I’ve been accepted as a transfer to these two schools from a top 30 public school. I want to do BME and Premed, and I’m still fairly undecided on which path I want to pursue more. Which school gives me a good, employable BME degree while also allowing me to maintain a good enough GPA for med school? I’m not opposed to Evanston as a place, but I prefer the weather and social structure in Nashville and Vanderbilt. Where should I go?
I would say Vanderbilt. Northwestern doesn’t really have a good premed program. My sibling goes there and says everyone that hopes to pursue premed/science when entering begins with their chem or bio class like all premed students do, and end up dropping out because it’s way too hard, and then sets a new path because now they think premed isn’t their thing. NU is more of journalism, theatre, english kind of place than science and math unless it’s graduate school. and yes, winter in Evanston is death. In addition, I had my interview for Vanderbilt, and it’s known as the happiest university in the nation with a no-loan system so that’s another thing. I didn’t get in though 
hope this helps!
Well, I do not have any direct exposure to pre-med at Northwestern, but will like to point out one data point.
In terms of number of medical school applicants from any undergrad school, Northwestern is 5th highest among all private universities: after Cornell, Duke, Johns Hopkins, and WUSTL. Large and good public universities like Berkeley, UCLA, and Michigan have significantly more.
^ Actually UCLA sends more than any other!
You are so wrong about Northwestern’s STEM.
Northwestern has top programs in chemistry (7th), material sciences (2nd), industrial engineering (4th), and BME (9th). Its math and most other engineering are in the top-20. Furthermore, its integrated science program (ISP) is as good as any science program in the country, including those at MIT/Caltech, as evident by the fact that 3 ISP majors won Goldwater in the same year several years ago, whereas most peer schools had no more than 2 winners.
I’m just speaking in terms of people I know who go there. I obviously don’t go there so I don’t know about the stats. the stats are great but real life stories are important too. the fact that people drop out of chem and sciences is true and the fact that so many people are so stressed at NU that they end up going to CAPS, a counseling program for psychological problems is true as well. again, anyone can learn about a school’s stats but not enough people know what really goes on inside
@bongdali - your comments against Northwestern seem personal?
People drop out of pre-medical track everywhere. There are only 20,000 seats in US medical schools each year .The number of college freshmen who wants to become doctors is several times higher. Pre-med biology and chemistry classes discourage quite a few, because, honestly, students are better of looking at other options sooner than later (e.g., finding that they cannot get a decent MCAT score and then trying to figure what to do with their biology undergrad).
As I said earlier, no. of applicants for medical school from Northwestern undergrads is higher than those from any Ivy (outside of Cornell, which also has a much higher total no. of undergrads), or other selective schools like Stanford, University of Chicago, Rice, or Vanderbilt. So, I don’t think one can conclude that Northwestern is unduly discouraging many that would have done fine elsewhere. JHU, WUSTL, and Duke have higher no. of applicants, but I think the no. of incoming students interested in pre-med could very well be much higher there (because these schools are most known for their medical program).
This is ridiculously untrue.
So if I managed to get through my first year at a state school surviving (getting A-'s in) the weed out intro level chem and physics classes, would I be ok at Northwestern in the higher level sciences or is that too hard to predict. I don’t really want to risk not going to med-school because I know I really want to, and I have more clinical and medical research exposure than most my age do. I’m not just like so… ya I think I wanna be a doctor. I feel like at Vandy, I have a pretty high chance at med school. I’m afraid Northwestern will turn me in a completely different direction. Is this a valid enough fear to choose Vandy over NU even though I prefer Northwestern as a school academically. There are many smaller things I like about Vandy like food, weather, low stress, proximity to hospital, brand new engineering facility that opens this fall, but these are all smaller side aspects.
I went to Nashville just a few weeks ago and Vanderbilt is alive and well. Weather was great and campus was beautiful. If you like the social structure of Nashville and Vanderbilt more, then go there. I have my personal qualms with Northwestern and Chicago (traffic, social conditions, city conditions, etc etc) but consider the location that you choose as a solid beginning to life as a young adult - both schools can provide a great education but the locations are vastly different.
If you are doing well at a State School and want to do medical school, why do you want to go to either Northwestern or Vanderbilt? Transfer students can have a blip in performance at the new institution which can kill your medical school chances.
I agree with @osuprof: If you’re doing well academically at a top 30 public, and are getting “clinical and medical research exposure” (through your current school? it’s not clear), then why are you so bent on transferring?
There’s also the question of cost, as Vandy/NU presumably will cost quite a bit more than your current school. Why not save the $ for grad school?
FYI about Vandy pre-med:
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/vanderbilt-university/1814340-vanderbilt-premed-weed-out.html
But I agree with the posters above that if you’re doing well where you are and are set on medicine, why transfer?