UCD is in bureaucratic GRIDLOCK, need to make a SIR decision between UCD and CAL!

Transfer Students UC Transfers
1

<p>3am and I am sleepless over a dilemma and I thought someone here in this community might help give me a new way to look at things. Since I seem to be completely incapable of reaching a final decision and I know many of you might be in a similar place.......</p>

<p>I have been accepted to UC Davis and UC Berkeley both with really respectable grants and scholarships and the schools are financially equal for the most part with regards to what it will cost me if I live on campus. I have strongly favored UC Davis and dropped my SIR on May 1st becuase the department I will be entering is MUCH stronger then at Berkeley and I will have the option of graduating with a double major based on previous coursework which will not be an option at CAL, plus I am not CRAZY bout Berkeley as a city. </p>

<p>Over the past month after submitting my SIR, UCD has repeatedly dropped the ball with regards to various documents I have submitted to them (From Honors Challenge, Summer Abroad to Financial Aid) and the straw that broke the camels back earlier this week was finding out they have rescinded their offer to provide me as a transfer with guaranteed housing. Instead, they sent me a list of apartments which after calling each one I discovered are all leased out for fall 2010 and when requesting they make right and uphold the end of their guarantee, housing refuses to offer any more assistance with the matter and has more or less blacklisted me their services. </p>

<p>So naturally after I have spent the past week going above everybody head possible trying to simply get the SSA space I was promised when applying back in November and getting nowhere with these people and feeling really put off by how the administration treats new students and seeing this as an ongoing theme that is developing now that the SIR is in where as before, everyone seemed quite accessible and was more then easy to deal with, just a little bit sloppy with paperwork and processing. </p>

<p>Now, everything just seems completely *****ED UP and people in these offices cant seem to accomplish the simplest minute tasks like receiving a fax or entering details on applications correctly, I have totally lost faith and confidence in the entire administrative operations of UC Davis at this point and am sitting around wondering what else they can manage to do wrong so I can act to prevent it somehow. Scary.....</p>

<p>Naturally, I have really negative vibes and while faculty in my department are thrilled about having me working at Davis along side them and serving as part of the community, if I have to continually deal with these conflicts that are exclusive to UC Davis for the next quarters while trying to produce meaningful and significant output, I will be looking to either inter-system transfer to UCSD or leave the state of California all together and go back east to a much better school in Rhode Island I was offered admission to but which had a much more abysmal aid offer I likely could not make up the difference of with even private loans. </p>

<p>In contrast to the experiences I have had with Davis admins, CAL runs beautifully, I called to feel out my position there and my housing offer is golden, my information is all correct, and my aid is ready to roll! If I attend Cal, while the institution is more prestigious over all, my department is really NOT and I graduate with a major and a minor as opposed to a double major from a much stronger dept at Davis. I know some of you might have a hard time believing Davis is superior to Berkley in some undergrad fields, but you just have to trust me on this one. This has strong implications for grad school entrance to a degree, but so would losing my patience with the bureaucracy at Davis, and transferring (again). </p>

<p>I also have problems with graduating from the CAL semester system in time before my aid will likely run out at Berkeley. I can blitz the quarter system and fly out of Davis in 5 quarters while CAL will take me 2 to 2.5 years.</p>

<p>So, here I am.. a bit torn. Hoping someone might offer me a little objective clarity. After looking through these forms many of you seem to be filled with it and honestly, I could really use some to go along with the little sleep I have been getting. </p>

<p>I have 2 days to cancel my SIR at Davis (not worried about the $100 I lose at this point) and enroll at Berkeley if it really is the better decision. Either way it feels like a gamble relying on the prestige of Berkley to prop up a weak department and risk running out of money and living in a place I am not CRAZY about, compared to living in a great college town like Davis with a strong department but simply the worst administrative, housing, and financial aid staff I have ever imagined dealing with and I have dealt with quite a few from the Ivy's down to the Cal States, Oh and I did mention becuase of this I have NO offer for guaranteed housing now and living in campus housing is both VERY important due to a necessary aid appeal and how I would hope to immerse myself in Davis since I know NOBODY there beyond faculty I met presenting research here in So Cal. </p>

<p>Sorry to rant, obviously I need a lot of help. I just spent the last hour looking at deferring my enrollment for a year and hopping a plane to a random pacific rim country to travel for a year and get some clarity on the matter. Yup, it's bad......</p>

<p>any thoughts? please!?!?!?</p>

<p>THANK YOU ALL for any help or replies!</p>

2

<p>I’m having the same problems with Davis, but unlike you I don’t have a choice between Cal and Davis; I would go to Cal because they are much stronger in computer science. </p>

