Hello!
I am working on narrowing down my college search. I am applying to a number of private and public schools, but among the Ivies who have Restrictive Early Action (REA), my top 3 choices are Harvard, Princeton, and Yale.
I am planning to do bioengineering/biomedical engineering and biology with a pre-med track. In different ways, the programs at all three schools align with my interests in not just STEM but also humanities. I know that Princeton does not have a medical school, but I like the small-town feeling of Princeton as opposed to Boston or New Haven. Princeton is also closer to where I live, and not quite as cold as Boston or New Haven. However, I know that Harvard and Yale both have medical schools and thus would have more opportunities for volunteering or job shadowing.
Also, I want to be at a school with studious and mature students; I know that all three schools will have these types of students to some degree, but am curious about perspectives on this topic.
Does anyone who has first-hand experience with any of these schools/locations have any thoughts about environment, opportunities, etc.?
IMO Harvard is a waste for REA since almost all applicants are deferred. Yale and Princeton are more likely to give a definitive answer. From what you described Princeton sounds like the best fit so I would do Princeton early and the rest RD. I have a lot of notes from conversations with Princeton students I can share with you if you’d like (I applied REA last year but unfortunately did not get in). Good luck!
Is it important for you to be near home? You ntoe it - but the others aren’t far away.
You have to be on campus for four years - day after day after day. So environment matters.
Don’t assume you cannot find shadowing at Princeton. Similarly don’t assume it’s automatic at the others.
Obviously Princeton places in med schools. If this 3rd party list is accurate, Princeton is #6 per capita nationwide (beyond #2, #3 Harvard and Yale). Seems like splitting hairs.
Why not reach out to the Princeton pre-med advisor or ask to speak to a pre-med student ambassador (admissions can set you up) - and find out their experience on shadowing. You can ask the advisor where kids shadow locally.
I’d pick the preferred school. Kids go to med school from everywhere. I was just looking at Vandy med school’s residents - and the amount of schools these kids come from ffor undergrad and medical (prestigious and otherwise) was mind blowing.
So put your best opportunity in at Princeton - if that truly is your #1.
Good luck.
You can do the required courses for medical school applicants at just about every four year college in this country (arts conservatories excluded).
That being the case…choose the undergrad where you think you will be the happiest for the four years for your SCEA. Happy students do better on college, and if you eventually apply to medical school, you want top grades.
MANY colleges do not have their own medical schools but send many kids to medical school annually. Having a medical school attached to the undergrad school really shouldn’t be your top criteria. It can be part of your reason for choosing, but my opinion…not the top one.
Regardless…choose a school that is affordable, where you will be happy, and where you can see yourself for four years. And a college where there are plentiful options should you be one of the majority of premed intentions who never apply to medical school.
“Premed” immediately makes me think of three things.
One is an issue that @thumper1 mentioned: Most students who start university thinking “Premed” end up doing something else, and never apply to medical schools. Let’s suppose that you do end up doing something else, would one of these schools be better for you? In this particular case you are comparing three schools that are all very good for a very wide range of “something else”.
The second thing that comes to mind is cost. If you do this without financial aid, then four years of university plus another four years of medical school could easily cost $900,000. I do know at least one parent who could pay this much per child without any debt and without thinking about it (ironically his daughter went to a very good in-state public university). However, for most of us a cost of $900,000 per child could be an issue. If this would be an issue for your family or leave you with debt, then you might want to think about the cost. At least REA does provide the option of choosing a less expensive school after offers come in (which makes it better IMHO compared to ED).
The third thing that comes to mind is another issue that @thumper1 also brought up. There are a lot of universities that are very good for premed students. The three that you are considering are all excellent (if they are affordable for you) but so are several hundred other colleges and universities.
I would expect premed classes to be similarly demanding at any of these three excellent universities. I would expect the other students to be similarly studious and relatively mature (although I am not sure that any undergraduate program will be perfect in the “mature student” department).
