Uc Davis
The Davis campus is the only school within the UC system with an airport, just west of main campus, and is one of two UC schools with its own fire department; the other being UCSC. It is also one of only two schools in the University of California system, the other being UC Berkeley, with a nuclear lab.
UC Davis fire truck
The UC Davis campus is considered world-renowned and has been praised for its architecture and picturesque scenery.
UC Davis offers broad green lawns and bubbling fountains, sculpture gardens and fine museums, lush landscaping and an intriguing mix of architectural styles. There are huge amounts of well-kept and attractive open space on the UC Davis campus, from Hutchison, Dobbins, Russell, and Howard Fields to various soccer, rugby, lacrosse, and tennis fields.
It is surrounded by the residential area of the city of Davis.
Towards the northeast end of campus is the Quad, a large rectangular field which sits adjacent to Freeborn Hall and the Memorial Union, which houses various establishments such as the UC Davis Bookstore, ASUCD Coffee House, food courts, Post Office, Sky Room, and the MU Games Area. Also notable in this northeastern corner is the labyrinthical Social Sciences and Humanities building designed by Antoine Predock, known to students as the "Death Star" for its angular, metallic design.
The northwest end of campus holds the majority of the Segundo undergraduate housing complex and various alternative non-undergraduate housing such as Orchard Park, Russell Park, and The Colleges at LaRue Apartments.
Off-campus to the northwest is the Cuarto undergraduate housing complex, which has two dining commons.
Arboretum walkway
The Tercero undergraduate housing complex is located near the true geographic center of the UC Davis campus, to the north of the Aboretum Waterway, which stretches longitudinally through almost the entirety of the south end of campus. The Arboretum is a public garden with over 4,000 kinds of trees and plants that stretches for over 100 acres (0.4 km²) along the Waterway.
The majority of Veterinary Medicine, Equestrian Center, and Animal Sciences buildings are located near the Arboretum Waterway, away from the core campus; the West Entry Parking Complex, the Silo Union, and the newly constructed Science Lecture Hall and the Science Laboratory Building are located nearer to the Tercero residence halls and the core of campus.
The Mondavi Center, home of the University Symphony Orchestra and other cultural events, is also located near the Tercero complex.
See No Evil/Hear No Evil Egghead
There are five public art statues found around campus, collectively called The Egghead Series, sculpted by former art professor Robert Arneson who taught at Davis from 1962-1991 before his death in 1992. The egghead statues are considered by many to be among the most recognizable features of UC Davis's campus, and have even inspired a recent blog maintained by University staff.
Additional pieces of Arneson's work are part of the Fine Arts Collection maintained by the Richard L. The "Yin & Yang" egg heads have been recast and duplicated for installment near the Port of San Francisco Ferry Building in San Francisco.
Academics
Mondavi Center for the performing arts
UC Davis academic spectrum is world-renowned in the arts, humanities, life sciences, health sciences, and engineering.
The campus is noted for its Agricultural and Resource Economics programs, and the large Department of Animal Science through which students can study at the university's own on-campus dairy, meat-processing plant, equestrian facility, and experimental farm. Students of Environmental Horticulture and other botanical sciences have many acres of campus farmland and the University of California, Davis, Arboretum at their disposal.
The Department of Applied Science was founded and formerly chaired by physicist Edward Teller. Dance, music, studio arts, and theatre are studied extensively on the campus, and the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts features artists from all over the globe.
UC Davis has an excellent reputation in graduate studies and has several professional schools: UC Davis Graduate Studies, Graduate School of Management, School of Education, School of Law, School of Medicine, School of Nursing, and School of Veterinary Medicine.
The university is also host to the largest Army Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) program in California, with more than 120 cadets.
Shields Library, the Physical Sciences & Engineering Library, the Carlson Health Sciences Library, and the Medical Center Library in Sacramento, contains more than 3.5 million volumes and offers a number of special collections and services for undergraduates and graduates alike. Shields Library is a vast building with three different architectural styles due to various construction and extensions being added; it is the main library where students study on-campus, with a 24-hour reading room, open computer labs, and unique furniture.
Research
According to the National Science Foundation, UC Davis spent $456,653,000 on research and development in the fiscal year 2002-2003, ranking it 14th in the nation.
Specifically, UC Davis's expenditures nationally ranked first in agricultural research ($25,683,000), seventh in biological research ($118,477,000), and 13th in the life sciences ($336,796,000).
Its faculty includes 18 members of the National Academy of Sciences, 6 members of the National Academy of Engineering, 7 members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2 Pulitzer Prize winners, 2 MacArthur Fellows and one member of the Royal Society.
The campus supports a number of research centers including: the Information Center for the Environment, the Center for Visual Sciences, the Advanced Highway Maintenance Construction Technology Research Laboratory, the MIND Institute, the University of California Pavement Research Center, among others. The campus maintains a web site that publishes information and supports discussion about its research activities.
UC Davis is also one of 62 members in the prestigious Association of American Universities (as of 1996).
It consists of sixty universities in the United States (both public and private) and two universities in Canada.
Rankings
In terms of Graduate Studies rankings, in 2006 U.S. News & World Report placed UC Davis First Nationally in Ecology and Evolution.
In 2008 U.S.
