As long as you're paying thousands of dollars every couple of weeks, you might as well milk UC Davis for all it's worth:

  • Go to lecture every day. If you paid $4625.82 for 15 units (about 15 lecture/discussion/lab hours per week for 10 weeks), each lecture is $30.84.
    • If you don't like your teachers, go to some other class. As long as you're deriving education from someone. Even if you like your real classes, attending classes you're not signed up for can give you the feeling of being an academic rebel, hijacking education for free! Go geeky rebels! In large lecture halls they won't even notice you. In smaller classrooms, most usually don't care. It's good form to ask, though. There's supposedly an auditing process you can go through to get approval to audit a course, but nobody seems to know anything about it when asked. Truly good professors are happy to hear that you want to learn what they are teaching. Those are the ones you'll want to sit in on if you choose to audit.
  • Use your student dental insurance (SHIP) to go see a dentist and avoid a toothache (unless you had SHIP waived). Exams and X-rays are 100% covered.
  • Go to the Bike Barn and use their free tools and repair help to fix your bike. They have a powerful air pump there, so go fill up your bike tires every 3 weeks or so and you'll have a smooth ride for the entire school year.
  • Ride Unitrans as an alternative to riding your bike or driving to campus.
  • Eat at the Coffee House not the Silo. Grab the free cookie samples in the bakery area of the CoHo.
    • This statement is only partially correct. While the California Aggie is a self sustaining (mostly from advertising income) break even unit of ASUCD and does not require a yearly operating subsidy, if the California Aggie comes in over budget at the end of the fiscal year (which it did in 2006), than any surplus from other ASUCD units or ASUCD's reserve account cover the difference. And mostly student fees fund ASUCD's annual budget and contribute to the reserve accounts. Plus, the California Aggie does not pay rent for it's space in lower freeborn, which is operated by the university that is funded by both student fees and the state budget. —EricFriedman
  • Pay attention to student government officials who have salaries. Namely, the 'ASUCD'. If you stop by a Senate meeting they usually have free Red Bull in the corner.
  • Join a club that's registered with the Center for Student Involvement, or start your own! And then apply for a grant from Club Finance Council or GSA to reap the rewards of the FACE Initiative.
  • Go to the ARC. The indoor track, rock climbing wall (NOT free $25/year), basketball courts and everything else there were (in part) funded by student fees. Besides the money issue, it's good for your body if you exercise!!
  • The ARC offers free exercise classes. Use them.
  • Go to UCD sporting events and get free Aggie Pack stuff (e.g. those aggie pack shirts that everyone wears to the ARC). Normal people have to pay to get into the games. The better the sports program is at Davis, the better we look to the rest of the world and the more weight your degree will carry. Show your UCD pride as well.
  • See a shrink if you need one. You get 10 sessions per psychological issue at CAPS.
  • Go see Birdstrike Theatre UCD's improv team every other friday at Kleiber Hall its usually around a dollar and the shows are great!
  • Go to Entertainment Council shows. You know, the free ones in the CoHo?
  • See some free movies (sneak previews of big budget releases) sponsored by Campus Cinema and Entertainment Council. Even the non-free ones are cheap because they are subsidized.
  • Need a quick bit of legal advice? You get 15 minutes of free legal advice a year from ASUCD's attorney, so head up to the Student Services office and litigate!
    • The legal advice is over the phone, so if you want them to go over paperwork or something, you might be out of luck. For more info about this service, call 752-1990. —AllisonEriksen
  • Use your 30 "free" prints per quarter from Campus Computer Labs. You can use these prints to print online books, lecture notes, or flyers (as Students for an Orwellian Society can attest to). Note that neither the computer labs nor the printing in the labs is paid for by student fees. Money for these services is received from such places such as the California Lottery (see Printing Policies FAQ for more information). However, as a student you are able to access these services, so free printing is linked to student fees. Beginning Fall 2009, once you print more than 30 sheets (down from 90), you will be charged for all sheets that you've printed that quarter including the initial 30 "grace" sheets. Black and white printing is $0.11 per sheet (regardless of sides) and $1 for color single-sided ($2 for color double-sided).
  • Sign up for an ECS class to get 200 more prints. And learn something about programming, of course.
  • Make your own Individual Major.
  • Sign up for tutoring or a workshop at Dutton Hall. They offer workshops and tutoring in a variety of subjects from sciences (chemistry, physics) to foreign languages to math—-all for free.
  • Take advantage of the clubs that receive Club Finance Council funding. CFC is funded by student's ASUCD fees.
  • Go to Fraternity parties. They are essentially the only aspect to Davis night life for students under 21, especially Freshmen.
  • Try to use the Chancellor's toilet on the fifth floor of Mrak Hall.
    • Good Luck! Last time I went to that floor of Mrak I got kicked out so fast that I didn't know what hit me. —BrentLaabs
  • Check out the free noon concerts on Thursdays and occasionally Tuesdays at the Mondavi Center (usually) or Music 115. They've had a variety of well-known classical performers, such as the Arianna String Quartet and Amy Dissanayake, and each show only lasts about 45 minutes to an hour. Make sure to get there a little early though.
  • Listen to KDVS 90.3 for music you won't hear anywhere else. I think we get 5 cents per student per year.
  • Free entry to the Nelson Gallery all year round - with new exhibitions four times per year. If you go around 7pm the first day of each term there's an opening party w/food and drinks.
  • Buy textbooks cheaper than the bookstore at the ASUCD Book Exchange. If a textbook you need is available at the book exchange, buy it and return the book you bought from the bookstore.
  • Take advantage of practical educational opportunities at the Internship and Career Center such as Resume and Interview assistance and, the more obvious, internships.
  • Hang out in free air conditioning during the hot summer in Davis.
  • Get free condoms at the health center—ten free per visit and a few packets of lube. If you ask they also have non-latex ones.

(Note that the above do not apply equally to graduate and undergraduate students: e.g. grad students cannot ride Unitrans for free. However, graduate students can elect to pay ASUCD fees ($35/quarter) and gain the privilege to ride the bus, among other privileges.)

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