Matt
The best thing about UC Davis is the friendly and welcoming atmosphere. You are never alone when you're in Davis. I would make the winters less cold; if you're from a Mediterranean climate like Los Angeles, Davis winters may be a shock for you. The school is large, both in size and population: 5,500 acres and 30,000 students. These both work to its advantage. The campus has lots of trees and open spaces, and the large student body gives it an active, vibrant feel. People usually ask "Where is that?" when I tell them I go to UC Davis, which gives it a "best kept secret" reputation. During the warm falls and springs, the best place to spend tie is on the quad, which is the center of campus. It is surrounded by all the main class buildings, and near the student union known as Memorial Union, so it gets a lot of foot and bike traffic which makes it great for running into your friends. It is also very conducive to Frisbee throwing. With half the population enrolled at the university, Davis is definitely a college town. Local businesses and the city cater to students with student discounts, student-focused events, and even flexible employment hours. Davis faculty are very responsive to student needs; professors are universally open for whatever help a student needs, and roughly half of students are involved in research with their professors. The administration is not as in-tune with the student body or the faculty--a common "You know you're a UC Davis student if..." ends by saying "the first time you saw the chancellor was at your graduation." The chancellor holds quarterly "brown bag chats" that are open to anyone to attend, but most students ignore them. They do their best to be attentive to safety concerns, however. Currently the university contracts its food-service needs out to a private company, despite calls from employees, faculty and students to make these food-service workers official university employees, which would give them higher wages and benefits. UC Davis is the only UC to contract its food service out to a private company, and considers honoring its contract with the food service company a higher priority than making those food-service workers university employees. Despite all this, there is a lot of pride in UC Davis. We have a sense of being a well kept secret, because of our highly ranked programs across the disciplines and our relatively low national profile. The Aggie Pack is the largest student spirit organization in the country, and schools from San Jose State to Notre Dame have come to UC Davis for advice on how to organize their student spirit sections at football and basketball games. The city of Davis is known as the bicycle capital of the world, and UC Davis is very conducive to bikes, with it's many bike paths and bike racks throughout campus. Some city streets even have bicycle only traffic signals. I will always remember when UC Davis beat Stanford in football in the biggest upset in our athletic program's history, only to top it three months later by beating Stanford in basketball. Most complaints are centered around the idea that "there's nothing to do." The Davis Police Department also has a reputation for shutting down parties, though I've never experienced this.