From one black girl to another - don’t believe the hype. Or rather, the fact that you have heard of tensions in St. Louis doesn’t mean that there are not tensions in Baltimore or Chicago. In fact, there are; the media just hasn’t reported on them recently. Any major city has at least somewhat mild tensions between the people of color and the police (NYPD has their own, which flared up prior to Ferguson with the Sean Bell and Eric Garner protests. People have forgotten about them). And of course there are also recent stories on Yale’s campus and somewhere else (UVa?) about young black students being confronted. But I spent 6 years living in New York (and, prior to that, 4 years in Atlanta as a college student) and was never once harassed by the police. I’m not saying that it will never happen, or that it doesn’t happen, because obviously it does…but I don’t think it’s more likely to happen in St. Louis than Baltimore or Chicago. Don’t let that be the deciding factor.
I don’t know what you are asking. Personally, if I were making this decision, I would choose Washington University in St. Louis, precisely because of the laid-back vibe, the smaller city feel of St. Louis, the separation of the campus from the rest of the city, the emphasis on undergraduate education, and all the awesome things I’ve heard about student life there (residence halls, food, etc.) I think that there are some students at Wash U who are pre-professional and others probably very concentrated on the liberal arts education. The pre-med education is good at all three of these schools, so I wouldn’t worry about that.
But honestly…you really can’t go wrong with the decision. Given how torn you are I feel like you will be happy at any of these three - really, architecture and food are really just minor differences that, in retrospect, won’t make a huge difference when reflecting on your choices.
I’m not personally familiar with JHU, but I did always get the impression that undergrads were not first priority there.