<p>I've visited both campuses. I live in the LA area.</p>
<p>UCSB is two hours away, has a beautiful campus, and is small (which I prefer). However, their engineering major is strong but I'm focusing on biology/bio-med. It is also known to be a party school, and I'm not into any of that. The students are laid back, which is nice, but I'd prefer somewhere where education is a top priority. </p>
<p>UC Davis is faaar - 7-8 hour drive, the campus is pretty nice (but the cows/cow poo stench is a turnoff), is stronger than UCSB in biology (it has it's own biology/medical college), and the students are friendly and parties are not a huge part of the student's lives. </p>
<p>I'm leaning toward Davis, because it's stronger in biology/bio-med, but I don't like that it's so far away and the cows smell pretty bad. I'm not going to base my decision just off any post, but I'd like to know some suggestions please. Thank you!!!!!!!</p>
<p>Read through the course catalogues for both of these universities, and see what you think. Davis has broader offerings in the biological sciences because of the courses in the Ag. school.</p>
<p>the campus itself didn’t smell like poop… the ride there was a bit excessive and painful. haha. Same here… I like Davis because I feel like I can get a better education there than SB.</p>
<p>I graduated from UC Davis with a Bio degree in mid-80’s. It’s VERY competitive with all the pre-vet and pre-med students. So, makes it very difficult to get a high GPA. You really need to talk to current Davis Bio students and get more information. Good Luck! Both schools are fantastic…you will not make a bad decision.</p>
<p>Both are good schools so there’s really no wrong choice here. As far as undergrad goes, what’s really going to matter for your future (in addition to good grades) is the effort you make to get involved in research and get to know a few profs well enough to get strong letters for grad school. Your profs are also resources for advice on where to go, networking with their friends who are at places you might want to attend for grad school, etc. You don’t have very good employment prospects with an undergrad science degree; the union card for work in commercial or academic research is a PhD.</p>
<p>My take is that you can get a good foundation at either school; worry about the rep of the department (and really its strength in the area you’re interested in) when you go to grad school. I would be leery of generalizing too much about students at either school with about 20k undergrads. At both you’ll find people that think they’re on a 4-year party, and also students dedicated to academics.</p>
<p>thanks guys!</p>
<p>I think i’m going to Davis because the biology there is better, and hopefully I will be able to get more oppurtunities there and a better foundation.</p>
<p>Congrats on making your choice; I think you’ll be happy there. The only other advice I’d add at this point is don’t second guess yourself. Once you’re sure the decision is made, its made. Google “buyers remorse” and you’ll see that this is common when making big decisions, so I figured I’d forewarn you about it.</p>
<p>I understand, but I think what makes Davis a lot better for me is the fact that my major (biological sciences, maybe pre-med/pharmacy - sciences, basically) is better than that of SB. So far, I’ve been pretty confident with my decision mostly based on this fact. The distance is a bit of a negative, but the campus is fine (besides the smell in SOME areas) and I feel like I can maybe focus on my GPA better there than if I went to SB.</p>