We visited UC Davis so my daughter could take a look at the campus. It's one of the schools she is…read moreconsidering applying to. This is the largest and most spread out campus we visited. There is a lot of walking involved. This is the place to rack up Fitbit steps. Many students ride their bikes around campus, and there are many bike circles (roundabouts) at intersections to help keep traffic flowing smoothly. I think everyone should come here to learn how to manœuvre around a roundabout (especially people who shop at Costco Santa Clara because they can not figure out the new roundabout they installed in the parking lot). The campus has changed quite a bit over the decades. There are many new buildings, and many old ones being demolished. There is a large new visitor parking lot and a nice Visitor Center near it. The visitor center is a good place to grab a map and make a comfort stop before exploring the campus. You can also schedule a tour before you arrive. There is a mini gift shop at the Visitor Center. I suggest going to the store at the MU for a larger selection of gifts and souvenirs. Check out the arboretum (near the Visitor Center) if you have time. The Memorial Union is the center of the universe. You'll find student services, a place to pick up or return Amazon packages, the bookstore/gift shop, the game room (it's downstairs; has bowling, billiards and gaming computers), and most importantly food and coffee. Another place to find food is at the Silo, where there are some food vendors indoors and food trucks outdoors. We visited various dorm buildings on campus and also off campus housing. We even saw cows near Tercero (dorm). And also checked out downtown Davis, which is no longer the "sleepy" downtown I remembered it to be decades ago. There's definitely a wider variety of restaurants in Davis today. Trader Joe's is near campus, how cool is that? The Chem 194 building (large lecture hall) has been renamed to Rock Hall. The steps out front leading up to the front doors seem much shallower than I remembered them to be. In my mind, the steps were more numerous, similar to the steps in front of the Philadelphia Museum of Art (think: Rocky movie). Ok, my memory must be fuzzy, after all, it was a long time ago since I was an undergrad here.... This would be a good place to go for the college town experience, with the pleasant side effect of graduating with a decent education... but does this really matter? How many of us go on to do something that is related to what we studied in college? It's more about the journey, the experiences we have and the people we meet along the way. .

2/18/26- Just found…read moreout my oldest received his email of acceptance into the M.S. program!!! I am so happy for him! He's worked so hard and this was truly a joyous moment.. He applied for another program, so I'm hoping that arrives soon.. He does have other applications that he submitted so, we will see where he goes.. If UcDavis can provide what he needs, this will be the first choice.. (his goal: to go to the Okinawa Institute )..! Thank you for allowing my son to truly venture out into this world with so many opportunities..

Thought this would be a more reasonably priced place for my dogs TPLO surgery due to it being a…read moreteaching hospital. I was very disappointed with the quote I was given.

$300 for emergency care because my dog was having seizures. I was there for several hours and left…read morewith nothing but oral medication. After I left my dog had another seizure (his fifth that day).

I took classes here this past semester and it was surprisingly easy to locate around. To be fair, I…read moregot lost my first and confused the other building for it. There's a lot of parking and it's pretty quiet. Across the street is a small cafe and there aren't much people around on Fridays.

So in my final lecture of the semester after a spotty dictation of text copied and pasted (from…read moresaid website), a line from a student presentation has decided to haunt me for the rest of my days at this institution: "...and the website didn't say anything else so that's the end of my presentation." *crickets chirping*

Another aging building on campus. Compared to Shields Library, it's smaller and feels more…read moreinviting. The 2nd floor is great for group work while the third floor is great for a more silent environment. Large tables are everywhere and the chairs are slightly padded. I feel like bathrooms are something UC Davis always skimps on. Old buildings always seem to undergo some type of minor renovations but it always excludes the bathrooms. Consequently, the small tiles have gathered decades of grime and filth. It doesn't help that they only seem to be cleaned once a day. There's only a single occupancy restroom for men on the 2nd floor.

