<p>It is dead on weekends because most people go home. You should worry about the prestige for graduate school rather than undergraduates… There are couple of people who went to pretty good graduate school from UCR. You can also go to some of the faculty websites and check out their undergraduate alumni. However, medical school can increase the reputation because there are only around 16(?)( I do not know the number exactly) medical schools in California and there are more than 300000 graduates who plan to attend medical school per year. Only few get into any medical school. I know a student from USC who is now attending a medical school in Australia because she was rejected by every medical school in US. Therefore, medical students who will attend UCR medical school are smart due to the limited space available for medical school in US.
For research opportunities, read my reply for other posts. For every school, there are positives and negatives for professors and students. I passed 6 AP exams. AP exams can let you skip some classes. You cannot skip any science class even though you have 5 on the exam. Lower division classes are usually easy, but it can get difficult for upper divisions.</p>