UCSB versus UC Davis (for undergrad)

[emttim]

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Alright, so I've heard a lot of crap about the teachers at UC Davis being diverse and coming from a lot of areas, and as a result, they either don't speak english very well, you can't understand them because of their accent, or both. I went to the Dr's office today and lo' & behold, the medical assistant is currently going to UC Davis for pre-med and she's transferring to UCLA because she can't stand the teachers' inability to communicate due to them being foreigners.

So my question is, has anyone gone to UCSB or UC Davis recently, or is currently going, and can offer insight on the science professors? I don't care about the GE teachers since I'm done with all of those classes, I'm just specifically interested in the biology, chem, and physics teachers at either school. The reason I throw UCSB into the mix is I'm contemplating going there instead if I keep hearing bad stuff about Davis' teachers and the info I hear turns out to be true.

 

[nick_carraway]

Well I'm from UCD and just graduated and most professors are fine. Perhaps the girl you met who's transferring never got past the first year. Freshmen teachers tend to have more problems. I'm sure that she also already had a desire to go to UCLA anyway.

Statistics has a few bad ones and so does Calculus but most of the science professors are fine. For gchem, they're all fine and most are American. For ochem, we only have one professor with an accent and she's perfectly easy to understand. The physics professors are all American. For the core curriculum for bio majors, they're all American except for one German who speaks English fluently. For my major of physiology (NPB), the professors are all great. All speak English perfectly and so do the TAs. Only one professor is Asian and he was born in LA.

I'm sorry, but if people are blaming their poor grades on a hard to understand professor, it's ridiculous. They should start owning up to the fact that they need to study more independently or maybe realize that the professor is a bad teacher regardless of their accent. With the exception of one professor, all of them were EXTREMELY willing to help outside of class. My GPA's pretty subpar but I never attributed it to the nationality of my professors and it's all because I didn't study as well as I should have.

You're going to find foreign professors at any of the UCs and at most universities in the U.S.

If you have any questions specific to UCD, I'll be glad to answer them via PM.

 

[emttim]

Well I'm from UCD and just graduated and most professors speak fine. Perhaps the girl you met who's transfering never got past the first year. Freshmen teachers tend to have more problems. I'm sure that she also already had a desire to go to UCLA anyway.

Statistics has a few bad ones and so does Calculus but most of the science professors are fine. For gchem, they're all fine and most are American. For ochem, we only have one professor with an accent and she's perfectly easy to understand. The physics professors are all American. For the core curriculum for bio majors, they're all American and there's one German who speaks fine. For my major of physiology (NPB), the professors are all great. All speak English perfectly and so do the TAs. Only one is Asian and he was born in LA.

I'm sorry, but if people are blaming their poor grades on a hard to understand professor, it's ridiculous. They should start owning up to the fact that they need to study more independently or maybe realize that the professor is a bad teacher regardless of their accent. With the exception of one professor, all of them were EXTREMELY willing to help outside of class. My GPA's pretty subpar but I never attributed it to the nationality of my professors and it's all because I didn't study as well as I should have.

You're going to find foreign professors at any of the UCs and at most universities in the U.S.

If you have any questions specific to UCD, I'll be glad to answer them via PM.

Well, I guess it shouldn't surprise me that people are blaming their grades on that too. That's a relief though...yeah I actually do have a bunch of questions, PM incoming! 🙂

 

[UCDavisdude]

im sure its like that at most uc's. just what happens when u have good faculty. with that aside, i found uc davis to be a great place to go. yeah, its kind of a boring city, but there is always plenty to do. in the winters, we head up to boreal every friday for snowboarding, student get an all day lift ticket for 10 dollars. theres a big fraternity and sorority system, and until i joined a fraternity (a social one, not a community service or pre-med one) i hated the social life in davis, especially for those under 21. but theres always things to do,. the city is really friendly, and not "ghetto" at all. our doors are always left open. as for academics, its pretty tough, but with hard work, youll be able to do fine, plus, theres plenty of opportunities to get into volunteering, researching and interning, as we do have uc davis med center in which 99% of the interns are from uc davis. theres also genentech and genencor near by where most of thier interns come from uc davis as well. and professors are pretty opening to students wanting to get some research experience for what i see. hope this helps. i just graduated from there, and had a blast.

