Welcome to the University of California, Davis. Set between the Coast Range to the west and the towering Sierra Nevada to the east in the heart of the Central Valley, UC Davis is close to California's thriving state capital and the San Francisco Bay Area but cherishes its small-town culture and security. Our students came from at least 57 California counties, 46 states and 118 foreign countries, creating a diverse cultural and intellectual community that enriches us all.

The campus's reputation has attracted a distinguished faculty of scholars and scientists in all fields. UC Davis faculty rank 16th in quality among comprehensive public universities nationwide, according to a multi-year study of U.S. doctoral programs reported in 1995 by the National Research Council. Creative teaching and academic innovation are encouraged by several programs, including the $30,000 Prize for Teaching and Scholarly Achievement, believed to be the largest award of its kind in the country. And UC Davis undergraduate students persist and graduate at among the highest rates of all UC campuses.

UC Davis is one of 10 campuses of the University of California, which was chartered as a land grant college in 1868 and now constitutes the pre-eminent system of public higher education in the country. Together, the 10 campuses have an enrollment of some 173,000 students, 90 percent of them California residents. Some 150 laboratories, extension centers, research and field stations strengthen teaching and research while providing public service to California and the nation. The collections of the more than 100 UC campus libraries are surpassed in size in the United States only by that of the Library of Congress.

In 1905, the California Legislature approved the establishment of a state agriculture school. Three years later, in 1908, the University Farm School opened at Davis, where students from the first UC campus in Berkeley learned the latest in agricultural methods and technology. Today, UC Davis offers a full range of undergraduate and graduate programs, along with professional schools of law, management, medicine and veterinary medicine. Our agricultural roots are still honored, however, in our nickname--the "Aggies."

UC Davis is the largest of the 10 University of California campuses, with 5,200 acres, second in total expenditures and third in enrollment. UC Davis stands 24th in research funding among universities in the United States, according to the most recent information from the National Science Foundation. U.S. News & World Report has repeatedly ranked UC Davis among the top public universities nationally, placing it 12th in 1999. And UC Davis is one of only 62 universities admitted to the prestigious Association of American Universities.

The Davis campus has undergraduate colleges of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Engineering, and Letters and Science. Undergraduate enrollment is more than 21,230 students. Graduate Studies administers graduate study and research in all schools and colleges. Professional studies are carried out in the schools of Law, Management, Medicine and Veterinary Medicine; more than 5,900 students are engaged in graduate or professional study.

Located off-campus are numerous laboratories, extension centers and facilities, including the UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento, the Lake Tahoe Center for Environmental Research, the Veterinary Medicine Teaching and Research Center in Tulare, Bodega Marine Laboratory at Bodega Bay, the College of Engineering's applied science department at Livermore and the UC Davis Washington Center in Washington, D.C.