UC Davis Class of 2029 Official Thread

Colleges & Universities University of California - Davis
21

I am having some confusion how Gen ed requirements are met for students coming in as undeclared vs a specific major for the same college - of L&S.

for example.
student A comes in as Undeclared - Social sciences
student B comes in as Sociology

Would both students take the same Gen Ed requirements for the first year ?

And assume once A completes the gen Ed requirements, can proceed to declaring a major (not sure if they have to wait for a specific time period before declaring major).

Please help clarify. Thanks a lot for the help

22

General education requirement are courses that are required for all students in addition to their major requirements.

Are you thinking about lower division courses for a major?

23

yeah. thinking about the lower division courses. Even if you come as undeclared, or declaring a major (in same college), I assume the Gen Ed requirements remain the same, and if coming in as undeclared, post 1 quarter, we can submit a request to declare major (assume we meet the prereqsuites).

24

Also is there any place where I can find the undergrad admission data (applied, admitted, enrolled) broken down by major ? in UC data hub, I see my broad categories like social sciences etc, but not by major. thanks

25

No, UC Davis does not make that data available. Only a few campuses are that transparent.

26

Yes, GE requirements are the same for everyone and every major.

Each major has different requirements for what you need to complete and when you can declare a major. As I mentioned before, at UC Davis, there are very few lower division, entry level courses that are restricted to majors only. I think you are looking for a problem where it doesn’t exist at UC Davis. It might be a problem at some UCs but, in general, it is very easy to enroll in lower division courses, declare, and change majors, at both UCD and UCSB.

Look at the UC Davis Sociology page. Just like for Psychology, it lays out what a student needs to do in order to declare a Sociology major.

What do I need to do to declare a sociology major?

Completion of one SOC course, either lower or upper division, with a grade of “C” or better, is required for students wishing to declare a major in sociology or sociology-organizational studies. If you have fulfilled this requirement, you may initiate a Change of Major petition through the Forms & Petitions tab on the UC Davis OASIS portal. If you haven’t met with a sociology advisor, we strongly recommend making an appointment with one of the department undergraduate advisors to discuss your change of major in addition to submitting the online form.

27

If you haven’t, you might want to look at this article which was written by the ED of Admissions at UC Davis.

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28

my Kid is looking at majors related to human development / social work. We are considering a few optons. in college of Ag and sciences, the human development major. If they opt for this as a primary major and get in, if their interest move towards political science or sociology for example in College of Letters and science, is that transfer/move in UC davis possible and easy ?

how about the Gen Ed requirements between these two colleges ? thanks

@Gumbymom

29

Pubic Admin:
Community Organization and Advocacy
Public Administration
Public Policy
Social Work

Political Science and Government is listed in Social Sciences for the UC admission by discipline link.

Note: A question was asked about the majors listed in the Admissions by Discipline link but the post was later revised but I left my answer since it might help others that have questions.

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30

Sorry, I was refining the question. this is was the primary question we had.

my Kid is looking at majors related to human development / social work. We are considering a few optons. in college of Ag and env sciences, the human development major. If they opt for this as a primary major and get in, if their interest move towards political science or sociology for example in College of Letters and science, is that transfer/move in UC davis possible and easy ?

how about the Gen Ed requirements between these two colleges ? thanks

@Gumbymom

31

The University General Education requirements are the same regardless of College/major.

You can research and compare the specific College GE requirements here: College of Letters and Sciences GE’s

College of Agriculture and Env. Sci GE’s.

Yes, the change of majors and colleges is possible at UC Davis.

Change a Major

To change from one major to another within a college, you need the consent of the department or committee in charge of your proposed new major and the approval of Undergraduate Education and Advising in the Office of the Dean. Admission into a major program may be denied by the program or by Undergraduate Education and Advising in the Office of the Dean if your grade point average (GPA) in courses required for the selected major is less than 2.000.

Procedures for change of major within a college are the same as for declaration of major and the same conditions apply. If you wish to change to a major that has admission restrictions, you must comply with the special procedures and requirements for that major.

To change from one major to another in a different college you need the consent of the department or committee in charge of your proposed new major and the approval of the dean of the new college. To obtain that approval, you must be in good academic standing, meet all minimum GPA criteria, including those for the major, and satisfy any other admission requirements established by the new college.

32

In general, it easier to move into a major in L&S than it is to move from L&S into another college.

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33

Anyone else getting an error when trying to create an account for the portal?

34

With UC Davis you need to wait 15 minutes before you can sign in.

35

Same issue. Were you able to create the account?

36

Not yet. I found people having the same issue a year ago and they just waited a couple of days for the records to update in the system then it worked. I’ll wait until Monday or Tuesday and try again. If it doesn’t work by Wednesday then my son will give them a call.

This is what people said about it a year ago:

37

It’s working now. Successfully created account in the portal.

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38

Thank you. Works now. Weird that they send the email a couple of days earlier.

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39

From the link above, generally, the student need to meet the Topical Breadth and Core Literacies requirements.
Although, the GE requirement is the same for all students. The “missing GE” that he/she need to take outside his/her major could be difference. For example, an engineering major would meet all the Science and Engineering GE requirement by just taking classes required by the major, so he/she will need to take GE classes for Arts and Humanities. On the other hands, a history major would meet all the Arts and Humanities GE requirement by taking classes required by the major, and need more Science classes to meet the GE requirement in Science and Engineering.

Also, notices that, unlike other UC campus, UC Davis does not give GE credit for AP classes. Credit from AP classes can only be used for Major requirements. For example,
AP Calculus AB/BC can be used for meeting Calculus requirement in the major. However, I believe, all majors listed Lower Division English Writing as major requirement and therefore can use credit from AP English to meet the English writing requirement.

Also, the general Class search tool and a GE specific search tool are designed to help student finding GE classes.

https://registrar-apps.ucdavis.edu/courses/search/index.cfm

Below is a picture of Class Search tool, the Course Summary window shows what GE requirement the class meets, if any.

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Finally, when student login to their “school account”, there are information showing what GE requirement has met, in progress and still missing.

Topical Breadth: 52 units required

  • Arts and Humanities: 12 to 20 units
  • Science and Engineering: 12 to 20 units
  • Social Sciences: 12 to 20 units

Core Literacies: 35 units required

Note: If a course is certified in more than one Topical Breadth area, you may count the course units toward only one Topical Breadth area.

Note: If a course is certified in more than one Core Literacy area, you may count the course units toward only one Core Literacy area.

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40

Record number of Undergraduate applicants for Fall 2025.

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