UC Davis vs. UC Riverside

<p>For USC you might need in the 1900 range, a little less for Davis and Santa Cruz</p>

<p>I got into ucsc with a 1740, and a very low gpa.</p>

<p>How low? <em>filler</em></p>

<p>roughly 3.1</p>

<p>did you have connections/crazy EC'S?</p>

<p>LOL nope.</p>

<p>My EC's consisted of random things (karate class, swimming as a hobby, a few short-term clubs here and there, summer job, etc...). Maybe its because I came from a very competitive magnet school that carried some weight...</p>

<p>For a UC, UCSC is very easy to get into. I have a friend with 3.5 GPA and less than 1600 SATs who got in.</p>

<p>i'd rather go to R than UCSC...</p>

<p>You mean UCR? If you don't mind my asking, why is that?</p>

<p>I guess maybe UCR is a little more well known than UCSC in the world??</p>

<p>A lot of people have personal preferences that just do not work at some places. Personally I would have chosen UCR over UCLA had UCLA also given me a full scholarship, but thats just the way I roll.</p>

<p>Seiken why UCR over UCLA?</p>

<p>Ill just shoot out 3 very brief reasons.</p>

<ol>
<li><p>I went to a high school ruled by football; if you did not like it there was little chance of you having friends since 95% of the school (and 100% of the honors kids) were obsessed with our team, even to the point of shanking academics. So when it came down to it, I opted for a school without a football team. </p></li>
<li><p>When it came down it, whether I went to the UCR honors program or UCLA honors program I figured I would be around almost equally smart kids. Almost everybody here applied to UCLA/UCB and got accepted, and is academically motivated. Some are also quite o.O. My roommate is a 2260, valedictorian, editor of the school news paper, national merit scholar for example. </p></li>
<li><p>In terms of intellectual stimulation, I figured both would hit me on the same level. I am what the people around here call a beast, a monster, or just crazy. I take 25-30 units per quarter and pull off 4.0s while leveling my WoW bloodelf to 70 and learning to the play the piano. My boredom been would have guaranteed at both schools. </p></li>
</ol>

<p>On another note, UCLA is of course considered 'smarter,' but that is just because its students have a high average SAT score. Something I learned after I came here (from transfer students) is that UCLA classes in the sciences are often easier than UCR classes, which is possibly why UCR's avg GPA actually was deflating in recent years (source- <a href="http://www.gradeinflation.com%5B/url%5D"&gt;www.gradeinflation.com&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/p>

<p>Though I would like to add, take what I say with a grain of salt; I am transferring after all.</p>

<p>wow i never knew that UCLA classes in sciences are easier than those at UCR?? Do grad schools know that?? Then wouldn't students at UCR be at a disadvantage, since UCLA is more prestigious, hence the harder science classes?</p>

<p>I didnt say all UCLA sciences are easier than those of UCR ("are often"), but the gap between the two is by far closer than most people would imagine, especially with premed classes such as biology. Students who f' up in bio here are told to take bio classes at UCLA instead to satisfy their requirements. </p>

<p>Although as a point of reference there is a certain cite that ranks the academic quality of all universities and colleges and managed to place UCR exactly one place ahead of UCLA, but thats just one place.</p>