UC Davis VS UC Berkeley - Which to Accept

E17
Mon, 24 Apr 2017 19:12:43 +0000

It’s coming down to the wire now with the deadline to issue SIR May 1. So some thoughts, any thoughts, would be appreciated.
Accepted to UCB, UCD, UCSB, and UCSD, but I’ve narrowed it down to the two in the title for various reasons but mostly because their locations allows me to go home whenever I want. Of course the cost is roughly the same but, while distance to home is the same I prefer Davis’s location as I find the town of Berkeley ugly and will not enjoy seeing homeless people on campus and having to walk through them to get to the dorms.
Speaking of dorms, Berkeley’s are old and dingy while Davis has fairly new housing. While I love the old, stately buildings of Berkeley like the Campanile and the library and that nice classical style, I’m afraid I’ll be worried about those old buildings since the Hayward Fault runs under the school.
As far as majors go, as UCSB’s chancellor Henry Yang said at his reception, I picked the most popular major of undeclared. I truly am undecided as I could see myself pursuing either a science or a humanity. Since I just don’t know, I think Davis has the advantage since it has more open majors. It doesn’t have capped or impacted majors like Berkeley, right?
So I’m really leaning towards Davis but I feel like I’ll be missing out if I don’t choose Berkeley, the number one public university in the world. I’m worried that I’ll always regret not going there and think “shoot, I could have gone to Berkeley.”