<p>When the budget cuts came, it looks like Davis cut more administrative costs than anything and to an ill effect. </p>

<p>I wish I could help, but I can only confirm your criticisms. I think you can SIR to both campuses (I recommend calling and verifying) then retracting the SIR from either after longer cogitation.</p>

3

<p>Intriguing, So it is not something to take personally with regards to Davis. I too am sorry to hear you are going through a similar battle and really feel for you that you don’t have a second option or “Plan B”. I am feeling stuck, but I cant really quite grasp how alienated you must be feeling at the moment. </p>

<p>The more I investigate my department there and my options for graduate school that would likely result based on the work I would be doing at Berkeley, it really does not feel like a second option since I will start grad school applications this fall and unless I want to spend a whole year performing independent research, going to Berkeley could rule out some significant options like Carnegie Mellon, Yale, and Virginia for me. </p>

<p>Out of all my efforts, I can certainly relay some perspectives you may have not considered to perhaps give you a different position on dealing with Davis. At the least perhaps we could inform each other in hopes of reaching a better strategy to dealing with the institution. </p>

<p>Drop me a private message on here and I will leave you my contact info. It repulses me Davis is doing this to someone else and I am not just an isolated incident. In this position the least we can do is share the information or strategy we gather in trying to bring them to resolve. </p>

<p>Personally when I see things like this that pop up and flaws with a system, I see it only fitting to expose them, to stress their tolerances, and to develop new strategies out of such repeated experiments in trying to reach a favorable outcome. </p>

<p>I will most likely remain at Davis to fight this out unless I reach an epiphany with Berkeley through the ongoing conversations I am having, if the rug gets pulled out from under me at Davis or in the process of getting there… well, I’ll take that as a solid reason to do a little traveling and find a more fitting institution to pursue my work and research at. </p>

<p>You sound like you might need my Berkeley pass, more then me… I really wish they were transferable.</p>

4

<p>Are you a plant science major?</p>

5

<p>After reading your long post I still have no idea what you’re majoring in
Plant bio? Animal Science?
double major in??</p>

6

<p>Studio Art, but does it really matter? I tried to keep my major out of it because most people on here do not see the value of studying art or choosing Davis over Berkeley in most cases. Sure Berkeley has a Whitney in it’s staff, but it just doesn’t have the stamp in the art world nor legacy Davis does. I love the interdisciplinary art made at Berkeley but to be honest, it is rare I see something striking or moving spit out in a student show.
UCLA, Davis, San Diego, and Irvine are in a completely different sphere when it comes to Art. </p>

<p>If your curious why I say this, drop in on a student show sometime. Berkeley has a lot to talk about, but when it comes down to it, really little to say in my little opinion. I’ve been far more impressed with SF State student works. But that is me, for what it is worth. You know for undergrads, the cal state art output in many ways is arguably superior to the UC’s for undergrauate art provided they keep their mouths shut. </p>

<p>I’ve decided to drop my SIR to Davis and fight it out with the institution come Tuesday and pass on submitting my SIR to Berkeley. </p>

<p>I am setting up deferred admission to a little art school back east that can get me everywhere I want to go for grad and am going to take a job specifically for the next two months to drum up enough funds to make up the difference in case things continue to fall through. <em>Fingers Crossed</em></p>

<p>I’d rather not spend $60,000 on 2 years of Art School, and stay at Davis where I can chat with Wayne and the rest of the CA school still lurking around those parts. </p>

<p>At this point I have no problem pulling the plug on Davis after their complete fumble when it comes to my housing, aid, and just the general handling of my admission into a department I was recruited for, but after really thinking it through Berkeley is just such a bad decision for studying art. </p>

<p>Now art history or philosophy at UCB is a completely different story…</p>

<p>On that note, I give my one little space at Berkley back to you lot, hoping someone on the wait list limbo gets the shot they really do deserve. </p>

<p>Thanks for reading!</p>

7

<p>Yeah, I just read through this thread, and I think Davis is the better choice. Not only will you be in a program that’s more prestigious, but it sounds like you know much more about Davis than Berkeley. The housing and paperwork issues will be remediated. I’m sure that with the end of the school year arriving, Davis is hard at work with a plethora of last minute details and alterations. The lack of help and attention you’ve been getting will be much less of a problem once you get there since you can always drop into admissions or the housing sector if you’re having issues.</p>

<p>I think that Davis is a more wise and well thought-out decision than Berkeley in this instance. Your frustrations are totally understandable, but they’ll subside and you’ll end up in the program that you truly want. I’m sure you’ll get into your flow and fully immerse yourself in your work. Davis is the way to go. Good luck!</p>