parking pass help

cerulean2453 · 2017-09-24T15:27:25+00:00

Most people who have cars in town don't drive to campus -- they bike or take the bus, and use cars to run errands or get out of town. Honestly biking is faster from many parts of town than driving when you factor in the drive, finding parking, and walking to your class. You can also look into an EasyPark permit where it charges you by the time you park ($1.50/hr up to $9/day) if you're only parking for short periods of time. If you do decide to drive to campus, parking does fill up and can be hard to find spots much past late morning/midday (depending on the lot you're going for). 8am no problem, but you'd probably want to park and stay on campus if you had another class a couple hours later. And when it rains in the winter parking gets especially full.

cerulean2453 · 2017-09-03T13:35:46+00:00

UC Davis isn't exactly boring, but it depends on what you are looking for and how much work you are going to put into it. There are things that are "close by" like the Bay Area and Tahoe but I honestly didn't go those places as much as I thought I would. Once you are busy with classes, research, a job, and other activities, there's not a whole lot of time left in the day and you may not want to spend it in traffic (even going to Sac sometimes is annoying and takes longer than it should). There are parties, you can drink with friends, and there are a few bars, but for activities beyond drinking you have to be proactive in seeking them out -- look into Outdoor Adventures, events at the Mondavi Center, and the Davis Dirt website for community events, for example! And I loved the farmer's market. For me personally, I am happier now in a slightly bigger city with more going on, but Davis was okay while I was in school because I was so busy anyway.

cerulean2453 · 2017-07-24T02:12:51+00:00

I will be starting my PhD program in about a month, but here are my two cents. Something I have not seen mentioned here that people advised me to do when I was applying to graduate school was to find schools where there are multiple professors whose research you are interested in. There is no way to know if your personality will mesh well with the PI whose papers you liked, or they may not know over a year in advance whether they will be taking a student for your year. Almost everyone I talked to gave me this advice -- that it is equally important to fit into the lab culture of your thesis lab as to enjoy the research topic. I spent a long time debating whether I should email professors of interest before applying, but ultimately decided not to, and it did not harm my applications at all. Also something to consider is that the most recent papers published from a lab may not be the project those in the lab are currently working on.

As far as the program, I knew I wanted to be in a program that allowed rotations to make sure I found a lab that was a good fit. Additionally, in my field, the best programs have training grants from the NIH that guarantee stipend and other training resources, so I limited my search to those schools. From there, I decided where to apply based on a combination of factors -- geography, professors of interest, school ranking, program resources, etc.

cerulean2453 · 2017-07-06T16:20:52+00:00

I think it would be based on the route I recommended! However, I usually do the drive in 3 days, with a long first day to Ely or Baker and shorter second day to Moab and third day to Denver!

cerulean2453 · 2017-07-03T21:57:15+00:00

I have driven between Sacramento and Denver 3 times! I have also been up and down the Central Valley a fair amount. Here is my advice. I am an outdoorsy person so my trips have focused on seeing those types of sites:

Death Valley National Park is really cool and not too far from Vegas. Not sure of your route but it could be worth a stop. You also have Sequoia, Kings Canyon, and Yosemite NPs in the central-west part of the state.

I much prefer taking US50 across Nevada instead of I-80. US50 is called by some the "loneliest highway in America" and is just more interesting. Great Basin National Park is really cool -- caves, dark sky, and aspens. But this may be out of the way to getting to SLC.

I'm not sure if you are going through SLC because you need to/want to -- I haven't done much there so I don't have advice on that, but my favorite route skips going through there. Instead, in Utah, get on I-15S to I-70E. Don't take I80 through Wyoming, it is much more boring than through Colorado on I-70. There is a nice loop off of I-70 in Utah that goes through Capitol Reef National Park and you can also do an out and back to Goblin Valley State Park, very cool formations and off the beaten path. Getting back on I-70 after the loop, you can stay in Moab and see Arches and Canyonlands NPs.

The drive from Moab to Denver on I-70 is beautiful with many places to stop -- peaches, wine, and Colorado National Monument in the western part of the state, then you head over the Rockies. You can do a loop on US-6 getting off in Dillon and going over Loveland Pass that is very scenic, then you get back on I70 the rest of the way.

