<p>Newton,</p>
<p>No offense, but if you believe that undergrad does not play at least somewhat of a role in admission to top grad programs, then I suggest you actually do your own research. Look at top grad programs in almost every field, and you’ll see that they’re largely populated by students at top undergrads (LACs included.) Of course, there may be endogenaity issues, but not all of it can be explained by the personal ambition variable. If you’re an undergrad at UCLA, and you can get a letter of rec. from a well-known prof in your field, it will go a long way toward getting you noticed at a top grad program.</p>
<p>UCI is NOT a bad school, but UCLA will get much more attention in general.</p>
<p>A fair warning: I’m not saying that you should go to UCLA in all cases. There are legitimate reasons for going to UCI, but I think that yours are not the best ones. You’re weighing one variable (parking, commuting, etc.) over something that is probably more important to you in the long run (getting into a top grad program.)</p>