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.