So if I managed to get through my first year at a state school surviving (getting A-'s in) the weed out intro level chem and physics classes, would I be ok at Northwestern in the higher level sciences or is that too hard to predict. I don’t really want to risk not going to med-school because I know I really want to, and I have more clinical and medical research exposure than most my age do. I’m not just like so… ya I think I wanna be a doctor. I feel like at Vandy, I have a pretty high chance at med school. I’m afraid Northwestern will turn me in a completely different direction. Is this a valid enough fear to choose Vandy over NU even though I prefer Northwestern as a school academically. There are many smaller things I like about Vandy like food, weather, low stress, proximity to hospital, brand new engineering facility that opens this fall, but these are all smaller side aspects.