BobbyMaye and csibem. You obviously have two great choices to consider. You can’t go wrong either way. My son just got accepted off the waitlist, as well. He also intends to follow the pre-med track. He will be declining his acceptance. He really liked Brown, but with decisions dragging on so long, he set his heart on Northwestern. Like Wash U, it has a higher pre-med ranking than Brown. He also got into some selective programs and has already some great opportunities for next summer through asking questions and networking with alumni.
Having Brown start in the spring was a big factor. With Covid he wouldn’t have many opportunities to fill the fall in a meaningful way and didn’t want to waste a few months doing nothing as he waited to start classes. He also didn’t want to go straight through from spring to fall and lose a summer experience opportunity. There’s no right answer. You just need to go with your gut like my son did. Had Brown accepted him earlier, he probably would have accepted since he wouldn’t have looked so in depth at Northwestern. My best advice is to forget the name or prestige, Med schools don’t care where you did your undergrad. A good percentage of Top 20 med school classes are filled by kids that come from small liberal arts colleges. Med schools want to see top grades, great MCAT scores, research and volunteer experience, and well-rounded students. It was that way when I went to med school and is still that way today.
My best advice would be to consider all the positive and negatives of each school and what they have to offer and figure out which one you think you be happiest at, do best at and which has better opportunities to participate in campus activities that are outside of academics. Also consider which is the best fall back for Plan B should you decide not to go to med school. Both schools are strong schools for med school acceptance if you get the GPA and test scores needed.