<p>I had a friend who went to UCD and majored in biology. She’d been accepted to both UCSC and UCD and she chose Davis for academic reasons. She was absolutely miserable for 4 years and hated Davis.</p>
<p>I was accepted to both UCSC and UCD as well (way back in 2004). Davis had a stronger overall bio program but I knew that I would not fit in well in Davis and I had been in love with UCSC since I was about 8 (my mom is UCSC class of '71 and I’d been to the campus a lot). I had an absolutely amazing time in SC, I got to spend a quarter study abroad, I got to take forensic anthropology classes and bioinformatics and and learn how to sail. Lots of stuff I’m wouldn’t have done in Davis. College is more than academics and if you aren’t happy in your personal life, I think your academics may suffer.</p>
<p>If you’re worried about research opportunities and prestige, UCSC has a tiny graduate division and so there are a lot of undergrads in bio research labs because there’s a lot of space for them. As for prestige, it’s still a top 150 school and graduate schools look more at GPAs and research experience than the name of your alma mater. I got admitted to two top 10/15 microbio/biomedical sciences PhD programs.</p>
<p>(Also, our mascot was the fighting banana slug! Davis’s was a purple cow)</p>