Private college is gonna be as much as 80K/yr. Med school at least that, too. So if you spend 320K on college, do you have another 400K to spend on med school?
You’re a very strong candidate. No, NJ doesn’t give you geographical diversity anywhere. The rest of the country considers all of NJ, even Cape May, to be either a bedroom community for NYC, or extraordinarily poor slum cities, which I have a feeling you don’t come from.
How good are you on violin? If you are really good, consider Harvard with a music supplement. Harvard takes great pride in its orchestras.
Unless you’re considering going the MD-PhD route, consider majoring in anything other than Bio, if you have any other interest that you love. Bio majors are a dime a dozen among med school applicants. Med schools like taking engineers, language, music, history, religion, anything other than bio majors. But if your true love is bio, and you’re into basic science research, and would consider going the MD-PhD route, then that is the answer to your finances, because your entire MD-PhD would not only be free, but you’d also get paid a stipend.
Rutgers 7yr BS/MD. The College of New Jersey (which has a 7 yr undergrad/med school program too). I think you’d be a very strong candidate for either, and for you, it’s in-state tuition. Also, I cannot overemphasize the value of being able to go home for a weekend for laundry, sleep, quiet place to study, and a home-cooked meal during pre-med and med school.