UC Davis Acceptance Rate

The acceptance rate of UC Davis is 39%. This means out of 1000 applicants only 390 are accepted. This makes UC Davis very competitive. 

About University of California, Davis

The University of California, Davis is famously known as UC Davis is a public land-grant research university located in Davis, California. The university was first founded as an agricultural branch of the University of California system in 1905 but later became the seventh campus of the University of California in 1959.

The university has grown over the past century to include graduate and professional programs in medicine, veterinary medicine, law, nursing, education, and business management, in addition to 90 research programs offered by UC Davis Graduate Studies. The UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine is the largest veterinary school in the United States and has been ranked first in the world for five consecutive years (2015–19). UC Davis also offers courses and certificates, and online classes, for adults and non-traditional learners through its Division of Continuing and Professional Education.

The university is home to over 35,000 students, and even with the large size, the school still maintains a small community feeling with a 20:1 student to faculty ratio. Undergraduates at UC Davis have access to tons of top five programs, including the #1 degrees in the nation for agriculture and veterinary medicine.  As a result of its excellence, the school is often known as a public Ivy League school even though it is not an Ivy League school.

UC Davis Campuses

Named after the City of Davis, the campus is precisely located next to the City of Davis in a distinct part of Solano and Yolo counties. The main campus is located 15 miles west of Sacramento in the Sacramento Valley, part of California’s Central Valley.

The city of Davis is a college town, with the ratio of students to long-term residents estimated at 1:4. Davis’ 15-minute distance from Sacramento provides the campus with both the isolation critical to developing a college-town environment while also providing a large and lively city area nearby. Although the campus itself is massive, the entire community of Davis is relatively small and is easily traversable on bike using Davis’ extensive bicycle trails.

To the northeast of the campus is the Quad, a large rectangular field, which was the historic geographic center of the campus. Earlier in the campus’ history, few campus buildings surrounded the four sides of the Quad. These days, the campus has grown significantly and the geographic center of campus has shifted, but the Quad remains the center of campus life. 

To the north you will find the Memorial Union where the student union is, to the south is the Shields Library and to the west and southeast are Wellman and Olson halls respectively. The Memorial Union Complex is home to Freeborn Hall and various establishments such as the UC Davis Bookstore.

The majority of Equestrian Center, and Animal Sciences buildings are situated near the Arboretum Waterway, which is quite far away from the core campus. The Silo Union, the West Entry Parking Complex, the newly constructed Science Lecture Hall, and the Science Laboratory Building are located close to the Tercero residence halls, which are also closed to the University Symphony Orchestra and other cultural events.  

West Campus

For most of UC Davis’ history, West Campus has primarily served as an agricultural research land. Recently, portions were established through a $300 million public-private partnership to create the largest zero net energy community in the United States, known as UC Davis West Village. West Village will provide housing for 3,000 students, faculty, and staff and will aid the university to recruit and retain top faculty. The project will include 343 single-family homes, 662 apartments, 42,500 square feet of commercial space, study facilities, and a recreation center. West Village will also host the first community college on a UC campus.

The classes held in this area mostly involve plant sciences, and entomology courses as well. West Campus also houses the University Airport, the California National Primate Research Center, Foundation Plant Services, and the Contained Research Facility, a bio-safety level 3 facility.

To the south side of the campus, the core is the 100-acre UC Davis Arboretum, which consists of 3.5 miles of paved paths, 4,000 tree specimens, Putah Creek and Lake Spafford. 

UC Davis Faculties and Degree Program

UC Davis offers 102 undergraduate majors and more than 90 graduate programs. It has a Department of Viticulture and Enology (concerning the scientific study of grape-growing and winemaking) that has been and continues to be responsible for substantial advancements in winemaking applied by many Californian wineries. 

The school is known for its top-rated Agricultural and Resource Economics programs and the large Department of Animal Science through which students can study at the university’s on-campus dairy, equestrian facility, meat-processing plant, and experimental farm. 

UC Davis undergraduate majors are divided into four colleges:

• • UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences
  • UC Davis College of Biological Sciences
  • UC Davis College of Engineering

• UC Davis College of Letters and Science

The University of California Davis Graduate Programs has over 90 post-graduate programs, offering master’s and doctoral degrees and post-doctoral courses. The programs teach over 4,000 students from around the world. UC Davis has the most graduate and professional schools in the entire UC system.

UC Davis has the following graduate and professional schools:

• • UC Davis Graduate Studies
  • Graduate School of Management
  • School of Education
  • 400;”>School of Law
  • 400;”>School of Medicine
  • School of Veterinary Medicine
  • Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing

UC Davis Rankings 

The university also has several distinguished graduate programs ranked in the top 10 in their fields by the United States National Research Council; most noteworthy are its programs in agricultural economics, evolutionary biology, entomology, plant biology, and ecology. 

In addition, the NRC placed more than a third of UC Davis graduate programs in the top 25% of their respective fields.

The school expects you to meet their requirements for GPA and SAT/ACT scores, that being said, they are more flexible than other schools. If you beat their requirements, you have an excellent chance of getting in. 

UC Davis Admission Requirement

Common requirements for Admission into UC Davis include:

• A minimum GPA of 3.7. 
• 400;”>SAT scores of 1160-1370 and ACT scores of 25-31.
• An Essay.
• Extracurricular/ Volunteer works.
• Course rigour.