 

[Uegis]

Yea, that's BS. I graduated from UCD and got into med school just fine. The professors don't have deep accents, especially not in the sciences. Granted, a lot of the TA's are foreign, they do a great job in helping you understand material in a SMALL, INFORMAL environment.

The girl who's transferring is probably blaming them for her own poor performance. If you let 'accents' prevent you from doing well in your courses, then you don't deserve to do well. It's how much you put into it too. And UCD does a fantastic job in preparing you for medical school. I felt like I was able to hang with the rest of my class and understand material fairly easily. I was a biochem major, so I did take a lot of hardcore science courses.

Good luck in your choice. I don't know much about UCSB, but I can tell you UCD is excellent.

ECKING, Calpirg sucks. They just hound me outside of Shields and then charge me every quarter without letting me know. Haha, i'm JK. Good looking MDAPPS. If you need any help let me know. I went through the same process 3 years ago. Always willing to help an Aggie out.

 

[UCDavisdude]

oh, and the campus is really safe as well, ive spent countless nights at the 24 hour reading room, and walking back to my place at night, ive never felt unsafe.

 

[Uegis]

oh, and the campus is really safe as well, ive spent countless nights at the 24 hour reading room, and walking back to my place at night, ive never felt unsafe.

The place smells funky now. I was there this past weekend since all the freaking libraries on campus closes at 5 for summer. Weak.

 

[UCDavisdude]

The place smells funky now. I was there this past weekend since all the freaking libraries on campus closes at 5 for summer. Weak.

hahaha, i cant smell the difference. im there so often, that everywhere else smells funky to me.

 

[LodiDodi]

Having gone to UCB for undergrad, I can relate.
I can tell you I've had my fair share of teachers who have been not only rude and angry, but also spoke poor English in a very heavy accent. All my math teachers were from other countries, most of them were from eastern europe and didnt like the way american math was taught.

Most of what I learned from UCB was not from a profs mouth, it came from a book or working with my fellow students. Don't listen to people complain about profs, higher ranked schools are overrun with bad profs who would be happy if their class died so they could get back to their research. You'll learn alot from bad profs, it toughens you up for med school and teaches you how to learn quickly with little instruction. They also make you really appreciate the odd good professor.

UCSB is very fun school and offers more personal attention, but it also has the unfortunate rep as a party school. I'm not sure how med schools might see this, but UCD is higher ranked and known for having a good science dept. If medical school is your goal and you want to maximize you preparation, go to UCD. UCSB isnt bad either and my friend who goes there has had a really great research experience, but keep in mind it will not give you as strenuous an education. It just depends on whats important to you.

Another thing to consider is how many premeds there are at each school, fewer premeds = you stand out more (prolly UCSB wins for this one.) In the end it prolly wont matter as long as you get good gpa and MCAT. Just dont let profs scare you away, big research universities always have a lot of bad ones.

 

[emttim]

Well I'm glad I asked before I actually seriously contemplated making any plans other than Davis, heh....this is why I try not to associate with pre-meds for the most part (no offense), all of the ones I've met in person are full of ****. I'm starting to think SDNers and OPMers really are a different breed, if nothing else than for the fact that if you care enough about your career goal to stay as informed as possible on it via the internet, then that alone probably sets you apart from a lot of pre-meds.

UCD certainly sounds like the better choice...not only are the rumors inaccurate, but a strenuous education /is/ important to me, so if UCSB is better for partying, then it's not a better fit for me, since I have no interest in partying; the toilet asked me to marry her, and I turned her down a long time ago. Screw that ungrateful bitch. 😛

Hey Uegis, how was pchem if you majored in biochem? I keep looking at that major and keep deciding against it because of the pchem requirement...wondering if it's really that bad or not.

 

[UCDavisdude]

i took pchem, the 110 series though (for engineers and chem majors), and it was tough, but just like another physics/math class

 

[nick_carraway]

ECKING, Calpirg sucks. They just hound me outside of Shields and then charge me every quarter without letting me know. Haha, i'm JK. Good looking MDAPPS. If you need any help let me know. I went through the same process 3 years ago. Always willing to help an Aggie out.

Haha I know that CALPIRG is annoying. But it's my only community service and I did meet my GF when we were both interns by ditching the pledge drives together. So a good experience, overall!