News and World Report ranked UC Davis as the 12th best public university in the United States, and the 4th best of the UC schools, tying with UC Irvine and UC Santa Barbara and after UC Berkeley, UCLA, and UCSD.
The Washington Monthly ranked UC Davis 8th in its 2007 National College Ranking.
In 2008, UC Davis was ranked 42nd in the world and 34th in the Americas by an annual listing of the Top 500 World Universities published by the Institute of Higher Education in Shanghai, China.
In 2007, UC Davis was ranked 96th in the world by 2007 The Times Higher Education Supplement Rankings.
As of January 2008, UC Davis was ranked 42nd among the top 4000 universities in the world by the Webometrics Ranking of World Universities, which bases its rankings on a quantitative analysis of internet content specially related to the generation and communication of scientific knowledge.
Admissions
Admission to UC Davis is rated as "more selective" by U.S. News and World Report. For Fall 2008, 21,256 freshmen were admitted out of an application pool of 40,568 for a freshman acceptance rate of 52.4%.
On average, admitted students earned a high school GPA of 3.94.
Between 2007 and 2008, UC Davis saw the largest increase in freshman applicants out of all UC campuses - from 35,088 to 42,311, a 20.6% increase.
31% of admitted students receive federal Pell grants.
Student life
UC Davis Athletics logo
Athletics
The UC Davis Aggies (or Ags) compete in NCAA Division I sports in the Big West Conference. For football, the Aggies compete in Division I FCS (formerly known as Division I-AA), and are members of the Great West Conference, granting UC Davis the distinction of being one of only three UC campuses to field a football team (Cal and UCLA being the other two).
The Aggies are also members of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation in gymnastics and lacrosse, the Western Intercollegiate Rowing Association in rowing, and an associate member of the Pacific Ten Conference in wrestling.
The Aggies finished first in NCAA Division II six times in 2003 and won the NACDA Director's Cup 4 years in a row from 1999 to 2003. They have also won NCAA Division II championships in Softball(2003), Men's Tennis(1992), and Women's Tennis(1990, 1993).
These and other achievements motivated a decision (following a year of heavy discussion by campus administrators, faculty, staff, students, alumni and the local community) in 2003 for the athletics program to re-classify to Division I.
Aggies at Stanford (half-time show), September 17, 2005
The highlight of the recent 4-year transition to Division I occurred on September 17, 2005, when the Aggies defeated the heavily favored Stanford Cardinal at Stanford Stadium by a score of 20-17 on a TD pass with 8 seconds left in the game. The team also plays Cal Poly in the annual Battle for the Golden Horseshoe.
The Aggie Pack cheers on the sports team to the music of the Cal Aggie Marching Band-uh! and its alumni band. In addition, he received the "Most Outstanding Wrestler" award of the NCAA tournament.
That same year, UC Davis finished within the top 25 for Division I collegiate wrestling programs in the country.
The official school colors are blue and gold. There was a movement to change the school's mascot from the mustang to the cow, but despite student support this was turned down after opposition from alumni.
Many people will call the mustang mascot of UC Davis an Aggie, but this is not its proper name; the mustang mascot is named Gunrock. The station can now be heard on 90.3 FM and online at its website .
UC Davis has some 400 registered student organizations, ranging from political clubs to professional societies to language clubs.
The academic Graduate Students and management students are represented by the Graduate Student Association (GSA). The Law Students are represented by Law Students Association.
One less-known student tradition occurs during the commencement ceremonies, where students toss tortillas into the air at the beginning of the ceremony.
Tortillas are smuggled into the building under graduation gowns and released into the air after all the graduates have taken their seats.
Student Government
The undergraduate student government of UC Davis is the Associated Students of UC Davis (ASUCD), and has an annual operating budget of 10.5 million dollars, making it the highest funded student government in the United States.
Similar to the US government, ASUCD includes an Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branch. Other than representing the student body on campus, the task of ASUCD is to lobby student interests to local and state government.
Also under the purview of ASUCD are multiple units: services offered to the undergraduate student body. ASUCD employs thousands of students annually across its many units.
ASUCD units include:
Unitrans, the student run (and driven) bus system.
The Coffee House, a student run restaurant serving 7000 customers daily.
The California Aggie, the student newspaper in operation since 1915 with daily distribution of 12,000 copies.
The Bike Barn, a bicycle shop that sells and rents bicycles and cycling equipment, also operating a repair shop.
KDVS, student radio.
The Entertainment Council, responsible for bringing famous musicians to campus and organizing student events. US Post Office, a completely student-run official United States Postal Service Contract Station.
The California Aggie
UC Davis also publishes a daily student newspaper, The California Aggie.
At this point, UC Davis was considered the University Farm, an extension of UC Berkeley.
Initially, the Weekly Agricola was focused on both student news and farming-related topics. One sorority, Sigma Alpha Epsilon Pi, was featured during the first season of the MTV reality show "Sorority Life."
The Phi chapter of Alpha Gamma Rho was established on May 1st of 1923 at UC Davis making it the first fraternity on campus.
Bicyclists are ubiquitous around campus as well as the city, and thus a lot of bike-only infrastructure exists, such as bike circles, large bike lanes, and traffic signals exclusively for bikes. All other UC campuses are either somewhat distant from the closest freeway or are directly adjacent to only one freeway.