UC Davis vs. UC Hastings Forum

[dluther]

I'm curious which people think is the better school. I know UC Davis has a bit higher USNEWS ranking and LSAT scores, but do the big California law firms prefer it over Hastings? Was anybody accepted to both and decided to go to one of the two? If so, I definitely be interested in learning why.

[Morpheous]

Do you know the cost of living in S.F.? It's pretty high. Go to Davis. You will save money that way.

[lishi]

I always thought that Hastings got better placement than Davis, but I guess it depends would you want to work when you get out of law school SF or Sacramento??

Also yes SF living costs are high, but there are places to live around SF that are cheaper than right in the city.

[mysti]

I was accepted to both and am choosing Hastings over Davis (though I still haven't decided the exact school where I'll end up). There were actually many reasons for this, but in the interests of not wasting your time, here's just 3 of them:

-Hastings' bar passage rate is 10% higher than Davis's at around 85%, on par with Boalt. Bar passage rate is supposed to indicate a school's academic quality. So by that measure, Hastings is the better school.

-I'm from the SF Bay Area originally, and am set on living and working here after graduation cause it's where my family is. Hastings therefore places me in a better position to find a job around here, because it has tons of alumni in SF and the immediate area. On the other hand, I hear that Davis places better in the Sacramento area, where I have no interest in going.

-Davis is beautiful and a very pleasant place to be; I can definitely see myself living there. But it's got a bit of a small-town feel to it. I spent all 4 years of undergrad going to school in a tiny New England town, and am set on getting an urban experience for law school. (Though Hastings' location in a bad part of downtown makes it less than ideal, but you can't have everything.) I think I would go nuts in Davis after about a month, because it seems like the kind of place where everyone knows everyone else. Not that that's a bad thing, but it's just not for me.

So those are my reasons. They're mostly personal, as you'll probably notice, probably won't apply to you. Hope this helped a least a little at any rate.

[Abra]

I have to disagree on Davis being a beautiful and pleasant place to live. It is an agricultural town and the school has some of the most boring architecture known to man.

If you are in this for aesthetics, SF is the way to go.

[dluther]

I've heard that Hastings is very competitive. In fact, out of the 3 dozen or so schools that I've researched, it seems to be the one that really carried the "warning" label about students out to get each other. I'm curious if you think this holds true?

[jenjen77]

mysti, I was just wondering if there is a deposit deadline for davis so that I can know if I can get off the waitlist soon?

[mysti]

I've spoken to a few Hastings students (not through the admissions office) about the competitiveness thing, as it was also a big concern of mine. The consensus was that there's not much to that rumor. They seem to feel that the atmosphere at the school is actually very friendly. Sure, the grading curve and the fact that they have to compete with Stanford and Boalt students for jobs don't really help. There are also people who go to Hastings having wanted to go to Stanford or Boalt, so they work their butts off to get the highest grades to try to transfer out. Since there are a lot of smart people at Hastings who are used to doing well and for whom Hastings was a backup, it makes sense that there would be a little competition. But it seems that people generally cooperate and help each other out. You also never know other people's grades. Most everyone works really hard and tries to do the best that they can, but they are still nice about it.

JenJen77, as far as I know, there's no deposit deadline for Davis. On the admitted students' website, you tell them either that you're going for sure, that you're not going for sure, or that you're planning on going for right now but that your plans may change in the future. If you decide to go, it seems that you don't even have to pay anything until August 1, when you need to start paying fees. Hope that helps.

[rusty]

Abracadeborah, I don't know if you've actually been to where Hastings is located, but there's no doubt Davis has a more beautiful campus and is a much nicer place to live. If you are living elsewhere in SF and commuting, then maybe that isn't as big of a deal though.

I was accepted to both Hastings and Davis, and would have chose Davis of those two. Hastings location and poor atmosphere to me outweigh its Bay Area location and great reputation. If you are willing to work in the Sacramento area, Davis has a lot less competition from other schools than Hastings does in SF, and they are comparably ranked. I did my undergrad at Davis and can't say enough about how nice the people and community are there.

[rusty]

1st deposit deadline for Davis is 4/2 I believe, FYI.

[dwcswpr]

In terms of job prospects does anyone know how Davis or Hastings places in LA?

[MAH4546]

Davis is on an honor system. There is no desposit.

[rusty]

You're right, there's no deposit, but there is a deadline of 4/2 to submit a response on the website (or at least that's the dealine I was given)

[davisharvardofwinestudy]

1992 Hastings 19th Davis 34th



2006 Hastings 43th Davis 34th



2007 Hastings 36th Davis 34th



2008 Hastigns 29th Davis 34th



2009 Hastings 22th Davis 34th



2010 Hastings 19th Davis 34th

[Stl987]

Hastings' bar passage rate is 10% higher than Davis's at around 85%, on par with Boalt. Bar passage rate is supposed to indicate a school's academic quality. So by that measure, Hastings is the better school.

