Uni freshmen are the bottom of the heap. Intro classes are absolute lowest property to pretty much everybody. It can be a difficult transition for many from tight knit high schools with relatively small class size and special attention from teachers. I have sat three days a week in an auditorium of over 100 students taking intro to biology. I wasn't even a name, just a student number.

However once you get further along, things will greatly improve. I loved upper level seminars in my major and minor. Eight juniors and seniors sitting at a conference table with a prof and really discussing a subject. There you get that special attention and you are important and listened too. It just takes awhile to get there.

Heavily focused research programs are the same in grad school if not worse. Well done research is an insane amount of work. Honestly even if the profs wanted to work intensively with students, especially undergrads, there is no time. They have to produce important results at an alarming rate, make breakthroughs, and publish or perish. The prof I work for as a grad assistant is always working. She is always coordinating, having meetings, planning, and writing. Even on vacation she is continuing to work. She's tenured, but it's about academic standing and climbing up the ladder. Also profs are required to contribute significant amounts of time to the betterment of the university and the community.
Grad students usually start out at the very bottom hauling buns around. It's paying your dues. Eventually you move up, are given management duties, and start building your own portfolio of published papers. But it takes a lot of time and hard work.
I choose a less research intensive program. I don't have much interest in a PhD so no reason to kill myself to get publications, which mean nothing outside academia.