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.
.