University of California-Davis Top Questions

New students are not always the best bike riders so accidents can happen for the first month of school while everyone is getting adjusted.

The financial aid counselors are incompetent and inconsistent with their answers. I visited their office and spoke with many of their representatives on separate occassions for my financial aid package for this year's summer courses, but they told me at the very last minute that their grants were depleted. Despite registering early to be eligible for financial aid, I had to drop all my classes. They kept on telling me that the aid packages would be finalized in a few days, but days turned into weeks and my package still wasn't done.

The quarter system goes really fast and you have tests almost every week or every other week. YOu will definitely fall behind if you don't study every single day.

The most frustrating thing for me during my freshman year is the fact that there are thousands od students on class. Because of this, you are constantly competing against other students in order to get in classes. Most students do not get the classes that the introductory classes that they need for their major because everyone is trying to get into that class. My suggestion to prevent this would be to join a club that provides priority registration, such as TRiO or EOP.

How complicated the online systems for billiing and signing up for classes are.

The focus on greek life, though I am oversensitive to it. I generally don't have tolerance for fraternities and sororities, I know there are a lot of schools that have a much heavier focus on them than Davis. I do find, though, that almost every person I meet has some sort of greek affiliation.

The registration process for classes is frustrating. There are pass times in which you have to wait to register and by the time you can register the classes you want to take are full. As a freshman, it is very frustrating.

The most frustating thing is the dining commons. Its true that UC Davis offers a wide variety of food but overall they just do not know how to prepare their food very well. The chefs should really work on their seasoning. Another factor about the food is that UC Davis tries to focus on being vegan and vegetarian friendly which causes them to push these types of food upon students, they pretty much push aside the needs of students who actually enjoy meat.

The most frustrating thing about my school is the lack of financial aid and scholarships available to low-income, disadvantaged students without parents. My mother died when I was five and I never knew or met my father. According to the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) and my university, I had to file as an independent student because I did not have parental income to file as a dependent student. As a result, I received less grant money and more loans than my dependent counterparts. This is a flaw in the system that needs to be fixed immediatly!

The campus is too big and roads are really intricate. It is super easy to be lost there.

It can sometimes feel very isolated

I do not have many concerns or frustrations. However, because of the growing popularity and class size, it is oftentimes hard to communicate directily with your professors.

It's a big school, so you have to make an effort to know the teacher.

The difficulty of rallying everyone together and bring a sense of community to get involved. We care about current political-social-economical issues and discuss but do not collectively act upon it. Most people are hesitant or uncomfortable by the tabling/petitioning on our campus, and to get involved.

The most frustrating thing about UC Davis is how large the actual campus is because it takes a long time to get to each class. Another frustration is that students and organizations do not utilize their location near the State Capitol to their fullest benefit. My main frustration with UC Davis is how much my tutition has gone up.

I believe that my school lacks a solid liberal arts community. Nearly 40{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} of the graduating class receives a degree in psychology, while most other graduates are in pre-med, engineering, or animal science related majors. There is a lack of development within the Arts, and yet UCD maintains, for example, a very strong undergraduate English department. Regardless, the school does not seem to give much support or draw enough students interested in a Liberal Arts education.

The most frustrating thing about UC Davis is the class sizes. The classes I have to take for my major are mostly in big lecture halls which create a very impersonal level of education and learning. I must admit I was aware of this when I chose this school, and it is a small sacrifice for the education I am receiving. However, if it were a perfect world, I would prefer to be taught in smaller sized classrooms for the classes that are most important towards my major like Chemistry, Biology, and Math.

When life throws it's curve balls toward you, you have to pick yourself up becuase the school is not there to help, they are there to collect and help you with class selection and enrollment; its up to you to make it happen. A little encouragement or push would be nice from this school. Its not that big to start neglecting its students.

As a transfer student from a community college, it is also hard to adapt to the fast paced quarter systems as opposed to my community college semester based system. Eleven weeks is much more different than 18 weeks to learn and let material soak into your long-term memory.

The campus is extremely large. It takes more than 30 minutes to walk from one end of the campus to another. This distance is extremely frustrating for students who don't bike and decides to walk.