I’m thinking schools in Boston like Tufts, BU, or Northeastern. Vanderbilt In Nashville. Maybe Emory or Georgia Tech in Atlanta. Excellent cities to explore that happen to have great universities.
@platypusomelette - with your legacy at Cornell and your high SAT 1 & 2 scores, you should have a shot at Cornell. Put Brown and UPenn on your list too since those are top 3 based on your school data. Have you visited Cornell/other Ivies? JHU and Emory are good choices too, not sure about Tufts. If you like Boston, Noreastern is a better choice for bio/pre-med.
Agree with a lot of the suggestions on here, but keep U Rochester on the list too. I’m not as familiar with specifics in their Bio research, so check on that. I know I heard a ton of interesting topics being researched by other undergrads. Before my lad headed more into neuro/cognitive he was researching G Proteins if I recall correctly. I know the specifics were new at the time. Tossing G Proteins and U Rochester into a google search it looks like they know a lot more about it now - quite a bit published since his year of working on it.
You should add Rice to your list. It is located in a nice part of Houston called the museum district, and Rice is right across the street from the Houston medical center. There are lots of opportunities for bio research, internships, etc. Students at Rice can choose to major in any discipline (with the exception of music and architecture which require audition or portfolio) and can change majors freely. Rice students do not have to declare a major(s) until the end of sophomore year. Unfortunately Rice doesn’t have ED 2, but might be worth an RD application if you are willing to look at a college in the south. Although its tuition has been going up, Rice tends to have slightly lower tuition prices than some other top 20 schools…
Rice and Vanderbilt are two more top flight Universities. They are further examples why everything is not about the Ivies. Both of these Universities are well equipped in your areas of interest
As you know, the growth of knowledge in science and technology areas are exploding. Change is rapid. Education is best understood as your launching pad into a continuous and open minded process self education. These attitudes are reflected by a student body and a faculty which is not handicapped by an inflexible administration. Interdisciplinary thinking is an integral part of this process. Are your fellow students in competition with you for grades or are they in dialogue WITH you as you listen and cooperate to find joint problem solutions?
I mention Tufts because I believe they have worked administratively in these directions, but I have no first hand experience regarding their student body. The buzz I have heard about Rice is very positive with all these above concerns. WPI is very serious in implementation of these approaches. It is not just lip service.
Regardless of where you go, you want to find a home. This is why you hear me talk about also paying attention to the “other” activities of interest to you. Get involved in a direction which interests you.
WPI '67
Regarding graduate school and income:
As you may well know, a BS or a BA degree in biology rarely leads to well compensated employment. Graduate school is the frequently sought solution to this problem. I have two nieces who fell in love with the Life Sciences. One went to Case Western Reserve and the other went to MIT. Both received fine educations.
Although the MIT student had superb grades and enjoyed the field, conversation with graduate students in the MIT labs discouraged her from her dream of a career with her own research lab. They painted a realistic picture of a ten year commitment to researching at low wages before she would obtain her own laboratory. She took her BS and went on law school. She went into patent law with a large Boston Law Firm before she was recruited by some fellow MIT grads as the legal arm of their relatively small but promising new firm.
The younger Case Western sister was not discouraged and stuck to her interests in a brand new specific specialty in genetics where there are almost no graduate programs. She actually moved home for a couple of years and continued to search around for of the very rare opportunities available in her area of interest. She just landed a related position in a Texas Hospital lab which works on these issues. She hopes this is her venue to continue her interest and to finally obtain graduate studies in this new area.
My point?
Some universities have a wide range of options aside from graduate school to pursue your options. Both MIT and Case Western offered these options, but these students were not aware or were not fully informed of related options and when related decisions could be made. Take a look at Biomedical engineering. It relates life sciences to ME, to EE and to Chem Eng as well as med school. On average 1/3 to med school, 1/3 to grad school and 1/3 to direct employment. Find out what they are.
As a point of reference regarding Biomedical Engineering, check out the BS salaries and graduate school placement available on the WPI website by downloading the PDF report @ https://www.wpi.edu/student-experience/career-development/outcomes About 60% of the students with this major at WPI are women and I believe that is common with this major. JHU is very big in this area.
Happy Hunting!