Aside from these, students must also meet “A to G” requirements:

The “A to G” subject requirements are a collection of 15 courses that are requisites for admission to UC Davis: 

At UC Davis, the student’s academic record is the core of the application. Students must accurately and completely report their coursework. It is vital to highlight honors courses as that will improve your calculated GPA and your chance of getting in.

Along with the academic record, the admissions team assesses the applicant to see if the applicant is in the top 9% of their high school class. So, keep that grade high and good.

The University has warned against students sending letters of recommendation, and transcripts. The University will not read or return them, so do not send them or their original copies. You will be asked to provide transcripts after you’ve been admitted.

UC Davis Accommodation

UC Davis Student Housing has 23 residence halls, totaling 29 buildings which are organized into three areas: Cuarto, Segundo, and Tercero.

UC Davis Student Housing is large enough to house more than 11,000 Students. Naturally, accommodation is reserved exclusively for first-year students, whereby other students are required to search for housing off-campus at apartments or rented homes. 

The Cuarto housing complex which is mostly for freshmen and transfer students is located one block off-campus, across Russell Boulevard. Unlike the other undergraduate housing complexes, Cuarto is located within city limits; its residents may even vote in city elections.

The northwest end of campus holds most of the Segundo undergraduate housing complex, and several alternative housing sites, such as Russell Park, Orchard Park, The Colleges at LaRue Apartments, and Primero Grove. 

The Tercero undergraduate housing complex is situated near the geographic center of the UC Davis campus, to the north of the Arboretum Waterway. This extends through almost the entirety of the south end of campus. Solano Park, UC Davis’ family housing complex, is located close to the Arboretum Waterway, at the Eastern end of campus. 

UC Davis Tuition Fees

I am going to provide more thorough information on UC Davis fees for you to make a better-informed decision.

400;”>Tuition and fees have been set irrespective of the method of instruction and won’t be reimbursed in the event instruction occurs remotely for any part of the Academic Year. Figures for tuition and fees represented in the table may not be final. Actual tuition and fees are subject to change by the University of California system as determined to be necessary or appropriate. Final approved tuition and fee levels could differ from the amounts presented.

The University of California Regents dictates that all students have health insurance. UC Davis automatically registers all students in the UC Student Health Insurance Plan (UC SHIP). If students have insurance and don’t want to be enrolled in UC SHIP, they must apply for a UC SHIP waiver by the date specified for their school.

Tips on Improving Your Chances of Getting into UC Davis

1. Have a minimum GPA of 4.0.

GPA and course rigor account as factors UC Davis considers “very important” to admissions decisions. The average high school GPA of UC Davis’s class of 2025 is 4.0 and 64.7% of the class had a 4.0 in high school. Also, applicants to UC Davis have completed a minimum of five AP classes. 

Selective schools, like UC Davis, that receive vast numbers of applicants every year use a tool called Academic Index—a distillation of your academic performance into a single number—to ease the admissions process. If you fail to meet UC Davis’s Academic Index standard, you might be academically disqualified and your application might not be given serious consideration.  

Test scores don’t influence admissions at UC Davis, so the best way to improve your Academic Index for UC Davis or any UC system is to improve your GPA. 

2. Write engaging essays.

After meeting UC Davis’s academic requirement, another way to set yourself apart from other applicants is with essays, which by the way is the only other admissions factor UC Davis deems “very important.” All UC System schools require applicants to answer four essay questions from a selection of eight prompts: 

1. Describe an example of your leadership experience in which you have positively influenced others, helped resolve disputes, or contributed to group efforts over time.
2. Every person has a creative side, and it can be expressed in many ways: problem-solving, original and innovative thinking, and art, to name a few. Describe how you express your creative side.
3. What would you say is your greatest talent or skill? How have you developed and demonstrated that talent over time?
4. Describe how you have taken advantage of a significant educational opportunity or worked to overcome an educational barrier you have faced.
5. Describe the most significant challenge you have faced and the steps you have taken to overcome this challenge. How has this challenge affected your academic achievement?
6. Think about an academic subject that inspires you. Describe how you have furthered this interest inside and/or outside of the classroom.
7. What have you done to make your school or your community a better place?
8. Beyond what has already been shared in your application, what do you believe makes you stand out as a strong candidate for admission to the University of California?

You should always remember that almost every applicant to UC Davis is astonishing academically, so you must use essays to distinguish yourself from other candidates. 

A strong college essay is should be written in your unique voice, highlight why you are a great fit at that school, and how that school will benefit from having you on campus.

3. Cultivate one or two Tier 1-2 extracurriculars.

Extracurricular activities, along with the ability they demonstrate, are both considered “important” factors in UC Davis admissions decisions. To catch the eye of the admissions committee, you will want to have a highly developed interest known as a “spike” along with one or two supporting extracurricular activities that show a high level of achievement or leadership. 

Some extracurricular activities are more impressive to colleges than others. The rarer your activity the better your chances.

4. Aim for 1370Gaurav SAT and 31 ACT Score.

The middle 50% SAT score at UC Davis is 1160-1370 and 25-31 for the ACT. Having sturdy test scores is a quality shared by the majority of UC Davis students.

Test scores are used to determine admissibility for the California statewide admissions, as a substitute for fulfilling minimum requirements for eligibility, or course placement after you enroenroll

UC Davis Deadline

 UC Davis, and other schools in the UC system, use the UC application. The deadline to submit your UC Davis application is November 30 and decision notifications are sent on March 31. 

Watch UC Davis Acceptance Rate Video here