I just don’t like promoting this idea that undergrads are roaming the medical school halls. More typically, they woulnd’t even have access to the buildings.
The premed path to med school is already confusing enough without suggesting that high school seniors should be looking for an undergrad that has a med school, particularly when often the med school isn’t even closeby
@Pizzagirl - very few people seem to agree with your notion of absolute “flatness” among US med schools.
For instance, if med shools were truly interchangeable, [this methodology](http://www.usnews.com/education/best-graduate-schools/articles/medical-schools-methodology?int=a6e809) would yield a zillion-way tie for first. Clearly it does not.
@marvin100 Given that the methodology mostly measures research activity, peer ratings/perceived by prestige, and selectivity, I don’t think that that proves anything about curricular differences.
Peers consider med schools to have meaningful differences in quality–I’d believe them before I’d believe a random person on the internet 
“I just don’t like promoting this idea that undergrads are roaming the medical school halls. More typically, they woulnd’t even have access to the buildings” Well, that may the the case at UA, I couldn’t say, but at schools like this, it would be commonplace for a premed to work in the medical school research labs and for that they would of course need access to the buildings, and yes, be “roaming” in the halls on occasion. They are also volunteering in the hospital.
Marvin, do you actually know the medical field? That’s how it works. Are you not aware the curriculum is standardized? Do you think that Blue Cross pays one penny extra to the doctor who went to Harvard Med vs State U Med? Do you think the diseases are any different or that the nurses bow reverentially or the patients are sexier? For the average person whose goal is to be a practicing doctor, any US med school is absolutely fine. It’s residency where differences emerge.
This isn’t just my opinion. It’s the opinion repeatedly expressed by those who are doctors, married to doctors, or who have kids in med school. Check out the med school section of this forum. You’ll see the same thing. This isn’t remotely controversial.
Now if you wish to go into ACADEMIC medicine, your institution matters more.
Even so, some of the best doctors in certain specialties are affiliated with hospitals that aren’t “fancy name brands.” For example, in my spouse’s specialty, the acknowledged world expert in Disease X is at the University of Cincinnati.
Furthermore the difference between the Top 5 (e.g. Harvard, Penn, JHU) and the Top 50 (e.g. Rochester, Dartmouth) is a little bit selectivity, a little bit peer ratings, but mostly it’s research. I can’t believe that the exact research level of a med school will have a meaningful impact on an undergrad.
Consider Tulane. It has very high research activity but its med school does not - in fact, it’s unranked. Setting aside issues of fit, explain to me how Harvard will be a better premed choice than Tulane (which is also fairly grade inflated).
And even for a med school student it will be a fairly small impact (between Harvard and Rochester, bigger between Tulane and Harvard), since many or most of the ranked med schools still have enough research activity for the academic doctor.
OP: Notwithstanding that fact that they are all Ivy League schools, the schools are all very different-in location, size, etc. It’s also very rare that anyone gets accepted at all of them-that usually makes the national news. So I’d recommend that first you decide if you are going to go pre-med, and if so then take a look at the schools individually. The experience at Cornell vs Harvard-just in terms of location-is very very different.
If you’re going to attend a University as a premed I don’t know why you would not choose one that has easy access to a hospital and medical research labs. Why would you close off good opportunities when there are plenty of Universities which do offer these opportunities? If you want a small college, you would likely have to forgo that opportunity but presumably the small college offers something else of benefit, whether it’s a large scholarship or small class sizes.
Good luck finding a college that does NOT have easy access to hospitals.
I’m old school. I suggest you seek out colleges that are best suited to you in terms of personality, location, academic offerings, overall vibe etc. You should view your four years of college as an academic/social experience in and of itself. I would not tryto choose a college based on which one may have the ever so slightest advantage for a path to med school. Students who are happy tend to do better in school so seek out schools where you feel you would be good matches for you. And please expand your search past the Ivy level schools. .