3.1.1) How and when do I apply for admission to U.C. Davis as a first year undergraduate?
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This article is from the U.C. Davis FAQ, by David F. Prenatt, Jr. netesq@dcn.davis.ca.us with numerous contributions by others.
3.1.1) How and when do I apply for admission to U.C. Davis as a first year undergraduate?
Depending upon when you intend to begin your studies at U.C. Davis,
you may be required to apply any time from six months to a year in
advance, and the location to which you should submit your application
may vary. Contact Undergraduate Admissions at (916)752-2971 for an
application and for information on how, when, and where to submit your
application as a first year undergraduate. Readers with a web browser
may also visit the U.C. Davis Admissions Home Page on the World Wide
Web (<http://louie.stuaff.ucdavis.edu/Admissions/!info.html >).
3.1.1.1) What are the basic requirements for admission to U.C. Davis as a first year undergraduate?
Various subject requirements are imposed upon first year undergraduate
applicants to U.C. Davis. In addition, an applicant's high school GPA
is balanced against his or her score on standardized tests and ranked
on an eligibility index; applicants from outside of California must
have at least a 3.4 GPA. If you score well enough on your admissions
test, you need not complete the scholarship and subject requirements.
3.1.1.2) Is Affirmative Action dead at U.C. Davis for first year undergraduate students?
On Thurday, July 20, 1995, the U.C. Regents approved the proposal of
U.C. Regent Ward Connerly to end the use of race-based criteria in
admission procedures for the U.C. system, but the significance of this
decision for disadvantaged students has yet to be determined. As a
U.C. Davis alumnus, it profoundly disturbs me that people are arguing
over who is most victimized by the U.C. system. As a law school
graduate, I question whether the U.C Regents' decision was even
newsworthy in light of the Supreme Court's decision almost two decades
ago in Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, 438 U.S. 265
(1978), that effectively ended Affirmative Action (i.e., race-based
quotas) in college admissions. Unlike many other schools, U.C. Davis
has fully complied with the _Bakke_ decision in its admissions
procedures and and its active recruitment of members of groups that
have been historically underrepresented at U.C. Davis.
Affirmative Action (which is patently illegal and does not exist
as most people seem to think that it does) may not be the solution to
the problems faced by the U.C., but neither is the fundamental
restructuring of admissions procedures by the U.C. Regents one of the
real problems that disadvantaged applicants for admission to U.C.
Davis will face in the future. The crux of the problem for all U.C.
applicants (which few people have seen fit to address) lies in the
lack of space to accomodate the vast majority of qualified applicants
who wish to attend a particular U.C. campus (e.g., U.C. Berkeley) as a
first year undergraduate. Neverthless, no matter how limited the
opportunities are for first year undergraduates at a particular
campus, the lack of particular opportunities does not compromise the
various other opportunites that still exist for those people who wish
to attend a U.C. as part of their undergraduate education.
If you apply for admission to the U.C. system as a first year
undergraduate student and you get turned down, it is usually for a
reason that you can address and fix. For example, if your GPA or
admission test scores are too low, you can bring them up at a junior
college or CSU and transfer in at a later date. See Section 3.1.2
for more information on application as a transfer student. However,
the number one reason that most people do not get admitted to the U.C.
system is that they choose not to apply. They are told by their
family and friends that it is a waste of time to do so. Do not buy
into the defeatist propaganda that the anonymous authority of the
crowd has to sell.
My high school grades and my performance on standardized tests
gave me the opportunity to attend virtually any college that I wanted
to attend when I was 15 years old. I was also offered full
scholarships to colleges that most people are never even able to
attend. However, after successfully completing two semesters of
college as a high school junior, I chose to attend junior colleges to
complete the vast majority of my underclass undergraduate education.
When I eventually transferred full time to a four year university, my
high school GPA and standardized test scores became totally
irrelevant, nothing more than bragging rights that did not affect my
chances for admission to a university for better or for worse.
Moreover, my undergraduate education as a whole was cheaper, faster,
better, and a lot more fun than that of most people whom I know who
only attended a four year university as an undergraduate.
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