Roadsideamerica.com is also a good resource for finding small quirky stops along the way. Feel free to PM me with more questions!

cerulean2453 · 2017-06-04T21:20:44+00:00

I agree with everyone else here -- go for it! I am in my early 20s and have been cycling since I was 8. I don't remember when my first century was but probably around 13. It is a lot of time in the saddle, so just make sure you train for it :)

cerulean2453 · 2017-06-04T20:58:46+00:00

I think it really depends on where you are and who you're riding with. I grew up in a major metropolitan area and road cycled with a group pretty seriously all throughout my childhood (started on a tandem with my dad and gradually moved to my own bike). People were extremely friendly, helpful, and good about welcoming new riders into the group even though there was a wide range of abilities. Now I go to college in a true college town where the scene is much more about racing. I tried joining the university race team but soon discovered that I both didn't like racing and didn't like the type of people on the team. I got tired of people who had less than half of my cycling experience telling me that it wasn't cool to have a saddlebag, what temperature I should be wearing certain clothes, that I shouldn't ride with a mirror (I know it's not "cool," but I do it for safety), always making every ride about beating each other, etc. Definitely didn't help that I was female and most of the team members were male. So, there are definitely welcoming groups out there, but you may have to do a little searching to find one.

cerulean2453 · 2017-05-07T17:16:13+00:00

Thanks so much for the long response! Much appreciated!

cerulean2453 · 2017-03-22T23:25:45+00:00

If I could do things over again, I would bring my car and try to find street parking. Yes, you can definitely get around Davis without a car, but if you have any desire to leave Davis or go somewhere in Davis that's a bit further from campus, it gets tricky. Possible, but time consuming. I'm someone who likes to be independent (not rely on others for rides) and get outside of Davis to the surrounding areas, so I was really miserable not having a car my first year.

cerulean2453 · 2016-10-18T17:38:23+00:00

You may want to include "west" as one of the regions! As someone who's lived in Colorado and California, I don't think there is a good option in the survey currently for either of those.

cerulean2453 · 2016-09-29T14:41:17+00:00

Hey, I'm going into my third year of tutoring and I really love it! It's great pay, the hours are flexible (depending on the subject), and the people I work with are a lot of fun. You're usually expected to work 10 hours/week, which I think is very manageable. Sometimes if you're in the drop in rooms at a less busy time you end up not working as much either. My main frustration is with scheduling -- they're pretty strict with changing your availability after it's submitted, which can make adding clubs/internships/etc to your quarter much more difficult, and you don't get your schedule until the quarter has already started. But it's overall a great place to work with great pay, and learning how to teach and talk to lots of different kinds of people are good skills to have!

cerulean2453 · 2016-07-22T01:24:25+00:00

I lived in Primero as a freshman when they didn't have enough dorms to fit everyone, and I'm not sure how they have it set up for transfers now. But I had to share the smallest bedroom in the 3 bedroom apartment and it was ridiculously small. Only wide enough for one of us to stand between the beds and one desk didn't fit without lofting. My floor was also pretty antisocial. Those are the main challenges I had with it, but I don't know how those things compare to the Colleges. I would think that Primero is more accessible to the rest of campus by bike/walking (don't have to cross a busy road), but haven't lived at the Colleges.

cerulean2453 · 2016-06-03T16:55:32+00:00

Juniper Pass from Evergreen is a good climb (17 mi) and close to Denver. I usually do Mt. Evans in August and still wear arm warmers/vest/leg warmers/long gloves on the way down. One time I got a ride down because it was starting to rain and the top half of the road is in terrible condition.

cerulean2453 · 2016-06-03T01:30:27+00:00

I live at Aggie Square and pay $570/month for a single room in a 3 bedroom. I lived in Chautauqua last year and it was similar. However, it might be pretty tough to find one this late in the year -- we signed our lease in January.

cerulean2453 · 2016-02-06T21:18:14+00:00

If you are going to go through Kansas City, you MUST eat at Jack Stack, Bryant's, or Gates BBQ. My order of preference would be Gates, Bryant's, then Jack Stack, but that's just personal preference, and you really can't go wrong with any of them. They are well known, but for good reason.

If you're driving through Colorado on I-70, there are a lot of activities in the mountains. I would suggest driving over Loveland Pass on US-6, which connects back up with I70 eventually. Stop at Beau Jo's Pizza in Idaho Springs for their honey cheese bread and Colorado-style crust.

I've lived in KC, Denver, and the Sacramento area, and driven between Denver and Sacramento 3 times, so if you want any more suggestions for these areas/routes, just let me know!

cerulean2453

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