Hi! I’m currently deciding where to attend college for Fall 2020. I was accepted at UC Davis as a Regents Scholar (30K scholarship, priority registration, extended library privileges, transcript notation) and UCLA (no scholarships/financial aid). My major is biology related at both schools, as I am taking a pre-med track and hoping to attend medical school after four years of undergraduate school. I’m not super sure where to attend because while UCLA is more renowned, UC Davis is giving me priority registration and money. The total money difference for four years between the two schools would be around 60-90k in my case. Is Regents at Davis really helpful in terms of choosing classes? Also, is it harder to obtain a good GPA at UCLA (since grades at UCs are based on a curve)? Is it hard to get the classes you need at UCLA?
Medical schools do not consider prestige when evaluating your application so attend the school that gives you the best chance for a High GPA, will prepare you for the MCAT, have access to Medically related EC’s and has good Pre-Medical advising.
Medical school is expensive so you want to keep your Undergrad costs low so affordability is important.
Having priority registration is one of the best perks as a Regent’s scholar but you need to decide which school will work best for you financially, academically and socially.
Happy students are successful students. Best of luck with your decision.
Thank you so much for your response! I’ll keep that in mind; that’s really helpful 
I have a follow-up question, @Gumbymom . For Davis, and for other UC’s, is priority registration important to get schedules you want, or moreso to even just get the classes you need? For my purposes I’m asking for a transfer student, so not about taking lower division/GE courses, but rather for classes in one’s major. Bottom line: could priority registration make a difference for graduating “on time”?
@“jesse’sgirl” : Yes, priority registration can make a difference for graduating on time for some students and some majors.
My attitude is that students need to be flexible in their schedules and take the early morning or late afternoon/evening courses when they are offered and they can graduate on time without priority registration. But if there is a specific course with a popular professor or if the class is only offered every other year (some upper division courses are on that time schedule), then priority registration ensures you will get those classes.
Yes priority registration is very important. Not only will you get the classes you want but you will be able to choose the professors you want as well. Many UCD departments list their courses on their website. You can look at a year in advance (or in the past) and see who teaches a particular course. If a good teacher is teaching that quarter, many students will want the class and priority registration will help.
At UCD, course registration pass time is determined by how many units you have completed at UCD. Students who started as freshmen and took summer school, worked in a lab or did other things that added to their unit count, register before students who took 12-16 units/quarter. As a transfer student with priority registration, it wouldn’t matter how many units any student completed, you would get to register before them.
@lkg4answers , that was helpful. Are you saying that transfer students without priority registration could be behind all the other juniors and seniors, and even sophomores, and never get ahead of them?
@“jesse’sgirl” I am not 100% sure how it works for transfer students but, in general, registration is based upon units completed at UCD (ie. AP units don’t count). I assume transfer students come in with junior standing and junior registration but I don’t know if their pass times (registration time slots) are dispersed within the junior class or if they are at the end. It is a good question to ask in one of the virtual sessions.