Where could I give a shot with 3.7-3.8 gpa at UC Davis?

Graduate admissions and employers will not care at all about the overall ranking of the university you attended. They will care a little bit about how strong your university is for your major. They will care a LOT about what you did as a student.

@eyemgh is exactly right. You are setting yourself up for a world of hurt. We do see posts from time to time from students who transferred to a higher ranked university and regret their transfer. Occasionally they transfer back to where they started.

I see US News ranks UC Davis in the mid 30’s. That is a very high ranking (there are thousands of universities and colleges in the US). If you do very well there (and if you have any money left over if applying to a program that is not fully funded) then you would be competitive at pretty much any university for graduate school. If you look at the graduate students at highly ranked universities, they come from a very, very wide range of undergraduate universities – many, possibly a majority, will come from universities ranked lower than UC Davis.

I have a fair amount of experience with family members who attended or are currently enrolled in highly ranked graduate programs (roughly top 5 or 10 in the world level in several cases). They are all seeing many fellow students who got their bachelor’s degree from universities ranked way lower than UC Davis. One daughter is currently enrolled in a high ranked and very good DVM program. She is not at UC Davis (she did not apply to UC Davis because for her being out of state it would have been expensive) but for her major there is no university in the world that is higher ranked than UC Davis.

Your best bet is to do as well as you can at your currently university. Attend every class. Pay attention. Stay way ahead in your studying and homework. Look for internship or research or coop opportunities. Seek out extra help if you need it. Put in the effort. This will pay off in the long run.

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