I am an international student who has been accepted to both Carnegie Mellon University - Mellon College of Science and Washington University in St Louis - College of Arts and Sciences. My major is yet undecided but somewhere along the lines of combining biology with CS, finance, humanities, etc. I also want to stay on a pre-med track. WashU’s pre-med is said to be better but the computational biology program at CMU is very attractive. While WashU’s campus, dorms, etc are amazing, I’ve heard that it isn’t exactly a very accepting place for international students. As for CMU, while the opportunities are endless and employability is very high, its premed and biology programs don’t really stand anywhere in the rankings. Also, the prestige of CMU is much more than WashU from what my experience has been. The cost of both is the same for me. What do you suggest I do?
Unless you can become a US resident in your UG years, it is not advisable to be a premed in US. Less than 200 international students are accepted by US medical school per year and Majority of those are from Canada. The admission rate for non-Canadian applicants are less than 1% to say the least.
Hands down CMU is a better school for sure. It’s academic rigor, intellect of student body, and STEM focus can’t be beat by any school in the US including the ivy league.