UC Davis vs UC Hastings Forum

[Crazycall2]

So Davis is ranked significantly higher, but Hastings is significantly more selective. What gives?

[General Tso]

So Davis is ranked significantly higher, but Hastings is significantly more selective. What gives?

I wouldn't read too much into the higher ranking. It comes from a few factors:

1. Davis has a smaller class size --> lower faculty:student ratio
2. Davis has spent a lot of money on a new law building over recent years --> Expenditures/student has likely been through the roof
3. Davis straight up lied on its employed at graduation figures. If you go back to the 2008 rankings and earlier, Davis and Hastings each had roughly the same percentage of graduates employed at graduation. Davis apparently undertook a 2 year plan to falsify its employment stats, jumping from 78% in 2008 to 86% in 2009 and finally to 98% in 2010.

Yes you read that correctly....Davis supposedly has a higher employment rate than Boalt.

[General Tso]

None of those things I listed are significant factors in terms of your employment, at least not in the short term. I think the main factor to decide on is where you want to practice. Davis places about twice as many of its grads in Sacramento than Hastings, and Hastings places significantly more of its grads in the bay area. Both schools send about 15-25% of their grads to LA each year.

Davis' presence in the bay area is not as large as many TLS posters would have you believe (at least not in the legal community).

Hastings is harder to get into because it is located in a more desirable place to live, and because one is more likely to obtain a job in the bay area by attending Hastings.

[im_blue]

Law students generally prefer to live in SF over Davis.

[zeth006]

Law students generally prefer to live in SF over Davis.

Source?

[im_blue]

Law students generally prefer to live in SF over Davis.

Source?

Why is that hard to believe? GULC, GW, Fordham, Cardozo, Brooklyn, etc. are all more selective than their peer schools because of their location.

[zeth006]

Law students generally prefer to live in SF over Davis.

Source?

Why is that hard to believe? GULC, GW, Fordham, Cardozo, Brooklyn, etc. are all more selective than their peer schools because of their location.

Just asking TBH. I'm not so sure people are necessarily attracted only to the school environment (weather, whether there's a collegial atmosphere, etc) or whether it's the perceived job prospects.

3 of the 4 schools you mentioned are in New York, the center of much of the world's business. The fourth...need I say more? Whether or not a school is more selective only because of their location seems debatable to me.

So that to me really says little about SF vs. Davis/Sacramento. I personally think Hastings is traditionally slightly more selective because it's more well known in the field and it's been around longer. Job prospects are considered to be identical. Once again, I'm not sure that SF has the pulling power that NY and DC have.

[AlX Boi]

Having graduated from UCD for undergrad, I can safely say people don't think much of the school inspite of its ranking. The only field it's applauded for is agriculture and viticulture, and to the masses, that's an understandable feat given its location.

[zeth006]

Having graduated from UCD for undergrad, I can safely say people don't think much of the school inspite of its ranking. The only field it's applauded for is agriculture and viticulture, and to the masses, that's an understandable feat given its location.

This isn't an undergrad forum.

[jay115]

Law students generally prefer to live in SF over Davis.

Source?

Lol source? Unless one enjoys tipping cows for the only source of fun, San Francisco > Davis for everything, except maybe housing prices.

[Borhas]

Hastings is undefeated in all D1A athletics

[tommytahoe]

Law students generally prefer to live in SF over Davis.

Source?

Lol source? Unless one enjoys tipping cows for the only source of fun, San Francisco > Davis for everything, except maybe housing prices.

This is like a LR assumption question. Find the missing ones folks!

(1) Assumes that tipping cows (a) actually happens in Davis more than rarely, (b) is fun, and (c) is the only assumed-to-be-fun thing happening in town. All of these are questionable points.
(2) Assumes that the main reason one chooses one law school over another is to satisfy a "fun" quotient. Setting aside how troublesome the word "fun" is —I can have fun and other, less banal-sounding, forms of enjoyment in a great many different ways— when I chose UC Davis it was not based on how much "fun" I would experience.

