UC Davis vs UC Santa Barbara

[bb123]

Hello! I have an offer from UC Davis and UC Santa Barbara economics departments and I am having a difficult time deciding between them.

My preference is to work in environmental, development, and/or IO, but am generally open to applied micro broadly. Right now I am leaning towards Davis for their broad strength in placements, but I worry about the performance of applied micro candidates coming out in recent years, especially those doing development and environmental. Santa Barbara is obviously very strong in environmental and their placements are solid for these graduates, but I worry that their other fields are not strong and I do not want to be pigeon-holed into environmental on the outset. 

Does anyone have any additional insights into either of these places that I may have missed from looking online or going to visit days? Any advice is also much appreciated.

Thank you!

[LYX]

It depends on your marginal rate of substitution between cows and beaches, especially since Davis has a lot more cows than Santa Barbara has beaches.

More seriously, I’m also applying this cycle and I’m holding an offer from one of these schools while having already declined/withdrawn from the other, so take this with a grain of salt. For candidates coming out of Davis Econ doing EEE/IO or dev, I wonder why they weren’t in Davis ARE in the first place, since that looks like the more obvious fit. That doesn’t necessarily mean anything negative, because interests evolve and some people may want the broader Econ program, but the comparison to ARE is hard to avoid and it may raise questions.

That said, pedigree is less important over the long run than the quality of your research