Thanks for the offer for advice! I might take you up on it later. Great job getting into UCD, BTW! I only hope that I can get in too. I met Syam and Carolin (MS3s, I believe) at a Barnes & Noble and they were both so friendly and nice so if you know them, let em know that I appreciate it.

 

[LodiDodi]

I keep looking at that major and keep deciding against it because of the pchem requirement...wondering if it's really that bad or not.

Hey, once again, I know I am from Berkeley, so I cant speak for UCD, but I really loved pchem. So many ppl fear it, but I felt like it was possible on of the most rewarding challenges I went thro in undergrad. I encourage any one to take it at least once. Although, it is a lil like S&M, you get beat up all the time, but just keep coming back for more

 

[notdeadyet]

All my math teachers were from other countries, most of them were from eastern europe and didnt like the way american math was taught.

The reason you'll see so many foreign science and math faculty at universities is because our science/math skills are so poorly taught at the elementary and secondary level that there's a shortage of great faculty.

Don't be afraid of accents. You can always defer to books.

 

[Uegis]

From what I hear from some of my classmates who graduated recently, the requirement for PCHEM is dropped! So no more worries! I'm pretty sure that's the policy now because I remember that there were rumblings about that when I was still there.

I actually enjoyed the pchem series. I took the chem 107 series and chem 108. Chem 108 was one of the most useful courses I took and helped with my research a lot. The biosci 100 series is excellent and gives a good foundation for MCAT's and med school biochem. The molecular and cell bio series is more hardcore topic-specific science, but still good learning. In general, it was an excellent major. I learned a lot, that's for sure. It's not as hardcore as people make it sound. If I can make it through okay, I'm sure anyone can.

Oh, also consider doing NPB (neuro physio bio, i think that's what it stands for). In retrospect, if I wanted the most help from undergrad for med school, I think the courses offered in the NPB program would've helped the most. I took 4 different NPB classes even though I was a biochem major. The courses are more gears towards medicine. I was shocked that some of the undergrads I worked with at student-run clinics knew so much about coronary artery disease and heart failure. Amazing! I never took the cardio course, but I did take a course on endocrinology, human physiology, addictive drugs, and neurobiology.

 

[MrFoo]

One of the best decisions I ever made in my life was to matriculate at UCSB. I was a physics/economics major--not a pre-med--so it's difficult for me to speak to the pre-med. experience. I am familiar with the physics and economics programs, however, and I can attest that both programs are top-notch. The physics program in particular is ranked among the top ten in the country by US News. It has had much more than its fair share of Nobel laureates over the years and there are incredible research opportunities abound. I'm sure you'll find both talented and untalented science teachers at either campus. It's a toss-up as to who will be teaching during the quarter you take the course.

Your friend's anecdote about foreign teachers sounds more like an excuse to me. UCs are international schools and you're certain to find international faculty on any campus--I had several visiting lecturers in both economics and mathematics at UCSB. Besides, if you plan on practicing medicine in diverse California, learning to understand different accents and individuals is an important part of education.

I'm a firm believer that people do their best work when they're happy. Pick the school in which you think you'll have the best college experience overall. It's difficult for me to imagine anyone wanting to spend four years of their life in Davis rather than Santa Barbara! My advice: GO TO UCSB!!!!
😀
http://www.ucsbstuff.com/StoreImages/108-44647-3.jpg

 

[bones11]

I'm a firm believer that people do their best work when they're happy. Pick the school in which you think you'll have the best college experience overall. It's difficult for me to imagine anyone wanting to spend four years of their life in Davis rather than Santa Barbara! My advice: GO TO UCSB!!!!
😀
http://www.ucsbstuff.com/StoreImages/108-44647-3.jpg

Ditto. SB is pretty much paradise on earth; Davis . . . not so much. But maybe I'm just some oddball who'd rather hang out on the beach than in a cow pasture.

 

[evade]

Another Aggie here to vouch for Davis! I went there for undergrad, loved it so much that I chose to return for med school. 😉

For the most part, the faculty at UCD is great. They're very approachable, and many are excellent teachers. I never encountered a professor with a problematic accent. In fact, I can only recall one who even HAD a noticeable accent (yes, for o-chem. . .we ALL know who we're talking about here), though I never had trouble understanding her. I did have one TA in general chem whose spoken English was very poor; she ended up writing everything on the board for us. Basically, it wasn't an issue for me.

