Student Life
UC Davis is ranked among the top ten public universities by U.S. News and World Report and is listed as 10th in research funding among all U.S. ranked public universities by the National Science Foundation. The campus is a member of the prestigious Association of American Universities, one of just 62 institutions of higher learning to be admitted to this distinguished group.
Founded in 1908 as the University Farm amid the fertile fields of the state's Central Valley, UC Davis today encompasses the colleges of Letters and Science, Engineering, Biological Sciences, and Agricultural and Environmental Sciences; professional schools in education, law, management, medicine, veterinary medicine, and the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing. It also operates the UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento, one of the leading teaching and research hospitals in the nation. This is a period of growth and change for UC Davis.
In the last ten years alone, the university has completed $1.6 billion in projects and increased its faculty size and student enrollment by over 40 percent. New facilities include: the Robert and Margrit Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts, Aggie Stadium, UC Davis Graduate School of Management Maurice J. Gallagher Hall, Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science, and a new Activities and Recreation Center. In 2007 the NCAA granted UC Davis Division I certification. In their second year of Division I play, eleven UC Davis teams were represented in NCAA Division I post-season competition. In addition to 26 intercollegiate sports (14 for women and 12 for men), the campus offers more than 30 student-organized club sports. And each year, some 13,000 students participate in intramural sports.
All students can enjoy abundant on- and off-campus recreational facilities for tennis, softball, basketball, volleyball and golf. Given the area's Mediterranean climate, outdoor recreation continues year round.
