Welcome prospective Aggies. It’s that time of year again as the UC application has now opened and submission starts October 1 through December 1 for this admissions cycle. I am @Gumbymomone 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.
Freshman Major 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.
Some UC Counselor Conference information and updates for UC Davis are listed below.
Admitted 2025 Freshman GPA ranges (middle 50%) were an Unweighted UC GPA of 3.79-4.00 and Capped weighted of 4.00-4.26.
UCD waitlist numbers were as follows:
Number of qualified applicants offered a place on waiting list:
17,482
Number accepting a place on the waitlist
9,747
Number of waitlisted students admitted
3,824
Selective majors included Computer Science, Design, Business (new major), Psychology and Pre-Landscape Architecture
Admit rates by College:
College of Agriculture and Environmental Science: 53%
Biological Sciences: 48.9%
Engineering: 34.6%
Letters and Sciences: 50.7%
Management (Business new major): 21%
Adding links to a couple of recent announcements from UC Davis.
In the article below, they estimate that the total number of vet students at UC Davis will increase from 600 → 800. Sounds like each year will increase from 150 students to 200 students.
I have a question, I heard that UC Davis considers alternate majors, however it would be better to choose the alternate major that is in the different college as your primary. What I did, my primary major is Medicinal Chemistry & Drug Design and my alternate is Chemistry however they’re both in the same college. So I tried to find a different major in a different college however, I didn’t really like any of the majors and I didn’t find anything that related to what I wanted to do in the future (which is pharmacology). Is it fine if kept what I have? Will I be rejected overall since both my majors are in the same college? Also, how competitive are Medicinal Chemistry & drug design and Chemistry?
Yes, UC Davis occasionally considers alternate majors. Both majors can be in the same college but they recommend if the primary major is selective to pick a non-selective major as an alternate. Both majors you have listed are not selective.
UC Davis does not list admit rates by major but data by Discipline is available.
This is just my personal opinion. I don’t think having both majors in L&S matters, but both are in the Department of Chemistry. Is there a major in a different department that you are interested in?
For additional information from Aggie Data, Chemistry had 265 enrolled students vs Pharmaceutical Chemistry which had 318 enrolled for the 2025-26 school year.
UC Davis does state this on the UC application guide:
UC Davis encourages applicants to list an alternate major, but it should be in a different field from their primary choice (e.g., not Computer Science Engineering and then Computer Science)
So @lkg4answers does have a point. Biochemistry is in the College of Biological Sciences which might be a better option.
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Just sharing for anyone that may find this info useful…
We drove to UC Davis last week to tour the campus. We liked the town and the campus. Students seemed happy and relaxed. DS has applied for the Business program and we were fortunate that one of the younger students shadowing the campus tour guide was admitted into that major last year (first batch for BS in Business). I was surprised to learn that the plan was to eventually transition the BS in Business program from the Graduate School of Management to the College of Letters and Sciences, as I would have thought that the merits of it staying under the former would have been much greater. I was a bit disappointed that there is no defined pathway that is published for a BS in Business (no sample 4 yr plan etc) and the student said that they are adding classes every year. She said that last year (her batch- 1st year for BS in Business), the acceptance rate into the program was 8% (same as Berkeley’s apparently) and the plan was to double capacity this year (obviously depending on how many apply, it may or may not affect the rate of acceptance).
97% of freshman choose to live on campus housing(it is not mandatory, but encouraged.) If you are a freshman in the dorm , you have to purchase a meal plan. We were able to view one of the freshman dorm rooms (a triple), lounge area, study hall and communal kitchen, laundry etc….all were much better than I expected and quite satisfactory. If you decide to stay off campus, housing is not that hard to find but leases are signed early (Feb/Mar).
Traditional Greek life (social scene, partying etc) is not a big deal. But there are many professional/major related societies that bear Greek names…at least that’s what I was told.
We met a lot of students from SoCal who wanted to stay in-state but further away from home. (This was a 2 hour drive for us from the Bay Area). Good visit to UCD overall.
I’m glad you had a good tour and visit. Thank you for sharing what you learned.
I can’t speak for the university, but I would venture to guess that L&S is more equipped to handle undergraduate scheduling and advising than the graduate school is. What merits do you feel would be better if the undergrad degree was managed by the graduate school?
This is the case at all UCs. Personally, I can’t think of any colleges that don’t require a meal plan for dorm residents. Have you found any other campuses that allow you to opt out of a meal plan while living in the dorms?
UC Davis’ meal plan is different than most campuses. Instead of swiping in by meal, you pay by day. You can select a 5 day plan or a 7 day plan. On the day that your plan is valid, you can go in and out of the dining commons as often as you like For example, you can grab a cup of coffee, head to class, and then come back to have breakfast. You can eat dinner and then go back into the commons to study or grab a late night snack.
My oldest graduated from UC Davis a few years ago and I would concur with what you were told. Greek houses and Greek life at UC Davis is very different than it is at campuses such as UCLA or UC Berkeley. You can see the list of Greek orgs here. The list includes business, pre-law, and pre-med fraternities. There are also several cultural fraternities - Asian, Latina/Latino, Black, Jewish, etc.
For almost all other majors, Bachelors and Masters programs are housed in the same school to leverage strong subject and industry focus. Being under the Grad School of Mgt, I believe the BS in Business benefits from a potentially more rigorous curriculum that is better “application” aligned (case studies, projects with industry partners, possible accelerated pathway to MS in Bus Analytics /MBA etc). Having said that, it is moot debating the merits or drawbacks of keeping it as is vs. transitioning it under L&S. It’s a matter of opinion and the program is too new to gauge how this will affect student outcome one way or another. Overall UCD is a solid school choice and like I mentioned, our family came back with a positive experience.
On almost every single college tour I’ve been on, first timers always ask if a meal plan is mandatory, especially when they see the communal kitchen. I was just sharing what I considered others may find useful. Thanks for shedding light on how the meal plans work at UCD.