I’ve been having great difficulty deciding where to go. These two schools are very different and so offer me very different things.
My major for both is Microbiology, and I intend to go to Med school.
I was accepted into the UVM honors college - extra course requirements, AMAZING dorms, better academic environment - and received a scholarship for $18,000 per year. The scholarship definitely helps because I’m OOS. UVM does have a med school that offers undergrads internships. UVM also seems to be more supportive for students…
UCSD offered me no scholarships because I am OOS. My dad is a veteran and does get benefits that may help to fund my college tuition. UCSD is surrounded by hospitals that I’d love to intern at. I also have a relative that works in the UCSD labs and can help me get internships. My college is also Muir, so I’ll probably be able to do a minor in Visual Arts in addition to my Microbiology major.
Thanks for the help, I really appreciate it! 
EDIT: As an aside, I never seriously considered UVM (as it was my safety) until I got the scholarship and accepted into the Honors College.
Just curious what was your ACT or SAT and GPA? My D applied to UVM and received a $17,000 merit scholarship but was not admitted into Honors College.
Go to UCSD hands down. The opportunity to do research and publish papers for med school is invaluable. UVM will not provide opportunities like those.
Just spoke to a senior in the Honors College at UVM who has had amazing research opportunities and has to write a research based thesis as Honors College graduation requirement.
The type and quality of research are totally different. If you go to UCSD and work in a bio lab, you have a chance to get published in magazines such as Nature before you graduate. So much is cutting edge research is going on at UCSD right now like in the fields of cancer, nanotechnology, and genetics that if you can get your name on one of these papers, you’ll end up at the top medical school. There are lots of future/current noel prize laureates and famous faculty at UCSD who you can have write your letter of recommendations while at UVM, you probably don’t see too much. These papers and letter of recs from esteemed faculty at UCSD will help you get into your top choice medical school over those you might get at a place UVM.
@LostatSea My weighted cumulative gpa is about a 3.94, and my unweighted cumulative is about 3.7. My SAT was 1360, and my ACT was 28 (which are not that amazing, so I was very surprised I was put into the HC).
@Ilovecherrypies You definitely have a point.
When were you accepted into the Honors College at UVM?
Wow! Congratulations!!! My D’s cumulative weighted GPA was 4.66 and ACT was 30 and she was not accepted into the Honors College and she has friends who are stronger students than she who were also not accepted into UVM Honors College.
UCSD is the stronger program but may also be much harder to attain the GPA needed for med school. I may lean towards UVM for that reason alone. Good luck.
I’d lean towards UVM. It will be less $ as an OOS with the scholarship, you’ll have a more supportive environment with the honors college, likely far less issues dealing with impacted class issues and graduating on time. And, as already pointed out, very possibly an easier time making a high gpa which is critical for med school.
UVM appears to take a very holistic view to their scholarships and honors college FWIW. I’ve seen kids get a surprising range of scholarship offers, or even some waitlist/spring admits this year and if one looked at stats alone, it’s definitely not consistent.
Congrats on 2 great (albeit completely different weather scenario) choices!
Where does one find the Honors College Admit/Waitlist stats?
UVM will be better for a premed student, especially with the honors college advantage. Since it’s less expensive it ‘makes sense’.