Don't get me wrong: the lure of SF was real, and not an unknown variable (I lived in the Bay Area for 6 years). But it's just one factor. And it's only relevant to the extent that Davis doesn't provide enough diversions to give a break from studying. I've lived here two years, and while it's not the Mission or Berkeley, it gives me just enough to balance out work and play. It also keeps me relaxed in a way that downtown SF never really gave me.
My take was that an extra ~$20K COL, plus the fact that a huge chunk of my time would not be spent in SF proper but rather in almost-Tenderloin SF, made that "fun" advantage seem less compelling enough to lure me away. That also... er... tipped the scales back to Davis, where the advantages are many, and they are more to do with faculty, class sizes, student attitudes, school's curriculum, and the school's recent rise in recognition. They are my subjective opinions, and they're important to me in ways others may see as trivial, but I'm glad that as a whole they were more compelling factors than the lone "fun" quotient, standing alone off to the side looking for a party to crash or a cow to tip.

[Borhas]

people dont actually tip cows anywhere, just fyi

[tommytahoe]

Having graduated from UCD for undergrad, I can safely say people don't think much of the school inspite of its ranking. The only field it's applauded for is agriculture and viticulture, and to the masses, that's an understandable feat given its location.

While I'm trolling...

UCD also is well known generally as one of the best public research universities in America. Not top-5, but def. very well known for that reputation. They have strong animal sciences, biological sciences, and a top-flight veterinary grad school.Their PoliSci program is also top twenty, I am told (albeit mostly due to the stats-heavy, regressive analysis polisci mumbo jumbo than for its other kinds).

Here endeth the two cents.

[yo!]

lol...am I posting in another one of these again??? I can't believe the smugness in some of the Hastings people comparing Davis to SF. Is it that hard to believe that some people don't enjoy living in big cities? I mean, I'll be getting to school via a 5 minute ride on a bicycle trail while Hastings students are being spat upon by bums in the tenderloin after they exit the BART.Yes, I was exaggerating, so please don't start throwing bum spitting stats at me....I know it doesn't happen to everyone.

[Great Satchmo]

lol...am I posting in another one of these again??? I can't believe the smugness in some of the Hastings people comparing Davis to SF. Is it that hard to believe that some people don't enjoy living in big cities? I mean, I'll be getting to school via a 5 minute ride on a bicycle trail while Hastings students are being spat upon by bums in the tenderloin after they exit the BART.Yes, I was exaggerating, so please don't start throwing bum spitting stats at me....I know it doesn't happen to everyone.

San Francisco is the center of the world, haven't you heard?

[jay115]

Law students generally prefer to live in SF over Davis.

Source?

Lol source? Unless one enjoys tipping cows for the only source of fun, San Francisco > Davis for everything, except maybe housing prices.

This is like a LR assumption question. Find the missing ones folks!

(1) Assumes that tipping cows (a) actually happens in Davis more than rarely, (b) is fun, and (c) is the only assumed-to-be-fun thing happening in town. All of these are questionable points.
(2) Assumes that the main reason one chooses one law school over another is to satisfy a "fun" quotient. Setting aside how troublesome the word "fun" is —I can have fun and other, less banal-sounding, forms of enjoyment in a great many different ways— when I chose UC Davis it was not based on how much "fun" I would experience.

Don't get me wrong: the lure of SF was real, and not an unknown variable (I lived in the Bay Area for 6 years). But it's just one factor. And it's only relevant to the extent that Davis doesn't provide enough diversions to give a break from studying. I've lived here two years, and while it's not the Mission or Berkeley, it gives me just enough to balance out work and play. It also keeps me relaxed in a way that downtown SF never really gave me.
My take was that an extra ~$20K COL, plus the fact that a huge chunk of my time would not be spent in SF proper but rather in almost-Tenderloin SF, made that "fun" advantage seem less compelling enough to lure me away. That also... er... tipped the scales back to Davis, where the advantages are many, and they are more to do with faculty, class sizes, student attitudes, school's curriculum, and the school's recent rise in recognition. They are my subjective opinions, and they're important to me in ways others may see as trivial, but I'm glad that as a whole they were more compelling factors than the lone "fun" quotient, standing alone off to the side looking for a party to crash or a cow to tip.

Lol, I don't think any of those missing assumptions takes the wind out of the substance of my argument's sails any any means. And, of course, there are other reasons to pick Hastings besides having things to do. It's common knowledge that, at most, T14 degrees are nationally portable. Thus for the rest of us peons, where you go to school is where you work. Davis funnels to Sacramento whereas Hastings funnels to San Francisco. I'm sure for the top quarter of each school, grads are portable anywhere in northern california, if not the entire state, but I always think one should assume median class rank at graduation when deciding on law schools.

I have no horse in this race, but I've been to Davis many times and I think the place is boring as all hell - while acknowledging that many people enjoy small town life and perhaps enjoy the weekly trip to old-town Sacramento...