I personally like Harvard Square, and there is a lot to do around there. I do however agree with you about the smaller feeling of Princeton (which is actually #1 on the list of schools that I never applied to and in retrospect cannot figure out why – it is excellent for mathematics which was my major). You will want to get some medical shadowing experience but I would expect all of these schools to be good in that respect. Winters will be a bit colder in Boston/Cambridge.
I think that this is a tough decision.
Have you visited all three?
All of them will get you where you want to go academically and professionally. I would not split hairs about who has a med school and who does not. Students find what they need-- all three have abundant (sometimes too abundant) resources for anything you might need.
There is a lot of overlap in the student body-- I don’t think I’ve ever met a Princeton student and thought “Wow, she’d hate Harvard” or met a kid at Yale and think “Thank goodness he got into Yale, Princeton would have been terrible for him”.
Yale is reputed to be a somewhat “happier” place than Harvard- a little more artsy, a little less oriented towards “I have to work at a hedge fund and make a zillion dollars by the time I’m 30” but that’s a rumor- not born out by facts necessarily. Princeton is reputed to be working hard to counteract the narrative that it’s the snootiest of the Ivy’s with massive grade deflation. I don’t think either of these is true now, so there’s nothing to counteract IMHO.
Visiting will probably solve this for you. One will feel like you’ve come home. Or- just apply to all three RD along with your safer choices-- and see how you feel in April with all the cards on the table.
If you are absolutely sure you want med school, then not princeton, because of no med school, no major med center. Yales hospital is right there. And some applicants do get in REA to Harvard. I woukd go visit all 3 in the fall, see how you like them.
I mean Princeton is placing a ton in med school ……
They all 3 are.
I was just commenting about you saying if you want med school, then no Princeton.
Or were you saying if you want your undergrad to have a med school - then no Princeton?
I had one student shadow recently. At Vandy. She went to Howard.
I had a surgical consult - also at Vandy - that had a resident and soon to be med school grad.
When I looked at their residents - there was a ton from small, lesser known schools and big publics like Kansas and Minnesota - for undergrad and residency - surprising based on what I read here.
I think OP does fine at any of these and if not bound, they can decide later for sure !!!
This site touches on a few of Princeton’s attributes:
Pick the one that you like the best in terms of warm and fuzzies. The quality of education, faculty, facilities and students will be indistinguishable.
If you really don’t know, look at the school specific essays when they come out in the Common App. Pick the school where you feel the essays will come naturally.
pick the one you like the best, none offer significant advantages RD wise + all are so hard to get into REA/RD.
I agree all three are equally good (or not good–I think this depends on cost and also what sort of college environment is really going to be best for your grades) for premed. Of course this is non-binding so even if you apply to one of these REA/SCEA you can still mull that over.
It is easier to do clinical work during the school year if there is a nearby major hospital. Yale has it within walking distance. Harvard? Shuttle ride to the hospitals, definitely more of a pain, but absolutely possible. Princeton? No nearby major hospitals, but yes in new brunswick and trenton, do not know if there are shuttles. Prob easier with a car. And of course one can do clinical hours over the summers, or at an outpatient location. But if the main burning desire for a high achieving student were premed, unless there were some other confounding factor, i would recommend yale, harvard, priceton, in that order, for rea choice. Meanwhile, i do feel that the student should visit each in the fall, preferably stay with a student there, and sit in on classes, go to some social events, to get a better feel for each campus, then decide.
This is what I have been thinking about from a logical perspective. Thank you for your thoughts!
Btw, Penn is a good choice. Research institute, adult and childrens hospitals all right on campus.
My son was a pre-med and graduated with an A.B. in Music at Princeton in 2022. I often wondered whether Harvard, Yale, or any other universities with medical schools would have been advantageous not only for pre-meds with a more convenient access to hospital facilities and resources but also for their graduates with institutional self-selection, more pronounced in public medical schools. For medical school, does it even matter whether H or Y or P? Now that my son has gone through the whole process of medical school admissions journey, I can tell you there’s none, zilch. Successful admission to medical schools is entirely determined by the GPA, MCAT, clinical and volunteer experiences, essays and LORs – and all combined in good standing.
