@Buthahvahd I think it all hinges on what you mean by 25-30k being difficult but manageable for you family. Does it mean you will just have to cut down on some non-essential spending a bit, or does it mean you will go into significant debt that will jeopardize your grad school plans? If it is the former I would choose Harvard. Harvard is just hard to beat both in terms of the name and the actual resources it provides (and detailed above by other poster). If it is the latter, then AB scholar at Duke makes more sense.
If i were you I d go back to Harvard with the AB Duke acceptance and see if you can get more.
There is a ton of biomedical research that goes on in the Research Triangle in North Carolina. The difference (if any) between that and what’s going on in Cambridge and the Boston area is not going to matter to any undergraduate, even a really bright one.
^ This cannot be emphasized enough.
@Buthahvahd I would be interested to see a comparison between AB Duke scholars and people who declined the scholarship for HYPSM. I wonder if there is a difference in where they end up. The Duke Chronicle needs to do a story on this!
@Buthahvahd “I think that the BME department at Duke is superior”
???!!!???
Have you heard of ARWU (Academic Ranking of World University)? Its ranking is based purely on academic criteria (number of publications in top journals per faculty, citation index per paper, number of faculty / alumni who are elected to membership in National Academy of Science / Engineering etc). Go google for it and look at its general ranking and subject ranking for BME (and “medicine: reserch”, and “life science: human biology”) etc. You will be in for a surprise!
@JenniferClint The quantity and quality of biomedical research institutes situated at a particular location depend on the caliber of the universities and research hospitals there. Cambridge has Harvard and MIT, and Mass General Hospital, Beth Israel Hospital, Brigham and Women’s Hospital. What does Durham offer, apart from Duke and its associated hospital? That’s why numerous technical publications (I will leave it to you to find them yourself) celebrate Cambridge as the biohub center of USA (with Palo Alto being the IT hub of USA).
This matters, a lot, to undergrads who would want to work part-time term-time at these research institutes and hospitals. Lots of MIT and Harvard undergrads do that at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, and MIT Whitehead Institute, and Mass General Hospital, Norvatis etc
This importance cannot be overstated.
(OP, I am so concerned about your misconception (which I quoted above) that I went through the trouble of creating this account in order to correct it. If this bothers some Duke supporter, oops, that’s not my intention.)
@JenniferClint you are interested in a detailed study of the outcome of AB Duke scholar versus those who went to HYPSM. Unfortunately, your interest is not shared by the vast majority of the people all over the world. The latter ask “where did you go to school?”, and hear “Harvard” or “Duke”. And that’s all they ever want to know. And they will respond accordingly “Wow, you must be very intelligent” or “[smile, while wondering where Duke is. east coast? west coast?]” They won’t probe further (that is, unless OP tell them he gave up Harvard for Duke, in which case they will probe: “why?”)
Is that prestige worth $30,000 x 4, which OP has emphasized is “difficult but manageable for my family”, but which has been (deliberately?) distorted by numerous Duke supporters as going into debt (till 40 years old! oh the horror)?
Personally for me, this prestige (plus Harvard is objectively better in BME than Duke, as measured by academic criteria published by ARWU) is worth, way (way!) more than $30,000 x 4, if it is “difficult but manageable for my family”. But, one man’s meat is another man’s poison. So, to each his own. Just trying to make sure you, OP, has the right info about Harvard’s BME ranking versus Duke, and Cambridge’s standing as a biohub versus Durham. The rest is up to you and your family.
My comment is more general. You do not have to know what you are majoring in or what you might do after graduation, yet, and it is healthy to stay open. Especially since you have diverse interests. Clearly for BME you have to start early but you can change early too.
My point is just to be careful about what you base decisions on. Pay attention to the usual criteria like cost, location, size of program, curriculum and especially- vibe.
Also, as you must know, you can major in anything and go to med school. Prerequisites must be done, either in undergrad or one of the many post-baccalaureate programs for that purpose (Goucher has one, as an example, but there are many).
@JenniferClint I would bet any money the answer is none. My D turned down Harvard for a state flagship premier scholarship. She is still friends with a student she met at the interview weekend for her scholarship who declined and chose Harvard. They met again at a workshop recently. They both will be interning in the same industry this summer. My D actually will be working at the more prestigious company. She is at another workshop this weekend and ran into a student she went to a top high school summer program with who now attends a T20. Turns out both will be interning for the same company this summer. I hear the same stories from others in her scholarship program and from alums. For those who get to choose between a top end scholarship like AB Duke and Harvard, there will be no difference in outcome, well except for the money spent. And I’d dare say when you compare experiences, you may be surprised at which one had the more robust college experience due to all of the extras offered by the scholarship program.
Thank you all very much! Having considering everything, from my family’s financial status to Harvard’s less than optimal aid (about 40K a year, which I’d have to take loans for), I’ve decided to attend Duke next year. However, it was incredible to hear all the perspectives and even though I don’t have any outstanding regrets, I’m only going to work harder to make up for any opportunities I might have missed out on at Harvard.
Congratulations! Make us proud 
You would’ve missed out on opportunities if you had attended Harvard. Not vice versa.
Congratulations!