just so you know... that uci schedule is a tad misleading. we don't actually have class every afternoon, though it may appear so at first glance. basically, we usually have class in the morning for 3-4 hours. on wednesday afternoons we often have class til 3, though this is typically a clinical correlate or behavioral science type of class so is pretty chill. then we have our patient doctor course on one other afternoon (either monday, tuesday, thursday, or friday -- depending on what group you are in). 3 of the other 5 afternoons are free. every once in a while we are expected to do a tag-along on one of those free afternoons. also, when it says "lab schedule A" 9-12, that does not mean that the entire class has class from 9-12. what this means is that those people in a certain anatomy group (there are 5 or so) will make 3 one hour presentations on their dissection. if you are in another group, you are supposed to go to one of those presentations. so basically, you have 2 hours of class on mornings or afternoons with anatomy unless you are presenting or are scheduled to dissect that day. if you are scheduled to present, you present that whole time. if you are scheduled to dissect, you go to the first presentation and then dissect the rest of the time (or whenever you feel like dissecting). it sounds confusing, but it has worked out quite nicely.
certain schools seem to get good reputations on here (e.g. uci, pitt, ), and other schools seem to get bad reputations (e.g. ucsd, finch) . i wouldn't rely on sdn to form your opinions about schools even though it is hard not to. for example, i've heard several classmates trash talk ucsd, but i can't imagine they really know what they are talking about since they have not gone to med school there! also, uci seems to have a great reputation on sdn. overall i am very happy here, but every school has its good points and bad points. try to find out what they are and where you best fit in. (i know, easier said than done.)
i feel that uci is a very good match for me. it is fairly low-stress (perhaps they go too easy on us?), i can live by the beach and go down to the beach nearly every day, the schedule is nice, and i enjoy my classmates. at times, however, the quality of teaching leaves something to be desired. i would imagine this occurs at most other schools as well, but just wanted to point out that everything is not 100% hunky dory here at uci. it is great overall, but every school has problems they are trying to work out. uci really does try to listen to student input, so hopefully its weaknesses will get straightened out with time.
these are just my opinions! i have classmates who went to different colleges/universities and might totally disagree with the quality of teaching thing. i'm just saying, based on the schools i've attended in the past, some (25%?) of the teachers here at uci are pretty bad. overall, i'm not too upset about this as i'm thoroughly enjoying the lifestyle here and know that i would be happier here than freezing my ass off in a dingy/dirty city at a med school with amazing professors. the only other real gripe i have is the number of monday exams. even though overall it is low-stress here, we have TONS of monday exams. that basically means we rarely get a weekend off. so i guess the fact that irvine is boring really doesn't matter cause i never friggin go out on the weekends 😉. this isn't that huge of a deal to me b/c i feel like overall i end up getting more sleep, learning the material better, and being less stressed out/rushed, but having no life on the weekend does get a little bit old. i'm only talking about the first year schedule. things in second year may be a little different. everything else (in my opinion) really is great. i just hate to read on here how one school is amazing and another school sucks. so much of this depends on what kind of person you are and where you would best fit in.