UC Davis Class of 2029 Official Thread

Colleges & Universities University of California - Davis
1

Welcome prospective Aggies. It’s that time of year again as the UC application has now opened and submission starts October 1 through December 2 for this admissions cycle. I am @Gumbymom one of the two UC Forum Champions/Moderators. My Co-Forum Champion is @lkg4answers and we are knowledgeable on the increasingly complicated UC admissions process and hopefully we can help any prospective UC applicants with their questions. We both have students that have attended UC Davis so please utilize our knowledge of the campus by posting your questions here.

UC Davis like all the UC’s are test blind and will use 13 areas of criteria to review Freshman applicants. Each campus will weight the various areas of criteria differently so one size does not fit all. The UC application website has plenty of information that can help determine if UC Davis is a good option when applying.

https://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/how-to-apply/applying-as-a-freshman/how-applications-are-reviewed.html

https://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/campuses-majors/davis/freshman-admit-data.html

UC Davis – 17 Feb 21

690×388 55.4 KB

UC Davis – 17 Feb 21

Freshman Application Tips

Tips for applying to UC Davis as a freshman Learn best practices for filling out the UC application.

UC Davis – 23 Feb 21

Personal Insight Questions

How to answer the personal insight questions Your responses to the personal insight questions are an important component of your freshman or transfer application. Your responses allow us to get to know you through your experiences and…

2024 Freshman (First year profile) 25th-75th percentile:
Unweighted UC GPA: 3.80-4.00
Capped weighted GPA: 4.00-4.26

Freshman (First year) admission information:
Major choice is an admissions factor for the College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, College of Engineering and the College of Letters and Sciences.

Students applying as “undeclared” or “undeclared/exploratory” are considered within the college/academic department to which they applied.

Applicants are encouraged to list an alternate major, but not in the same area as the primary major. Occasionally, UCD admits to the alternate major.

Selective majors include Data Science, Design, Psychology. Landscape Architecture and all majors in the College of Engineering.

New Business major available Fall 2025. Target enrollment for Freshman applicants is 175 and for students planning to change majors after admission, a 50 student limit is proposed.

UC Davis events

Best of luck to all applicants.

3

Hello. Thanks for this thread. Super rich in information. One question. Where is it stated that psychology is a selective manor ? When we checked on the school I couldn’t find that information and also the school admissions team doesn’t indicate that as well. Can you help clarify. Thanks :folded_hands:
UC Davis is my Ds first choice for psychology.
@Gumbymom @lkg4answers

4

The 2024 UC counselor conference mentioned that Psychology was a selective major for UC Davis.

IMG_1274
IMG_1274931×987 242 KB

5

Ok thanks. Interesting. So from your other thread, undeclared social sciences for UC Davis might help with admission, but registering for courses for psychology might be harder since it’s impacted. Is that right ?

6

Yes, getting major specific courses for non-majors could be problematic.

7

Very few psychology lower division courses are restricted at Davis. The problem with it being a popular major is that the courses fill up quickly. Also, note that Cognitive Science majors need to take many of the same courses as Psychology majors. That makes it even more difficult to enroll.

The UCD website lists Eligibility to Declare Psychology Major as:

Completion of PSC 001 and PSC 041 with a combined GPA of 2.5 or better (all courses must be taken for a letter grade) OR you may take three upper division PSC courses with a combined GPA of 2.0 or better

Looking at the Course Catalog,
PSC 1 is not restricted and does not have any pre-requisites
PSC 41 is not restricted, but does list pre-reqs as

Prerequisite(s): PSC 001; PSC 12Y, STA 013, or STA 100 strongly recommended.

PSY 12Y, STA 13 are not restricted. STA 100 has two quarters of Calc (MAT 16B, 17B or 21B) as pre-reqs.

1 Like
8

Having some AP credits might help with course registration as you can be ahead and start with PSC 41. That said, UC Davis need a AP score of 5 to get credit for PSC 1.

9

Davis allows up to 13 AP/IB credits when determining course registration (pass) times. @fd97616 alluded to the fact that their daughter has taken several DE courses. I believe those units will help with pass times. However, more and more students have DE units so I’m not sure how much it will help.

Psychology lower division requirements include PSC1, STA 13, PSC 41, BIS 2A and ANT 1. None of those courses are restricted and undeclared students can take any of these classes. Upper division classes (course numbers over 100) tend to be more restrictive.

Edit to correct statement about AP/IB units used for registration pass times.

1 Like
10

My D has taken PSC 001 already (validated through Assist) - General Psychology.
and PSC 041— Research Methods in Psychology. Both completed in Community college (as part of DE). in addition, she has a few other psyc related courses completed as well.

