear “it’s what you make of it,” but if you study efficiently and budget your time, you can get good grades and have free time for sports, social life, etc.
I’ve never had trouble getting into any class. Sometimes I haven’t gotten the sections I wanted, but eh. Not a big deal. Plus, because we have quarters, you can usually take it next quarter if it’s offered frequently, or next year. Limited space in class has never messed up any of my plans.
I haven’t sensed much competitiveness. It’s pretty supportive; no one’s trying to tear each other down lol. The only competition I feel comes from myself wanting to do better. Most of my profs are nice and chill in office hours, but I don’t know where all these rumors of “hey bump me up a grade” come from. Do your own work and earn it.
So that’s my experience. 
@Gumbymom I can put 110% effort in a sociology class at uc davis my major and still end up with the same bad grade. Im not trying to blame the Teacher Assistant but at the same time there the one grading most of the work and assignments that I do here at uc davis . All I am trying to say is that even after making the major changes and comments that the assistant made on a paper, they still have the nerve to still give me a bad grade when I should have passed that assignment if it was a different ta honestly. My point is that why did I get the bad grade even after correcting the mistakes on the first paper. That why I say uc davis has is a joke of a uc school because they dont care for your success they wait for you to fall before they help you. The ta failing of students ties into the low graduation rate which is why other uc school, like berkeley and ucla have high graduation and better reputation rates as opposed to davis which is something school dont iike. I met many and numerous students at uc davis who taken five years to graduate in a variety of majors such as sociology, and engineering which shows the not so good selectivity of who they choose to admit into there e school. Im just giving my honest opinion as transfer who started in September. it my first time getting dissmissed and I can honestly say it should have not happened but yet again uc davis was not the uc I wanted to go so going to school you dont like is definitely going to affect how you do. A number of number os students have told me that uc davis wait for you to fail before they take action which I think is true and the sociology department my major is not up to pair with other uc. Work is suppose to be your own work and not someone, it like teacher assistant at uc davis base your grades off there ideas instead of your own and that not the point of writing and school.
@“osazuwa ogbeide” Grades aren’t based on effort, and there’s nothing “nervy” about giving you the grade they think the quality of your work deserves. Some teachers can grade unfairly, yes, but you’re not entitled to an A just because you tried, and it sounds like that’s what your complaints are implying.
@bondangles It the teachers assistant that gave me first two bad grades here at uc davis. I know getting an A is something that you cant be entitled to with just effortIm the type of person that give it my all when it comes to my assignments and school work. I make sure to go to office hours writing center and still have yet to get one single passing assignment and high grade at uc davis since I started back last september. I have taken summer classes at uc berkeley and I can honestly tell you that you put in that effort of doing an assignment that best way to can you will get a decent our even high grade. It goes to shows you that uc berkeley cares about it reputation which ties into graduation rate and it admission selectivity . im not trying to bash uc davis but since I been here the teachers grade harshly like they have something to prove and that why I say uc davis has low gpa .
@osazuwa ogbeide, based on what you’ve written here, it looks like a large part of your grades has to do with how you communicate.
If you are an international student, this is understandable, but you still have to meet the requirements of having adequate grammar and spelling. The professors and teaching assistants have a really tough time grading students when assignments are difficult to read and understand. If you try to earn top scores, then your grade has to reflect top work. The school is preparing you for a future career. No employer wants someone who can’t communicate effectively.
@allied123, Go visit the academic help centers. You’ll find out how fast those 10 week courses are. My daughter graduated from Davis and worked hard to earn her grades in her STEM discipline. She went to tutors and had multiple study groups. You earn what you gain from hard work.
@“aunt bea” I do admit my grammar could be a little bit better. Also at the same time my undergraduate experience for the one year so far since I transferred here at uc davis in september 2016 has been lackadaisical especially when it comes to Teacher assistant and staff as a whole. I had a college and letters science advisors literally drop me from all my class right in the middle of semester, this caused me miss out on classes that would have boosted my gpa to put me in good standing, the reason why she did this was all because of the two bad grades that I received first quarter that I started at uc davis, leading to were I am at know which is uc berkeley taking summer courses when I could easily still be in school right know. To make things worse last quarter a uc davis professor accuse me of plagiarism for not sitting a few sources out of 16 sources that I did sight. mind you this was a month after he gave me a bad grade already for that quarter to add more fuel to the fire, which I had to deal with student judicial affairs to solve. Since I been here it been one bad things after another sometimes I feel like t Davis just want me to kick me out from there school . Im working on boosting my gpa in the hope of going to uc Berkeley next fall I will keep applying untill I get accepted. I was accepted to ucla this April but because of uc davis harsh ta who showed no remorse to give me a c I lost my admission. I take classes at uc berkeley and you can feel that administration truly cares about it student starting with the professors . if your not going to uc Berkeley and ucla and ucsd are you truly going to a uc the other lower tier uc are just there to accomate the numerous ammount of students who didnt get accepted our either dont have room to take everyone else because of there selectivity. I also got to pay another 70 dollars fee just to come back yo uc davis when I could have easily been in class had they not dismiss me academically in middle of quarter.
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@“osazuwa ogbeide” I know what your problem is. There are many absolutely horrible TAs who grade unfairly and don’t help students much. I know this from experience. However, the key is to not give them an opportunity to screw you over in the first place. I understand that you’re an international student and thus your English is not the best, but if you were to work on and improve your English I think you would have a lot less problems, especially when it comes to getting high grades on essays. If the TA is picky then you will need perfect English to get a high score. My suggestion for you is to improve your English and shoot for more natural writing, and I think the best way to do that is to just read some novels (any books you enjoy) in your free time in between your studies.