What the Students Have to Say:

Why Choose UC Davis?

The faculty, the students, the program....people are just happy here and I think that says it all.

-Amy Lincoln, Graduate Student in the Baynes Lab

I selected UC Davis over UC Berkeley and UC Santa Barbara (Psychology) for several reasons. First, I felt that the faculty and students formed a more coherent and collaborative group at Davis than at the other schools I visited. The first year laboratory rotations at Davis were important to me as I hadn't decided exactly what type of research I wanted to do, and like many, I happily found a permanent spot in a different laboratory than I envisioned coming in. Davis promised both good financial support and had the opportunity for inexpensive living, a combination I found in neither of the other schools I visited. In the end, my visit to Davis and the tone that was set by the faculty and students during the recruitment weekend was what ultimately convinced me that Davis was the grad school for me.

-Jeffrey Johnson, Graduate Student in the Olshausen Lab I chose the UC Davis Neuroscience Program because I felt it offered opportunities and an atmosphere that other programs simply don't have. The first thing I noticed about UCD is the friendly sense of community among its members. Faculty, staff, postdocs, and grad students are very willing to offer help - either suggestions or resources - and there are many collaborations between labs. Throughout the year there are numerous opportunities for interaction: seminars, journal clubs, gatherings at a local cantina, and the annual overnight retreat. All of these activities allow people in our neuroscience department to form bonds and friendships that make working here a real pleasure. -Jennifer Kelly, Graduate Student in the Amaral Lab I had no idea where I was going for grad school until I came to visit UC Davis. I had visited several schools prior to my interviewing here and all of the programs were competitive. But what stuck out in my mind was how happy the students were. They all seemed to be good friends, enjoyed hanging out together, and were excited about the program. The M.I.N.D. Institute was just getting started at the time I applied for graduate school. Finding out that UC DAVIS had research starting up in exactly what I was interested in studying was icing on the cake! -Cyndi Mills-Schumann, Graduate Student in the Amaral Lab The reason I came to Davis was the opportunity to work on cutting edge experiments directly with faculty. The Neuro program is unique in that faculty are in the labs on a regular basis; but still take an active interest in promoting their students. -Andy Huberman, Graduate Student in the McAllister Lab I came to UC Davis to do my dissertation with a particular mentor, Dr. David Amaral. In my case, I would have come to work in this lab had it been in Uzebekistan or on Mars. I worked in Dr. Amaral's lab at the California Regional Primate Research Center, studying the role of the amygdala in primate social behavior, the year after I graduated, and then came back after a year sojourn at Stanford to do my Ph.D. work here. The opportunities presented to me here are unique in the world. In fact, I'm writing this 'student perspective' from Madras, India, where I've spent the summer studying patients who have undergone bilateral amygdalectomy! That said, it is clear to me now that UC Davis presents many opportunities for exploration for students who are less decided about where they want to do their dissertation. This is a large, well-structured biomedical research institution; my classmates have done rotations in labs covering a broad range of areas of inquiry, requiring very different techniques, as part of the process of choosing their mentors. -Noah Merin, MD/PhD Student in the Amaral Lab After becoming quite interested in neuroscience at the National Institutes of Health in Dr. Mishkin's laboratory I was looking for a laboratory that was studying how the auditory system performed higher cognitive processes such as percept and memory formation. I selected UC Davis because Dr. Sutter had one of the few laboratories studying behaving macaques with physiological methods. Also I was quite interested in keeping the animal research closely related to work with humans and Dr. Sutter was beginning to study dyslexic individuals using psychophysical tasks which he intended to explore physiologically with macaques at a later date. After meeting Dr. Sutter I judged that it would be quite enjoyable to conduct experiments in his laboratory as he had many novel ideas and seemed to approach difficult problems intelligently and with patience. Also he was in process of upgrading his laboratory physiological technique to be on the cutting edge with multiple electrode capabilities. A major factor in selection of the institution was the feeling that collaborations were encouraged. -Chris Petkov, Graduate Student in the Sutter Lab I chose Davis for several reasons. I knew that I was interested in systems neuroscience, and the relationship between perception and neural activity. I knew that UCD's rotation requirement would allow me to explore several approaches to investigating this relationship. Also, I was extremely impressed with the interactive nature of the systems neuroscience group. When I visited, I was surprised at how much the various faculty discussed their work with each other, especially in comparison with some of the other schools I visited. I've found this to be even more true throughout my graduate career here. -Hilary Heuer, Graduate Student in the Britten Lab Back to What the Students Have to Say!