All schools have some foreign professors. UCD is no exception. What I loved most about Davis was the people: they're laid-back, helpful, and generally nice. No, Sacramento's not the beach, but it has its good features too. I'm very happy here. I honestly doubt I would've been happy at UCSB: it's far from my family, too urban, and I'm just not that into the beach. I grew up in a rural area, and in a lot of ways, I like it. I liked biking to class, feeding hay to the horses, and hearing the cows moo at night. emttim, I suggest you go where you'll be happiest, and don't let anyone convince you otherwise! 🙂

 

[emttim]

Well, on one hand, I do love the beach so that part of UCSB is appealing, but obviously the thing that matters most when going to college is 1) securing your future and 2) getting a good education...getting a quality education is far more important to me than being on the beach since I can always go to the beach later or live in a city on the beach once I'm a doctor. It looks like the rumors are extremely unfounded about Davis...that being said, I suppose it wouldn't be fair to make a decision without touring UCSB first (only college I toured was CSU Chico and UC Davis), but I'm pretty deadset on Davis right now. Thanks for the input guys!

 

[Uegis]

Another note, there was not a single school that I interviewed at, 10 total, that did not know about UCD. We have a huge number of pre-meds and chances are there is at least one or two that matriculated at the school you will interview at. And our reputation is good. I can't comment on UCSB's rep because I don't know enough about it.

Oh yea, we have a med school attached so pre-med experiences are abundant, which UCSB lack. I mean, beaches sound awesome, but if you are all about medicine, UCD is the place to be. It's more lifestyle versus positioning yourself as top med school candidate. Not to mention all the research opportunities with actual clinicians in medicine (difficult in SB) at UCD. The Genomics and Biomedical Sciences Facilities is still in Davis and houses a lot of the research of the bigwigs from the school of medicine. Endocrine, pulmonary, hepatology, immunology and micro all have huge presence in the GBSF building, if you want to stay in Davis to do research. Of course, there is also a crapload of opportunities in Sacramento where the med center is at. And there's also the undergraduate research opportunities too if you want to do basic science research.

And most importantly, you can volunteer at student-run clinics as undergrad!! I did that and it made my app stand out. Seriously, it's hands on stuff with patients and working alongside physicians and medical students. Invaluable experience since most other volunteer experiences elsewhere is shadowing and cleaning. There are a lot of volunteer opps at the Med Center too so you can explore pretty much any field of medicine you want to. I'm not sure if UCSB can offer all these intimate contact with patients (without an attached med school) and research opportunities with physicians who are top-notch in the field

 

[nick_carraway]

Another note, there was not a single school that I interviewed at, 10 total, that did not know about UCD. We have a huge number of pre-meds and chances are there is at least one or two that matriculated at the school you will interview at. And our reputation is good. I can't comment on UCSB's rep because I don't know enough about it.

Oh yea, we have a med school attached so pre-med experiences are abundant, which UCSB lack. I mean, beaches sound awesome, but if you are all about medicine, UCD is the place to be. It's more lifestyle versus positioning yourself as top med school candidate. Not to mention all the research opportunities with actual clinicians in medicine (difficult in SB) at UCD. The Genomics and Biomedical Sciences Facilities is still in Davis and houses a lot of the research of the bigwigs from the school of medicine. Endocrine, pulmonary, hepatology, immunology and micro all have huge presence in the GBSF building, if you want to stay in Davis to do research. Of course, there is also a crapload of opportunities in Sacramento where the med center is at. And of course, there's the undergrad research opportunities too.

Ah GBSF. My second home for the last 2 years. I'll certainly miss the view of the stadium from the 6th floor conference room.

 

[evade]

Another note, there was not a single school that I interviewed at, 10 total, that did not know about UCD. We have a huge number of pre-meds and chances are there is at least one or two that matriculated at the school you will interview at. And our reputation is good. I can't comment on UCSB's rep because I don't know enough about it.

Oh yea, we have a med school attached so pre-med experiences are abundant, which UCSB lack. I mean, beaches sound awesome, but if you are all about medicine, UCD is the place to be. It's more lifestyle versus positioning yourself as top med school candidate. Not to mention all the research opportunities with actual clinicians in medicine (difficult in SB) at UCD. The Genomics and Biomedical Sciences Facilities is still in Davis and houses a lot of the research of the bigwigs from the school of medicine. Endocrine, pulmonary, hepatology, immunology and micro all have huge presence in the GBSF building, if you want to stay in Davis to do research. Of course, there is also a crapload of opportunities in Sacramento where the med center is at. And there's also the undergraduate research opportunities too if you want to do basic science research.

