<p>I can't compare the schools, since I only have experience at one of them. But if you have read any of my past posts, you can tell that I'm a big UCI supporter. I graduated from there in 2000 with a degree in Biological Sciences. While I did not end up going the med school route (I am starting an MBA this fall at the UCLA Anderson School of Management), many of my friends did, and they are all doctors now. The one universal thing I heard from them was that UCI really prepared them well for getting in to and succeeding in medical school. Granted, I was in the Campuswide Honors Program (<a href="http://www.honors.uci.edu%5B/url%5D">www.honors.uci.edu</a>), so all of the people I'm talking about were amongst the top students on campus.</p>
<p>This is why they felt that UCI helped them get into medical school:
1. Research Opportunities. Now I'm not saying that other schools don't have research opportunities, but I can say for sure that they do exist in great quantities at UCI. Between the labs at the school of Biological Sciences and those at the College of Medicine across the street from the main campus, undergrads literally have hundreds of labs to choose from. If they want to do research in ANY area of biology, it is available. These research opportunities lead to greater things, namely...</p>
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<li><p>Contact With Professors. Students really get to know their professors, provided that they actually go and talk to them. Most professors will not seek students out (except the really, really smart students), so students have to talk to them after class or go to their office hours. But the majority of the faculty live across the street in the faculty housing, so they are on campus for long hours and are very available to meet after 5:00 pm and even on weekends if they are so inclined. Students get great contact with the professors that they research with, since the undergrads may be in the labs as much as 20 hours a week, often one-on-one with the faculty members and their postdocs. This close faculty contact leads to...</p></li>
<li><p>Great Letters of Recommendation. These are crucial for getting in to top medical schools. If you really develop a close relationship with a professor, they can say great things about you in their letters and actually cite specific examples. Let's say you went to college X and you took a biochemistry class with a professor and got an A. They might agree to write you a letter of rec and all it will say is that you were in their biochemistry class two years ago and earned an A and that you'll be a good doctor. But if you have a professor you had extensive contact with write you a letter, they can talk about how inquisitive you are and how you solved a major problem in the research lab and how you are performing graduate-level research as a freshman and so on. All of my friends that went on to med school had these kinds of letters because they were able to really get to know their faculty.</p></li>
<li><p>MCAT. The way that the bio curriculum is set up is conducive for good performance on the MCAT. Without going into too much detail (I can give a 10 minute talk on this if I had the time), the students get a very broad AND deep education in all areas of biology, which helps them really do well on the Bio section of the MCAT. Some universities have students specializing in one very narrow part of biology (parasitology, for example) starting from the freshman year and they have somewhat limited knowledge of other areas of bio that they have to cram for when they take their MCAT prep courses.</p></li>
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<p>All of my friends said that the first year of medical school wasn't that bad because of their biology education at UCI. Biochemistry is supposedly a killer course in med school, but my friends all breezed through it and were able to devote their time to other demanding courses, such as gross human anatomy.</p>
<p>To answer your specific questions (from the UCI standpoint)...</p>
<p>ATMOSPHERE - What the others have posted above is somewhat true. UCI is a commuter school. However, don't take that too literally. Many students live in apartments off campus, but those apartments are literally across the street so many of those students are around on weekends, they're just not on the actual campus. Many others live at Newport Beach and drive in, but the Newport scene is pretty wild and is definitely part of the UCI social scene. When most people think "commuter", they think of people that live at home with their parents. They are also expanding the new complex that's called Vista Del Campo (<a href="http://www.vistadelcampo.com%5B/url%5D">www.vistadelcampo.com</a>) since they have waiting lists a mile long. Tons of students live there and it's awesome.</p>
<p>One thing that is a bit lacking at Irvine is the school spirit factor. I think a big part of that is that UCI is not great at sports so there isn't anything for the campus to rally around. Sure, we won a Nobel Prize in Chemistry this year, but that's not something that the students are going to build a bonfire and paint their faces for. If I was a billionaire, I would donate money to UCI to form a football team. </p>
<p>WEATHER - Irvine's weather is awesome. Hardly ever rains, you can wear shorts and flip-flops for 11 months a year. Right by the beach, so you get nice, clean air.</p>
<p>HARDER TO GET IN TO - Not sure, but the stats I've seen show that UCI and UCD are pretty close. Average GPA and SATs probably differ by percentage points.</p>
<p>OVER/UNDER RATED - I think that UCI is definitely underrated because of the large shadow cast by the Berkeley and Los Angeles campuses. But the students that go there get a great education and if they work hard, they will accomplish what they want to and get that job that they want.</p>
<p>SOCIAL LIFE - Go Greek, join an ethnic club, be part of the student government, or move to Newport.</p>
<p>GENERALIZATION - I would say that UCI is a strong science school located in an upper-middle class city with a lot of Asians. The students study hard and don't have a reputation for hard partying.</p>
<p>I chose Irvine over UC Berkeley, UCLA, UCSD, USC, Brown, and Notre Dame. If I could do it all over again knowing what I know now, I'd still make the same decision.</p>