In that case, what matters most is fit. My son and I visited every college in your title. He applied to four of them, and was admitted to three. Every one of them is excellent, but each fits some students better than others.
Two things to to consider before choosing a college. The first thing is that most students change their mind about what they want to study. My daughter intended to be pre-med until a few months before high school graduation. She also changed her major after she arrived in college, and her story is typical. You might be pretty sure now you want to be a doctor now, but once in college, you may find many other areas that interest you. And that’s fine because every college you listed will let you change majors easily.
But let’s assume you really decide to stick with medicine. You can do pre-med from any major. To be pre-med you simply have to fill a specific set of requirements which can be done regardless of major. People become doctors after getting an undergraduate degree in areas ranging from Computer Science, English Literature, Engineering, and Philosophy. And of course Biology, because that naturally fits with the pre-med requirements. But note biology majors that don’t attend medical school have limited career prospects without further study.
MIT is academically intense AND competitive (I am an alum). MIT will tell you they are all about collaboration, and that is true, but it is the students that push themselves to their limits. Some find this exhilarating and learn what they are really capable of at MIT. Others find this environment doesn’t suit them. Pre-med at MIT is difficult but possible, as the following student blog discusses:
https://mitadmissions.org/blogs/entry/premed/
Princeton is academically intense but the impression we get is that it’s not competitive. Beautiful campus in a lovely small town if that’s your thing. I visited it with both my kids. My son loved the environment but my daughter is a city girl and took one look and was ready to leave mid-tour. But it’s well known to be the most undergraduate focused among the schools you listed and I hear the support system is great. Preparing for MCAT can be difficult because Princeton requires two papers during junior year and a senior thesis which are a lot of work. But Princeton students still do well in terms of medical school admissions, with roughly 90% getting into medical school.
Johns Hopkins has a reputation for being academically intense across all departments and being competitive for medical school. Because it is known as a great school for pre-med, many students apply saying they are interested in becoming a doctor and they actually face a more difficult application process because they have too many aspiring doctors and not nearly as many future liberal arts PhDs as they would like. I think your chances of admission are good either way. A downside is that Hopkins is in an unsafe city so you have to be careful off campus.
Harvard can be as easy or as difficult as you want to make it. It, along with Yale, Dartmouth, and Brown are considered the “easy Ivys”. At Harvard, half the class gets an A- or better in each class, and the average GPA is near 3.7. It is more selective than the other colleges you listed but may make sense for EA as I mentioned earlier.
I know Penn the least well among the colleges on your title. It does have an advantage of having the medical school on the main campus, which provides for great research opportunities.
In terms of lower reaches, you should take a serious look at Rice in Houston. Very undergraduate focused, beautiful campus and competes for the “happiest students” award. And a big benefit for Rice is that the world’s largest hospital complex, the Texas Medical Center, is literally right across the street so ample opportunities for research. Vanderbilt also competes for happiest students and another benefit re Vanderbilt is that you are likely competitive for one of their full-tuition scholarships.
In addition to these schools, you may want to add some LACs, as you can get a great pre-med education at many places. I have tagged @MWolf who understands LACs better.