And most importantly, you can volunteer at student-run clinics as undergrad!! I did that and it made my app stand out. Seriously, it's hands on stuff with patients and working alongside physicians and medical students. Invaluable experience since most other volunteer experiences elsewhere is shadowing and cleaning. There are a lot of volunteer opps at the Med Center too so you can explore pretty much any field of medicine you want to. I'm not sure if UCSB can offer all these intimate contact with patients (without an attached med school) and research opportunities with physicians who are top-notch in the field

Agreed. I found it very easy to get kick-ass clinical experience at Davis. I interned at the student health center and Shriners, which I don't think Uegis even mentioned. There are so many things you can do in the area, and rest assured, you'll find something good!

 

[emttim]

Sounds good to me. So far, I haven't been able to find a doctor to shadow, so it sounds like that's one of the many things I could correct at Davis. From what you guys say, it's probably also a possibility to intern in the ER or OR, which would also be on the list of things I'd like to do. Yeah, the beach is nice and all, but there's also strategic reasons why UCSB would kind of suck, namely Santa Barbara county having a very limited amount of standing orders for paramedics...according to my friend who's looked into transferring to that county before, you have to call medical direction to administer almost any medication, whereas in Contra Costa county (very near to Davis), there's a lot of standing orders so you don't have to ask for anyone's permission first.

And for that matter, I'd imagine there'd be even more open doors as far as pre-med experiences go for a licensed paramedic.

 

[evade]

Sounds good to me. So far, I haven't been able to find a doctor to shadow, so it sounds like that's one of the many things I could correct at Davis. From what you guys say, it's probably also a possibility to intern in the ER or OR, which would also be on the list of things I'd like to do. Yeah, the beach is nice and all, but there's also strategic reasons why UCSB would kind of suck, namely Santa Barbara county having a very limited amount of standing orders for paramedics...according to my friend who's looked into transferring to that county before, you have to call medical direction to administer almost any medication, whereas in Contra Costa county (very near to Davis), there's a lot of standing orders so you don't have to ask for anyone's permission first.

And for that matter, I'd imagine there'd be even more open doors as far as pre-med experiences go for a licensed paramedic.

One of my classmates (who also went to UCD for undergrad) was a paramedic for several years before entering med school. According to him, Yolo County (which is where Davis, West Sacramento, and Woodland are located) is also an excellent place to be a medic. There are also lots of standing orders, and you get a lot of leeway. He loved working in Yolo County.

And yes, you can be an intern in the ER or OR. The interns wear yellow shirts; I see them all over the place now. I think the summer ones must've just started. 😉

Also: in regards to your above comment about liking the beach, Davis is still within striking distance of the beach if you're up for a day or weekend trip. There are several surfers and divers in my class, and they're able to keep doing what they do. If you enjoy skiing/snowboarding, Tahoe is even closer to Davis than the beach is. The Ski or Snowboard (SOS) club at Davis makes trips up just about every weekend during the winter, and because they take a group, it's cheap! 😀

 

[Uegis]

And yes, you can be an intern in the ER or OR. The interns wear yellow shirts; I see them all over the place now. I think the summer ones must've just started. 😉

How's your first rotation going? I'm on outpatient FP right now so have no experience inside the big scary building, haha.

When I volunteered back then, we didn't have to wear the yellow polo shirt, but I guess that's a new policy now. I did volunteer at the ER and it was a fairly good experience. Sometimes, you even get to help with traumas when it's super busy. I've helped applied pressure to the femoral before when the docs were trying to stop the bleeding from a partly severed leg. That was crazy.

And the OR internship is suppose to be awesome. It requires a 8 hour days once every two weeks though, so most do it during the summer or at night/weekends with trauma surgery. My friend was able to watch several CT surgeries and several reconstructive knees. He loved it.

 

[UCDavisdude]

davis also has picnic day (largest student run event in the u.s.) and the epic quad battle!!
http://youtube.com/watch?v=_qXMSsQKhGM