Nice and quiet. Great place to study and lots of plugs. I…read moreused to tutor in here simply because we could have a giant table on an empty floor, though it seems to be a little more busy recently. Even if it's busy everyone is very quiet, not like Shields with all the chatter. Just not a fan of the computers not being part of the normal page printing. They're a part of repro so you end up having to pay a minimum of $5 even if you want 1 page. They're also extremely extremely slow, I don't think they've updated the computers in over a decade. I just complain because they're the closest to Mondavi and I sometimes have to print and don't want to walk all the way to Olson, it's probably not a problem for most people. I've never used them, but they have legos to play with when you walk in, seems like fun :)

Ive been on hold for more than 55 mins and the phone will randomly hang up?? no follow up calls not…read moreeven saving my space in line its so stupid

I am completely shocked and disappointed that such a large university would run their financial aid…read moreoffice so poorly. I am a parent who contacted the financial aid office with a question on 2/9/2024. The student who I was unfortunate enough to talk to, Claudia had no idea how to answer my question. Instead of just telling me she did not know, she kept repeating herself with the same useless information that had nothing to do with my question. When I asked if I could speak with someone else who may be able to answer my question she became extremely rude. She refused to let me talk to anyone else and told me she was the only one who could help me and no one else worked in the office except supervisors who were busy and could not speak with me. I asked if I could make a future appt to speak with someone and she said "no". How could a university a large as UC Davis have a financial aid office run by such a rude and uninformed student. This student should not be working with the public or parents or be representing the University in any way. So disappointing, especially for an office as important as financial aid at such a large university.

I really like this building. First of all the law school is on a different schedule than UCD…read moreundergrads so its a great place to study when the other libraries are packed. Unfortunately they do keep it locked at certain times and you have to wait for someone to come along to let you in (and hope someone doesn't come along to kick you out). The library has wonderful desks with outlets at every one! Outlets! The library is useful, but nothing to go out of your way to see as a tourist. Downstairs they have a great kit hen with a ton of vending machines as well as refrigerators and microwaves. You can bring everything you need for a day, drop it off here and eat as you need it.

Got to take a tour of the RMI facilities for the first time as part of a work conference -- this…read moredefinitely was not around when I attended UC Davis! First stop was the Sensory Theatre to hear about the Olive Center and do a few olive oil tastings. We also stopped at the pilot winery, pilot brewery, tomato/peach processing labs, and dairy lab to hear about all the work they're doing there. I hear you can also do tastings at the Honey and Pollination Center. It really is a state-of-the-art, LEED-certified facility for both Viticulture and Enology, and Food Science and Technology. Walking tour lasts an hour or so for groups of 15 or more, can be setup through their website. Parking nearby includes the Gateway Structure, or parking lots #1 or #2, permits can be purchased. Located at the south side of campus by the Mondavi Center, Alumni Center, and Conference Center, it's a very nice addition to the ever-growing University. Makes me proud to be an Aggie!

Gorgeous new facility for the advancement of the science and art of winemaking. Set on the edge of…read morethe UC Davis Campus, this new state of the art food science facility has several labs for advancing the food science, brewery technology and winemaking. UC Davis' annual open house, Picnic Day, is a great opportunity to visit the center and see what it is doing for these areas of science that are so important to California's economy.

Nice brand new building in the complex right by the welcome center. Over 200k alums and by the…read morelooks of it, that number continues to grow.

Work conference was held primarily here at the UCD Alumni Center (outdoor Moss Patio for lunches),…read moreincluding the Conference Center conference rooms and ballroom (for larger lectures as well as converted for dinner banquet). We had plenary sessions set up and breakout mini-sessions/workshops, fully utilizing the facility's AV equipment and catering. There were a few issues with the projectors showing slides onscreen that weren't quite the right color, or were just a little out of focus, and a clear difference between the microphone audibility situation depending on whether it was the podium, hand-held wireless, or the clip-on type. Bathrooms available on first and second floors of the conference center, as well as the Alumni center. Breaks provided coffee, tea, and assorted muffins/croissants/fruit. Lunches ranged from bagged sandwiches and cookies to pastas and meat entrees, self-serve. Would have liked a bag of chips with the sandwiches or a salad to balance it out. The wooden flatware was understandably "green" but awkward to use. Parking limited to the parking garage near Mondavi Center (Gateway Parking Structure) with permit, or parking lot P1. The Hyatt Place Hotel is adjacent, which was a nice option for visiting conference attendees. Overall a good venue.