I know several people from Davis who just graduated. They claim that the low bar passage rate over the last couple years has more to do with the lazyness of a lot of the students and the poor job the admissions has done recently in picking dedicated students vs slackers. In other words, they don't attribute the low bar passage rate to the school and the professors but to the students of the past few years. So if their opinion is to be believed, I would not let the bar passage rate be the deciding factor between davis and hastings.

[davisharvardofwinestudy]

edit

[herzchen]

(i appreciated Stl987's input.)

2007 Hastings 36th Davis 34th

2008 Hastigns 29th Davis 34th

umm, no; try
2007: Davis 34th, Hastings 43rd

2008: Davis 34th, Hastings 39th!

both schools will be undergoing some construction in the very near future and i'll be interested to see where their respective rankings go in the next few years.

[davisharvardofwinestudy]

Fm US News

1Yale University (CT)
100
2Harvard University (MA)
90
2Stanford University (CA)
90
4New York University

5Columbia University (NY)

6University of Chicago

6University of Pennsylvania

8University of California–Berkeley

8University of Michigan–Ann Arbor

10Duke University (NC)

10University of Virginia

12Northwestern University (IL)

13Cornell University (NY)

14Georgetown University (DC)

15University of California–Los Angeles

16University of Southern California (Gould)

16Vanderbilt University (TN)

18University of Texas–Austin

19Washington University in St. Louis

20Boston University

20University of Minnesota–Twin Cities

22Emory University (GA)

22George Washington University (DC)

24University of Iowa

25Fordham University (NY)

25University of Illinois–Urbana-Champaign

25Washington and Lee University (VA)

28Boston College

28University of Notre Dame (IN)

28University of Washington

31College of William and Mary (Marshall-Wythe) (VA)

31Ohio State University (Moritz)

31University of Wisconsin–Madison

34George Mason University (VA)

34University of California–Davis

36University of California (Hastings)

36University of Alabama

36Indiana University–Bloomington

36University of Colorado–Boulder

36University of Georgia

36University of Maryland

36University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill

36Wake Forest University (NC)

Next Year

Hastings 29

Davis 34

[tagoreee]

I was accepted to both, and am leaning towards davis as well. My reasons for doing this were as follows.

(1) it is part or a larger campus, which i think is important for a collegial environment.

(2) the class sizes are significantly smaller (some of the smallest in the nation) which i think will really improve the learning experience when going over detailed complex material.

(3) it is slightly higher ranked, however hastings is moving up with the renovations of the new library (hastings use to be in the 20's in the early 90's and has been working its way up since.)

(4) The atmosphere is supposed to be much nicer. It has consistently been described as one of the best law schools in terms of atmosphere and environment. Furthermore, when I met with the Dean at the admitted students reception he mentioned that it was very difficult to flunk out of Davis, simply because the faculty will try to accommodate and support your needs if you are having issues meeting the rigorous workload. Although I don't see myself flunking, it think the fact that 20% is not dropping out says something about the supportive nature of the school.

That said, Hastings might have a slightly better alumni network because of its large class sizes. However, I don't see this as playing a significant role or outweighing what I see is as an opportunity to be more successful academically at Davis. At either school your gonna have to be top 10-20% to work with a big firm, and I see myself as more likely reaching that at Davis as a result of the environment.

[cal86lmu91]

I know many people who went to each, and everyone I know who went to Hastings hated it, and everyone I know who went to Davis liked it. I know; it sounds weird, since Hastings is in one of the nicest cities in the country, but I've been out for a while and these opinions have been incredibly consistent for years. The pleasantness of a law school seems to have little or nothing to do with its perceived quality, and with Davis being as close as it is to the Bay Area (and with most Davis students and alumni being from the BA originally), your job prospects in the BA with a Davis degree are just as good as with a Hastings degree. Good luck either way.

[jenjen77]

A correction to an earlier post, I grew up in and it's Davis actually a two hour drive to sf with traffic these days. Davis is a relatively small boring town compared to sf which is more exiciting and has access to a major legal community.

[snap]

I grew up in Davis and live in SF. Truthfully, it only takes me an hour and 5 minutes from davis to downtown - I just don't make that drive at rush hour if I can help it.

Davis: Nice place, a bit boring, but that's not necessarily a bad thing if one needs to study a lot. Good weather, bike riding, greenbelts, nice bookstores and restaurants, and some of the worst bars in the nation.

SF is obviously a great city, but the Tenderloin is certainly not my favorite part...Were I to go to Hastings, I would live in a different neighborhood.

Bottom line: fine schools, but I hope I can get into Boalt or Stanford.

[herzchen]

hey snap, have you been to sophia's (the bar part) in downtown davis?

someone who got his JD at davis in the 80's was telling me that there used to be way better/more bars there back then... i don't know how true that is, but apparently the community complained and preferred that students get shitfaced at private parties in the dorms!

hmm, i wonder if my parents would recall...

i grew up in davis, too--DHS class of '99! woohoo. ;0)

[snap]

sofias does have a nice fish tank and really good thai iced tea...it probably is the most fun bar in Davis, but that's not saying a whole lot

[ascheras]

does anyone know which of the two schools has a better international law/ human rights law program?