Your comprehensive guide to the best study spots on UC Davis campus

When it’s time to study for those upcoming midterms and finals, you want to be sure to pick the right place for the job.

Of course, with studying venues it all depends on you and what atmosphere allows you to retain information the best.

Dorms/Dorm Main Lounges

What better on-campus venue for studying than the dorms?

1. It’s basically your (rented) property freshman year

2. All of your stuff for classes is here

3. You get all the privacy you could ask for (minus a couple roommates)

Unfortunately not everybody studies well when holed up. This forces students to get creative about study spots – which isn’t usually a problem on the ever-so-big-and-beautiful UC Davis.

There are some upsides to sticking to the dorms though. You don’t have to move very far from the place you’ll be sleeping, for one. Additionally, there are plenty of dorm lounges to study in including the lounge for your floor, the main lounge for your building, and the lounges in friends’ dorms.

Dining Commons

The best part about studying at the dining commons is that nobody is paying attention to what you’re doing. The sheer social feel of the DC makes it easy to fly under the radar; it’s always easiest to work in a place where you can hide from the resounding consequences of hardcore responsibility, and sneak in progress when you are not expected to be doing work.

Unfortunately, only those with DC programs are able to take advantage of this freedom. Also, working through a food coma is hard. 

Shields Library

Then there’s one of the obvious choices: the Shields library. Around this time it’ll be packed, so most would probably not recommend. Working at the Shields Library is nice because of the wide space in which a person could plonk down and get straight to work. Along with the indispensable feel of the traditional library setting, the lighting is reliably bright, and you get the comforting sense of other people studying around you. I myself work best in a classroom environment; with fellow students chilling with their Reserves textbooks in the library’s big, wooden chairs, Shields doesn’t fail to deliver.

The Shields library is also divided up based on noise level, allowing students to pick between dead silence, some inside voices, and loud discussion for study groups. Some quieter areas can be found on the second, third, and fourth levels: if the area closest to the main staircase isn’t quiet, someone could find a fair amount of secluded tables back behind the bookshelves.

Coho

The Coho is a usual venue of choice for finals studying. The round tables and booths make it an easy spot for group work, and the day to day hubbub makes for homey background noise. Occasionally there will be music; only those least bothered by outside noise are recommended to study here.

The room has a natural lighting during the day, and is very well-lit at night. It is similar to the Silo in the casual setting aspect, but bears more modern and polished decor.

Silo

The Silo is likely to be full, but not as full as Shields. At the Silo, one could expect lots of noise with a cafe-esque atmosphere. Milder, yellowish lighting is paired with a light country theme in the decor to place a homey, casual sort of feel to studying.

Honestly, the place will be alive with discussion and talk. It’s very easy to drone it all out and get lost in your work here, however. There’s much solitude to be found in working among people who are minding their own business.

Empty Classrooms/Computer Rooms

Another option for studying is in an empty classroom or a study room in one of the halls. You can find an empty classroom in almost any open hall. 

I’ve considered working in an empty classroom, and have tried, but found that working in an empty classroom I don’t have lecture or discussion in is somewhat awkward. I get the sense that there should be a lot of people around rather than it being empty. Working in an empty classroom is most efficient if you subconsciously associate the rooms you’ve had lectures in with the course itself. This way, it might feel easier to recall lecture material since the sight of the room might easily bring up memories of when you learned the lesson.

Nice study rooms can be found at Bainer hall, the Chem Lab (upstairs), and Wellman.

Outdoorsy? Try the quad, or the lawn at Wellman

If you’re an outdoor studier, you’ll probably do best working at the quad. There’s a wide expanse of grass on which to work, and plenty of trees for shade. You can enjoy ordinary “outdoor” sounds as you work alone, or as you collaborate in study groups with others. Allergy-sufferers should be wary, for obvious reasons. It should be expected that you will share the quad with those who aren’t looking to study, however; there may be a bit of noise from those just hanging out.

An alternative to the quad is the smaller space in front of Wellman. Aside from being shadier, the lawn in front of Wellman may also be somewhat quieter, as it is typically full of students working before their next class. Students who don’t mind the heat could also try working on the upper level over the CoHo.

The Arc

The Arc atmosphere is the same as Shields when busy. There are designated areas for studying, but since it is buzzing with a fair amount of activity, the attitude is somewhat more laid back. To the right of the Arc entrance are individual “desk”/lounge chairs for workers who want more comfort.

Students are free to work in empty conference rooms, or in the Cyberlounge. These areas typically have a more serious, quiet feel.

24 hour study room

If dead silence is your way to work, the 24 hour study room is YOUR study spot. With no extraneous noise to bother you, the 24 hour study room assures concentration for hours on end provided you don’t get antsy. If hunger pains at any time begin to bug you, there’s a vending machine close by so your study session isn’t interrupted by anything too attention-hogging.

Similar to Shields, though, the 24 hour study room is likely to be very full of students hard at work.

Arboretum

The Arboretum is another outdoorsy place to study. The main difference between it and the quad, however, is that the Arboretum is astonishingly beautiful. One would be able to study diligently and efficiently here, like a true UC Davis poster child… For fifteen minutes.

After that short while of progress, a hardworking student is likely to get caught up in the stunning stagnancy of the pond, or in the way the dragonflies loop and float in the air, and his hard work will fall to the wayside. He’ll probably start napping, or stare into the distance.