Hard to resist the urge to pile on for Wesleyan but my son is taking Experimental Music at Wes this semester (another Wes course created by a well-known professor who has since passed away) and loving it. He’s going to resume his drum lessons next semester, too, and has already joined a club that puts on rock shows. I looked quickly and there is a vocal jazz teacher at Wes that the OP could reach out to if interested in learning more.
You talk about using the “ED card” which is generally seen as giving a boost in admission. But you might want to consider a loose parallel from the concept known as the “winner’s curse”. In economics the person winning an auction paid more than anyone else thought the item was worth.
If you get into a college that would have turned you down otherwise, have you really won? If you assume admission is the hurdle but once enrolled everyone benefits equally, then sure. But if you’ve landed in a den of extremely smart and motivated students that you would not have ended up in otherwise, you may draw a different conclusion.
I have occasionally argued, and consistently thought, that premed students might be better off at a university where they walk in as a student in the top 1/4 of the incoming class, rather than as a student in the bottom 1/4 of the incoming class. To me this makes a safety look like it might be a great choice for a premed student.
The main value of all of that hard work in high school is to be very ready to do well in the tough university classes. You don’t have to be premed for this to be true, particularly if you are in a major that overlaps with premed classes (or engineering classes, but that is a different discussion).
Definitely premeds, but really in general, I think the idea of going to the most selective college that will just barely admit you is pretty suspect. Of course some people count as top quarter (or higher) academic prospects anywhere. But most kids with some “luck” might be able to get admitted somewhere they are if anything a bit below the average entering academic ability . . . and I agree that might turn out more bad luck than good luck in retrospect.
I note this might always have been the case somewhat, but it does feel to me like more and more over time, recruiting timelines and such are starting earlier and earlier. I don’t see this as a great development, but the bottom line is I think back when I went to college, most kids had more time to pivot and recover from a not so great start to college. So these days, I think you really are well-advised to be thinking in terms of a relatively strong start.
Anyway, just some things for the OP to maybe keep in mind.
For the few schools that publish student profiles, it seems being in state (I have data from publics) is most important and then maybe being a minority or female or another hook - just glancing at the data some publish. Not sure if there’s any truth to it.
But lots of WKU at UK. Guessing other than Louisville, there’s not a lot of WKU at other med schools…some but not a lot.
but my son is taking Experimental Music at Wes this semester (another Wes course created by a well-known professor who has since passed away) and loving it. He’s going to resume his drum lessons next semester, too, and has already joined a club that puts on rock shows. I looked quickly and there is a vocal jazz teacher at Wes that the OP could reach out to if interested in learning more.