UC Davis - Little Pink Houses for You and Me

Today was a little more relaxed. I did not have to be to UC Davis until 11am, so we did a tour of Davis, CA. Given that Davis has a population of about 50,000 and most of that is university students, the tour was quick. The best description of Davis is "Quiet and wholesome". I expected to see John Cougar Mellancamp pop out and start singing "Pink Houses". It seems that innocent and uncorrupted.

The UC Davis business school has a lot of things going for it that the rest of the world does not know about. Most MBA ratings rate the Davis MBA as a top 50 program (given there are 50 states I think this is a good thing). I was informed that they were they received the 2nd most research funding after MIT). The current trend is for technology companies to leave silicon valley for the cheaper land and better quality of employee life out towards Sacramento (as an added bonus is that they are off the fault line). They are just starting to combine the MBA program with the great research of the university. Davis just had a VC firm with $100 million in capital set up in the town.

Good things are happening for the UC Davis MBA, but the world doesn't know enough about it. While their career department appears to be doing a stellar job luring major companies to the campus to recruit the MBAs, I feel the admission office is not selling the program strong enough. I must give the admissions team credit for delivering great customer service. Every interaction I have had with them was professional and very positive. I think they should broadcast that people admitted to UC Davis are lucky and will be greatly challenged. During my interview, while the questions were done effectively, I got the impression that I was a top notch prospect. Sure I was flattered, but this also implies that I am as good as it gets (scary thought) and the student body only goes down from here. I think with all that UC Davis has going for it, it should sell the program early in the admissions process to generate interest from more high caliber prospects.

I am not saying I am not interested in Davis. I feel that there is a lot of potential of which I could take advantage. The draw back is the feeling that my fellow classmates (and alumni) are not of high caliber. I should note here that my student escort was an excellent individual with whom I would be grateful to go to school. Unfortunately, I got the impression (possibly self imagined) that he may be as good as it gets.

Bottom line I will need to think more on UC Davis, given the other opportunities. Now, off to the OC. We left Davis at 2pm and made it to Irvine by 8:30. Unfortunately, we hit L.A. at night, so we could not see any sights. Irvine has a pretty full day planned for me, so we will see how it goes. I already have some misgivings about the traffic and how I may not have the temperament for it. Till tomorrow.