So this would help with registration ? Basically she strongly prefers to get admitted to UCD (her first choice actually). So we need to decide if applying as Psychology major is better, or just applying as Undecided - Social Sciences is good.

recap (for ease of access)
3.67 unweighted.
3.96 (weighted capped UC GPA)
4.12 (weighted uncapped UC GPA).
Strong extra cirriculars
12 college courses in community colleges (A-G)

11

meant to say this -
My D has taken PSC 001 already (validated through Assist) - General Psychology.
and PSC 041— Research Methods in Psychology. Both completed in Community college (as part of DE). in addition, she has a few other psyc related courses completed as well.

So this would help her with declaring her major, if she gets admitted as Undeclared - Social Sciences (after a quarter) ? Basically she strongly prefers to get admitted to UCD (her first choice actually). So we need to decide if applying as Psychology major is better, or just applying as Undecided - Social Sciences is good.

12

UCD does consider alternate majors occasionally so she could apply for Psychology as the primary and Undeclared social science as an alternate.

13

UC Davis changed (somewhat) how they assign registration pass times. The verbiage on the website now allows for up to 13 AP/IB units.

Registration pass times are assigned based on earned credits. The earned credits considered are completed and graded courses, articulated transfer work, and up to 13 AP/IB units. For earned credit hours to be factored into your pass time, they must be processed before pass times are assigned. Students with more earned credit hours will be assigned an earlier pass time than a student who has less. For example, students with senior standing will register before freshman as they have more earned credit hours.

Some students may qualify for priority registration such as students with disabilities, TRiO scholars, foster youth, etc.

In the past, the point of not using AP/IB was to even the playing field for students whose HS did not offer AP/IB. My guess is that the vast majority (if not all) of new admits now have 3-4 AP courses. If so, adding up to 13 units doesn’t give a significant benefit when it comes to pass times. It just moves the bar to the right for everyone.

@fd97616 I’ve seen students who enter with a lot of lower division requirements completed by DE and AP who have difficulty getting the classes they want? Why? Because they are essentially trying to get the same upper division classes as students who have many more units than them (ie. college juniors).

If your daughter is admitted, I don’t believe she can declare a major until her 2nd quarter. By that, I mean that she would have to meet with an advisor while she is enrolled (ie. first quarter) and get everything processed so that she is in that major second quarter. If she has already taken biology, statistics and anthropology then she would likely start her first quarter with GEs.

1 Like
14

Thanks @lkg4answers and @Gumbymom for your inputs.
As psychology is selective major at UC Davis, my daughter is considering applying as undeclared - Social sciences - hoping that will increase the chances of her admission. (she really prefers UC Davis). I read your inputs around registration pass times. My daughter also has a disability that we need to go and talk to the admissions office, and see if they can help with any assistance - around the location of classes and registration windows- since she cannot walk or bike even reasonable distances.

one key guidance we need clarity -
to increase the odds of admission to UCD.
Would applying for undeclared - social sciences be a smarter move as the first major choice. Also would providing an alternate major from the same social sciences category that is non-selective (like Sociology) help - with the hope that she can transfer into psychology once she joins and after a semester even.

thanks,

15

Have you visited UC Davis? It is the largest UC campus by area.

Classes (especially the first two years) are in the larger lecture halls all over campus. They aren’t centralized by department or major.

Also, the dorms are on one side of campus and the Social Sciences & Humanities building (aka the Death Star) is on the opposite side.

16

Yeah, we took a tour and saw all the buildings. We were told the registration preference can help. Since my daugther really like the uc campus and vibe, and culture, thats her first prefrence. Hence we are checking to make sure we are selecting the first and alternate major carefully to increase the odds of admit.

17

This information is from the UC application guide regarding campus selection.

Does applying Undeclared have any bearing on an applicant’s chance for admission?
Applying Undeclared or Undeclared/Exploratory does not affect admission.

For which programs is the Intended major a factor in admissions?
Major choice is a factor for the College of Agriculture, College of Engineering and the College of Letters and Sciences. Applicants are encouraged to indicate primary major interest for any College to which they intend to apply and indicate a non-selective major as an alternate.

Does the campus consider students for alternate majors?
Yes. Applicants are encouraged to list an alternate major but not in the same area as the primary major (eg. 2 majors in the same College). Occasionally we admit to the alternate major.

This information can be found here:
UC application guide starting page 27

18

My son is considering applying to UC Davis in the College of Letters and Science as “undeclared.” Does anyone know if applying undeclared is viewed as a weaker application compared to specifying a specific major - especially since he has many AP and college courses that map to a specific major (but he isn’t sure if he wants to major only in that area). We wanted to make sure undeclared doesn’t make the application weaker.

19

No, applying Undeclared does not affect admissions chances and does not make the application weaker.

20

Thank you for the response.