I can give you feed-back based on direct experience with my niece and I am sure others will agree. LAC’s are awesome for biology and especially for pre-med given the attention they receive and generally better resources on advisory through the process. Some are rural so that could theoretically limit medical EC opportunities but her’s is rural and she has had no issue at all. Schools like Trinity, Wesleyan, Bates and Bowdoin are either quasi-city schools or close enough to major cities to generate EC’s. Bates is located right next to a teaching hospital affiliated with Boston University Medical, for example.
In terms of cost, the elite schools at that income level assuming there isn’t a family business to mess up the calculation or massive amounts of non-retirement savings, will basically be just room and board or perhaps less.
It is pretty common for students and parents to think this way, but many don’t even know you can major in art history and still go to medical school if you take the prerequisites.