Is UC Davis harder to get into than UCLA for admissions?

Yes. UCLA is more difficult to get into than UC Davis overall, and the gap is noticeable. UCLA draws a larger national and international applicant pool, has a stronger overall prestige profile, and is one of the most selective campuses in the UC system. UC Davis is still competitive, but in relative admissions difficulty it sits below UCLA.

For a student building a balanced college list, UCLA should be treated as a higher-reach option in most cases, even for very strong applicants. Davis is often more realistic for students with similar grades and coursework, though it is not close to a safety for many applicants, especially in impacted majors.

The difference also shows up in the kind of applicant each school tends to attract. UCLA gets a very high volume of applicants aiming for a highly selective, urban-adjacent UC with broad name recognition across many fields. UC Davis attracts plenty of strong students too, especially those interested in biology, agriculture, environmental science, veterinary-related paths, engineering, and a more traditional college-town setting, but its admissions bar is usually not as high as UCLA’s overall.

Major can narrow the gap somewhat. A very competitive major at UC Davis can still be quite hard to enter, and a less crowded path may be somewhat more accessible at either campus. But if the question is simply which school is harder to get into in overall admissions, UCLA is the tougher admit.