Hello. I am freshmen in UC Davis majoring sociology. Im getting 3.7-3.8 gpa in the first trimester. I am not getting any idea upon which colleges I could give a chance to. I really want to get into the top schools, like rank 15-25. Would it be worth it to give a chance, and could you guys please recommend with schools that I may apply to? I dont really care about whether the strength of my major in a particular university or its location. I only want schools with higher reputation.
Budget?
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Chasing reputation only is the absolute wrong approach. This forum is littered with posts from students who did that only to find they didn’t like the school once they landed there. Worse yet, a crappy degree from a big name won’t get you anywhere. What exactly are your long term goals? What do you think this prestige swap will accomplish?
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Do you have any idea where you want to live or what you want to do after you graduate?
And, other than reputation, what are you looking for that you aren’t finding at Davis?
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Let’s see. You go to a school with a high ranking. For whatever reason it’s not working out (why?? - that will help us).
Now you want to find a school, giving no desires other than reputation…which is what you did already. How’d that work out ??
Doesn’t make sense from that POV.
You are majoring in Sociology. Most any school in the country can help you…but what are you looking for…size. Location, social aspects.
If we say…Vanderbilt and Cornell take transfers with your GPA….what happens if you go there and have a poor experience because you pick them for entirely the wrong reason ??
Again….
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What is wrong with UC Davis?
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Graduate admissions and employers will not care at all about the overall ranking of the university you attended. They will care a little bit about how strong your university is for your major. They will care a LOT about what you did as a student.
@eyemgh is exactly right. You are setting yourself up for a world of hurt. We do see posts from time to time from students who transferred to a higher ranked university and regret their transfer. Occasionally they transfer back to where they started.
I see US News ranks UC Davis in the mid 30’s. That is a very high ranking (there are thousands of universities and colleges in the US). If you do very well there (and if you have any money left over if applying to a program that is not fully funded) then you would be competitive at pretty much any university for graduate school. If you look at the graduate students at highly ranked universities, they come from a very, very wide range of undergraduate universities – many, possibly a majority, will come from universities ranked lower than UC Davis.
I have a fair amount of experience with family members who attended or are currently enrolled in highly ranked graduate programs (roughly top 5 or 10 in the world level in several cases). They are all seeing many fellow students who got their bachelor’s degree from universities ranked way lower than UC Davis. One daughter is currently enrolled in a high ranked and very good DVM program. She is not at UC Davis (she did not apply to UC Davis because for her being out of state it would have been expensive) but for her major there is no university in the world that is higher ranked than UC Davis.
Your best bet is to do as well as you can at your currently university. Attend every class. Pay attention. Stay way ahead in your studying and homework. Look for internship or research or coop opportunities. Seek out extra help if you need it. Put in the effort. This will pay off in the long run.
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Why?
Davis is a strong school and has a strong reputation.
It has a strong academic support system.
What do you hope will be better at a higher ranked school?
If your major is sociology, a higher ranking school won’t give you much more of an edge.
Davis has all of the internships, labs, volunteer/ work experiences, and clinical practicum hours that aren’t available at many schools, including higher ranked schools.
Our daughter attended Davis and had a great experience. She was admitted into her medical program at UCSF, which was not an easy thing to do.
Why do you need to transfer?
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Does not matter at all.
You probably won’t get much more feedback here if you don’t address the many other questions asked above.
Quite a diverse list of schools between 15-25, could you narrow it down? Maybe attempting a transfer to Cal or UCLA would be easier and cheaper? Although I think I’ve read that a UC to UC transfer is given a lower priority in the transfer priority “hierarchy.”
#17. Cornell
#17. Rice
#19. Notre Dame
#20. UCLA
#21. Emory
#22. Cal (Berkeley)
#23. Georgetown
#23. Michigan
#25. Carnegie Mellon
#38. UC Davis
Michigan is a possibility and has a top Sociology program, but you may not have enough credits to transfer as a sophomore. But as a junior transfer, decent shot, if you maintain that GPA. But VERY expensive as an OOS.
Edit: CC renumbered the rankings, but I added the # sign now to correct.
So you have just been at UC Davis for approximately 10 weeks and want to transfer?
What is your transfer timeline? Since you only have 1 quarter worth of grades, you would have a difficult time transferring to most schools with your record.
Any of the higher ranking UC’s will only take Junior level transfers and as stated by a couple of posters, a Sophomore level transfer to the schools you are targeting, could also be very difficult so you are looking at least spending your Freshman year at UC Davis so I would make the most of your time there and figure out what exactly you want out of your college experience.
Prestige is in the eye of the beholder and I completely agree with @eyemgh that getting a degree from a “prestigious” school will probably not be the golden ticket in life that you desire.
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I bet its the location. I did mention that location of the college doesnt matter for me, but since UC Davis is known for agriculture the farms, and endless plane field always makes me depressed.
Thank you for your advice!
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Why did you choose Davis in the first place?
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My daughter and her friends didn’t even notice the fields because of the campus and City of Davis’s activities (https://localwiki.org/davis), along with the proximity to everything.
It’s 20 minutes to Sacramento by car.
You can walk over (or bike) to the train station and go to Sacramento, SF or Berkeley for the day. The activities center has trips everywhere for the weekend (Napa, Tahoe, Yosemite, Sierras, white water rafting, etc.)
Have you met anyone at Davis? Made any friends? Joined clubs? Volunteered anywhere? Applied for an on campus or off campus job?
Have you had a crepe at Crepeville yet? There is lots to do in the small town. If that isn’t your thing, then visit Berkeley. You will notice a big difference in the environment.
Transferring, because you want a more prestigious university wont change your feelings of depression. If you can’t involve yourself in your environment and on-campus activities, a prestigious university isn’t going to do that for you.
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If you want to get away, there is a student shuttle between Davis and Berkeley.
Davis Berkeley Shuttle The shuttle drops off at the west end of the Berkeley campus which is a short walk to BART.
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