<p>Well, the underlying challenge is to be admitted to a PhD program. ;)</p>
<p>Better comparisons for UCLA and UCSD might be Caltech, UChicago, MIT, UCSF, Harvard, Johns Hopkins, Princeton, Yale, Rice, Stanford and Cornell. </p>
<p>LACs are in a space of their own, but we can say that attending an LAC for bio grad school prep does not put the student at a disadvantage! I do agree that LACs attract many academically oriented kids with predispositions for advanced degrees; there is a lot of self-selection. UCLA and UCSD are indeed top PhD destinations, for exactly the reasons you give.</p>