Given my son’s unconventional path to medical school as a music major, I cannot offer great insights as to what it’s like to be a pre-med at Princeton. During the four years, he didn’t pursue any clinical or volunteer activities or research related to medicine. All of his extracurricular activities were with musical performance groups, PUS, OPUS and a cappella. Even his volunteer work was related to music, teaching violin pro bono to underprivileged high school students in Trenton. His fellow pre-med friends, on the other hand, pursued a more traditional path by volunteering or shadowing at Penn Medicine Princeton Medical Center and Princeton Hospital in Plainsboro Township about a 10-minute ride away from the campus, while others worked as scribes, EMT volunteers and research activities.
One thing Princeton offers for pre-meds is a great support system, particularly the Health Professions Advising (HPA) Office and fully funded summer health internships in the U.S. and abroad. Since my son wasn’t pursuing any clinical resume building during his four years, he didn’t take full advantage of the HPA until the committee LOR was needed. HPA then guided him through each and every step of the admissions process. My son did take advantage of a two-month summer health internship in Uganda, but due to Covid the program had to be done online. One advantage that Princeton has is how much the university is willing to spend on students, regardless of their concentration, for fulfilling their academic success. Princeton’s endowment per student is an astounding $4.3M, and the university backs that up with so much generosity in the way they support the students well beyond the great financial aid to begin with. Most folks compare FA’s when considering colleges, but the free grant money beyond FA available during the four years at Princeton is really something else. My son, unfortunately, tapped into all the advantages of this for his musical activities but hardly any for pre-med related other than the Covid wiped out health internship in Uganda.
For specifically eligible pre-med students, Princeton also offers the following programs:
Jefferson IDeA Program: Jefferson IDeA Program | Health Professions Advising
Penn Access Summer Scholars: Penn Access Summer Scholars | Health Professions Advising
Princeton-Rutgers ACES Program: Princeton-Rutgers ACES Program | Health Professions Advising
The Jefferson IDeA Program is designed for those with “interest in design thinking and innovation in health care.” It does not require MCAT. The other two programs have the following specific requirements: “Applicants from a racial/ethnic group underrepresented in medicine, from economically disadvantaged backgrounds, and/or those who are the first in their family to pursue higher education or medicine are especially encouraged to apply.”
These programs have specific eligibility requirements, but I do know several who took advantage of these programs, including one currently at the Perelman School of Medicine and one at Sidney Kimmel Medical College.
As for the environment, my son loved Princeton so much that he never wanted to leave. The beautiful campus, residential college experience and most of all, the lifelong friendships he formed there. Graduation day wasn’t really a day of celebration; it was more like a day of mourning, I remember. Since graduation, he made three long flight trips back to Princeton campus in just one year as a way for him to cope with the separation.
Although Princeton doesn’t have medical, law and business schools, the graduates do very well in placements in these schools. Go where you’ll be happier. Even if no HYP at the end of college application, it makes no difference whatsoever for medical school admissions. There are many more students from average college ranked in the tippy top medical schools than tippy top ranked undergrad students.
Hi, not OP but am also a prospective Pton REA applicant. Could you share your notes? That would be much appreciated. 
They are three great choices, IMO, for REA. If that’s what your heart is set on!! You can’t go wrong in selecting any one.
As an aside, the salutatorian from one of the years of my high school went to Princeton for pre-med and is now a great MD. She was / is brilliant, which I assume will be the case with all kids at these places and all of the fantastic people they get to choose from. 
Other great pre-med schools- (Emory, Duke, Wisconsin-Madison, UIUC, Texas A&M, UT-Austin, UAB, University of Rochester.)
All the best!!