Dr. J, I understand your dilemma. I'm in at Brown, and also deciding between Brown and other schools, though my decision is complicated by other factors that I don't want to go into here.
When I went for my interview at Brown, I really loved it. Honestly, what impressed me the most about the school was the students--literally every single one I met was intelligent, well spoken, warm, interesting, and, get this, normal. It felt like the kind of place where people discuss intelligent things, but they also have a life and aren't obsessed with their careers. I loved the personal attention I feel that you get there, which I suspect shines during the clinical rotations especially. I don't know why PLMEs get a bad rep- I don't personally know any of them, but my guess is you must be able to walk on water to get into that program. As somebody else mentioned, the Dean seems to be scaling down the % of the class with PLMEs and increasing the number of standard route students. All the other interviewees I met that day were impressive.
Personally, I checked out Case last summer when I happened to be in the area, and immediately took it off my list of schools to apply. Cleveland? First of all--and I really hate this--you need a car to get anywhere. I infinitely prefer to walk/bike, and I love the feeling of a small city rather than a spread out landscape of disconnected neighborhoods. Providence seems like a much more pleasant and comfortable place to live. And Case just didn't seem exciting to me.
To be honest, though, for you, I think ultimately your decision should be one of location, if in your mind all else is equal. If you look at Brown's match list, it is absurdly impressive (admittedly to my pre-med eyes) in the Northeast. If you want to live or get a residency anywhere from Boston to, say, Phili, I think Brown will carry you much further in that regard. If you want to settle in the Midwest, I suppose Case would get a slight edge, if any.
Feel free to PM me for more thoughts or to discuss further. Good luck deciding!
