“cutthroat” is the very word used by my niece who went to UCLA as a premed. She graduated phi beta kappa and manga cum laude so maybe that was just her tribe… but she thought the competition was pretty intense.
And she had difficulty getting classes. Not unheard of at UCLA.
BTW, she’s now in her first year of residency at Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles, associated with USC. And she went to a very well regarded med school.
So this is a young woman who’s pretty used to intense, competitive environments. She counts UCLA undergrad as one of them.