So my S24 is a first year at WashU, possibly Bio major and possible premed, and I can discuss that in a bit more detail.
But first, I would not hesitate to choose either of those other colleges over WashU, but only IF they were comfortably affordable (I think a good general rule of thumb is you could pay for them without more than the federal loan limits, and with med school as a possibility, possibly not even that in loans), and IF you thought your overall four-year college experience would be better than your experience at WashU. Under those conditions, I would not recommend choosing WashU because it is “good for premed”–there is too large a chance that won’t actually make a difference for one reason or another.
Which takes me to the subject of people switching out of premed at WashU. As others are suggesting, some sort of process like that happens at pretty much any highly selective research university. And sure, some kids struggle in the early “weeder” class (through approximately the first semester of Orgo), and in those cases, that may be a major part of why they change tracks.
But I think a lot of other kids just decide they would rather do something different. Maybe something entirely different, but also maybe something different in the health field. And there are so, so many great careers in health besides being a doctor, and as you start learning more about your options, you might well realize you just prefer a different option.
And WashU’s pre-health advising is actually really good about encouraging kids to think seriously about all that, giving them lots of opportunities to learn more about their options. I don’t think this is at all unique to WashU, but I would say WashU is among the colleges really devoted to this sort of advising.
OK, so do a lot of WashU kids end up starting premed but not applying to med school in the end? Absolutely. But in many of those cases, it was very much a matter of choosing some other educational and career path they learned about, as opposed to literally being forced out of premed.
But again, I am sure that is broadly true at Cornell and Northwestern too. And part of what is nice about all these sorts of colleges is pretty no matter what else you decided to do there, they would be at least very good for that sort of thing. Which is why I would urge you to prioritize affordability as relevant, and then your overall four-year college experience.
As a final thought, I do think in some ways WashU can feel a little smaller and more intimate than some other private research universities. Again, not uniquely, like Princeton, Dartmouth, I’d say William & Mary (which is actually a public but I think feels like a private), and others would be in this category too. But I would suggest maybe WashU is more toward this end of the spectrum than Cornell or Northwestern.
Which could be a good or bad thing. But as you are thinking about your overall four-year experience, you could in fact take that into account.
In a related point, WashU makes it very easy to combine all sorts of majors and minors. So like my S24 might well end up a dual major in Bio and Classics with a minor in Applied Microeconomics. It seems like 2/3rds of the WashU kids we have met as guides and such have had some combination like that. It is just their thing.
I note this because I do think in a way this a nice thing for possible premeds as well, like you can easily explore other stuff you might refocus on if you end up not doing premed, or just take whatever classes you know you will do well in and end up with an interesting-sound degree. This is far, far from the most important thing for a possible premed, but I thought I would mention it in this context of just thinking about what your total college experience might end up looking like.