Thank you for your response!!
My son is an engineer in West LA, and goes up to Big Bear frequently. If he leaves after 8, it takes him 2 hours. It’s taken him as long as 5 hours. Hiking is also far, either north or east, and then there is no solitude because there are so many people. He’s an extremely outdoorsy person, and that’s been one of the things he likes least about LA. He surfs, but again, not without being around a huge crowd. Long story short, the outdoors scene around LA is OK, if that’s all you’ve got. It isn’t great though. He loves the cultural stuff around LA though.
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My daughter is a freshman at UCLA. She managed to get a research position in a lab sometime after her first quarter. It didn’t appear to be hard to do but maybe she got lucky. She absolutely loves her mentor and is learning a lot. There is a lot of opportunities for outdoor activities between hiking or mountain biking in the Santa Monica mountains and paddle boarding, surfing etc. along the coast. The quarter system is fast paced but seems to work well in keeping students motivated to keep up with their work.
As far as size, what do you think you would like? I went to a tiny high school and couldn’t wait to get to a large college. My daughter went to a large high school and couldn’t see herself in a college that was the same size or smaller than her high school. I’m not familiar with the LAC system of education so I can’t comment on the benefits of a LAC vs a large research university. It sounds intriguing.
All that being said, I find UCLA to be incredibly overpriced for out-of-state students. Middlebury is no steal either…
Good luck making a decision! It’s an exciting time in your life. Enjoy your undergrad years wherever you end up.
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This is an apple against an orange – big-city, flagship-quality public school vs. small, rural, highly regarded LAC.
You have discovered most of the pros and cons, I think. I do think you’ll find it easier to get research opportunities at Midd because, though such opportunities are fewer than at UCLA, you are competing for them with so many fewer students. At UCLA, you are also competing with grad students.
Most research labs are structured so that grad students and post-docs would be able to mentor undergrads. They generally are not competing for the same spots in the lab hierarchy. Many PhD students and post-doc researchers on a campus usually means more rather than less opportunities for undergraduate research. At least that has been my experience.
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They will likely give repetitive tech work to undergrads and not to grad students.
OOPS, @teleia beat me to it.
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If you call microscopy repetitive lab work then count me in!!! I am a microscopy junkie and my habit started as an undergrad. I still am unable to kick it but I’ve got my doctor’s OK on the matter.
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Yep, you both beat me to it — from what I can tell the undergrads are not competing with grad students for internships. Grad students may actually be managing them.
Could be that, electrophoresis, HPLC, you name it. I did all of them, including EM as an undergrad. Someone else was telling me what to run though, and making the why decisions. It’s great experience, and a useful augmentation for graduate students.
There will be much more cutting edge research happening at UCLA…many fold, but there will be far more undergrads competing for spots.
ahahahahaa
no.
Biotech is a booming field
It’s all about funding per capita, particularly for undergrads. Top privates tend to do much better in that regard than R1 publics.
btw: Most post-docs want nothing to do with assisting undergrads; their focus is on getting a permanent job.
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They aren’t assisting undergrads. They’re employing them.
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I don’t share your pessimism. As a postdoc I mentored many undergrads. I was also mentored by postdocs when I was both an undergrad and a PhD student. What goes around, comes around.
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As far as research at UCLA, our son did over 2.5 years of research in an engineering lab. His grad student mentor has been on top 20/30 lists for upcoming researchers in the field. He even got a research internship there the first summer of Covid. I thought he’d probably be a gofer as an undergrad, but he was involved in designing and 3-D printing parts and tons of programming for simulations. He was probably a bit lucky to get all that there, but those experiences are available at UCLA. Just wanted to provide this as another data point about UCLA.
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Our son’s PhD student mentor includes the outcomes of the undergrads on their CV to show teaching/mentoring ability.
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It’s certainly the case that at the UCs it is really up to you to forge your own path, you won’t be singled out and have opportunities handed to you. But that mentoring isn’t unique to top privates, it also takes place in numerous state flagships with cohort scholarship programs.
Anyway, looking at the stats specifically for UCLA vs Middlebury, the Marshall scholarship provides a detailed breakdown of nominations, finalists and winners by college, and UCLA has had considerably more success in producing finalists (Middlebury’s last finalist was in 2017, whereas UCLA has had finalists every year from 2018 to 2021): Reports - Marshall Scholarships
However I don’t know anyone who made their college choice based on which one would allow them to be better placed to win a Rhodes scholarship.
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Oh boy, can you imagine? 
Let’s hope we are not just a year or two away from that becoming kids’ criteria for picking a school.
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At my son’s colleges which are both semester systems they were done with finals before the long winter break. Do some semester schools have finals after? I had not heard of that. Spring break is in the middle of the semester though.
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These are such different choices. Contrary to what a few have said, there is no obvious choice as they are so different yet excellent. It should come down to personal preference and the experience you would want. Many students would choose UCLA for the reasons folks have highlighted and it would be a fine choice. No one in our family, for example, would choose the small LAC based on our own personal preferences for size, sports, and location.
Good luck with the decision. There is no bad or wrong choice here.
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Mine did.
^^^That^^^
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