My D is in her second year at Tufts and, as a bio major, has already had incredible experiences with supportive professors and advisors who’ve given her so much confidence. She became a Writing Fellow this year after the encouragement of a TA last year (D is now aiding undergrad AND grad students in Community Health), and will be a Summer Scholar thanks to the support of an advisor/ professor. I don’t know whether she’d have gotten the same level of support at Cornell, a school she also considered? All in all, I think the location (Somerville/ Davis Square/ Cambridge/ Boston are SO superior to Ithaca, sorry!); friendly, diverse and welcoming student body (with plenty of social opportunities outside of frats, which don’t dominate the culture); and lack of cutthroat-ness make it appealing. And I’ve never heard D make mention of the school feeling too small (she chose Tufts over other LACs for that very reason).
BUT… that GWU merit money (and glorious DC, too). In addition to running the numbers, you might want to look at med school admit rates for each school? I know Tufts is very high, on a par with or perhaps higher than Cornell. GWU, I don’t know.
Also, the relative departmental strengths:
http://college.usatoday.com/2014/09/13/top-%C2%AD%C2%AD%C2%AD10-colleges-for-a-major-in-biology/