When I left the University of Georgia, MA in hand, I was intellectually adrift, spiritually…read moredecentered, financially troubled, and morally bankrupt. Like so many graduate students out there, I lacked the knowledge to move ahead in today's modern world. Thank goodness for the UC Davis Department of Political Science, which provided me with the useless and thoroughly impractical skills that are absolutely not required by the go-go world of today! It seemed like every time I applied for a job, I wasn't asked about my knowledge of maximum likelihood estimation techniques. No one ever inquired whether I knew how to estimate reliable coefficients even with heteroskedastic residuals. I was absolutely never asked a question about what Density Function is appropriate for overdispersed count data. I don't think I ever got through an interview without failing to talk about fixing first-order autocorrelation. Man, they NEVER ask that one! Thanks to the UC Davis Department of Political Science, though, I can parrot back dense mathematical formulae and impenetrable jargon with incredible accuracy! Do you want to know about two-stage bargaining models? What about Nash equilibria? I can drone uselessly on about these things for hours! Have you ever wondered what the difference between fixed and random effects models is, or whether you should use a one-tailed or two-tailed hypothesis test? Just ask me: this knowledge haunts my dreams! Try as I might, I'm actually unable to forget it! I know what you're thinking: "This sounds great and all, but how can all this 'political science' help me find love?" Here's the good news: UC Davis not only has the latest, state-of-the-art statistical training (which, incidentally, makes for great first date conversation), but also offers an acculturation program so comprehensive and so thoroughly suffocating that it makes Chairman Mao's "re-education" programs look like grade school civics class. After you've mastered the social norms of academia, you'll have to beat the women back with your dog-eared copy of "The Logic of Collective Action!" If academics are known for anything, it is for being socially well adjusted. At UC Davis, you'll unlearn all those destructive and indecorous social practices you once thought were "cool," and learn what real coolness is. Lessons include: ogling undergrads, awkwardly flirting with undergrads, making weird conversation with undergrads, staring at your shoes, mastering the limp handshake, and integrating hopelessly outdated pop culture references into your lectures. Enroll soon, and you'll have access to the upcoming lecture series on personal hygiene and style. I am told that "Tie-dyes and Tevas: Hot Styles for Spring" is not to be missed, and that "Sebagos and Braided Belts: Completing the Look" is positively life-changing! If you want to stare blankly at an uncertain and unfulfilling future, or if you're satisfied to wander aimlessly in a Chinese maze of empty technique, or even if you just want to be privy to the degrading and preposterous minutiae of systematic empirical research, then give the UC Davis Department of Political Science a look. They've got the skills you'll never need for the 21st Century!

Okay who designed this building. Even with a map I still get lost. Maybe that's why everyone calls…read moreit the DEATH STAR. I know i'm not the only one who gets lost here. I see people wandering around all the time. The SS&H building is the home of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Economics, History, Political Science, Sociology and a Psychology Lab. AKA College of Letters and Science & History. You can also find offices, classroom, computer labs and a very nice library for Agricultural and Resource Economics. The Ag & Resource Economics library is on the 5th floor on the west side of the building, from there you get a great view of the campus, and if you can get past the locked door you could get roof access. Other then schooling this building is a great place to play ditch, capture the flag & have nerf wars. A little side note: The DEATH STAR is said to be the secret headquarters of the Campus Crusade for Chaos and Confusion. A secret group on the UC campus.

Oh keane, you so crazy…read more So they told us that it was to facilitate communication that they designed the "death star" the way that it is. But what I heard is it actually was part of a scare about students rioting, and making sure they are easily contained. You will see similar buildings on most college campuses, usually just 1 or 2 because the riots stopped and they realized how stupid the design is. You can also tell if the administartion is scared of protests/riots because they will remove a handle from one side of a double door, this is so they can not be chained together. Anyways, the only thing good about the "death star" was to play tag or hide and seek. Make sure to not break a leg. . . they may never find you.