<p>middlebury is a very good private liberal arts school in (i believe) new england. I only know them for their strong foreign language program (and Wilson from House went there i think…)</p>
<p>side notes: I think the “smaller liberal arts” atmosphere is kinda BS at UCI. Note the kinda.
Humcore lecture (that you probably hear so much about) has about 230 kids in it for 3 hours a week like any other lecture course. but the discussion is another 3 hours limited to 20ish kids.
social science core is about 120 kids the lecture with about 30 kids in in the disc.</p>
<p>and those are only the CHP classes you’ll take at UCI. they arent “that” small, particularly compared to a school like middlebury. and all of your other classes will be fairly large (intro psych, chem/bio cause you’re premed, etc). </p>
<p>something to keep in mind: grad school and professional school aren’t the same. grad school is a phd or something researched based. generally speaking, you become a grad student because you can/want to do reserach. thats really all they care about.
medical school (and pharm/law/business) are professional school- they teach you a trade. those types of schools typically want more well-rounded individuals. </p>
<p>With that in mind, middlebury I tihnk middlebury does prep you very well for graduate school. Students who tend to do well in those kinds of environments tend to purse PhDs because they like learning for learnings sake. On a more extreme note, look at Reed College in Portland, OR. something like 70% of their students in the science get PhDs (i might be wrong… someone want to check?)
At the same time, I’m sure middlebury will prep you well for medical school. Any competent school will.</p>
<p>Personally, I would go for Middlebury. the CHP benefits are kind of over-rated. the main one being priority enrollment. There’s special housing for honors students after frosh year in AV, but I know plenty that moved off campus anyway.
The two/three things to look at are: 1) enrollment- rocks. 2) the classes- i guess? nothing is stopping you from not being in honors and taking them anyway. or just reading the same readings they have to on your own. 3) research thesis- again, nothing stopping you from doing this yourself anyway.</p>
<p>the only downside of middlbury is the price. and maybe the fit. </p>
<p>EDIT: something i noticed: i may have come across as fairly apathetic to uci. I kinda am. I mean, you can drive a porche, and the first month or so its wonderful. After a while, its just your car. homework/reading/etc brings you back to reality pretty fast. And i do have a bit of hw to do.</p>
<p>and really look at fit. If you wouldn’t be happy at middlebury, dont go. and dont think about what you’re life will be like at middlebury. just think “what kind of person will i be when i graduate?”. if you’re happy with that kind of person, maybe its a sign you should go there.</p>