I get the feeling that you are overwhelmed by the sheer number of choices that are out there in terms of prestigious LACs. There are an awful lot of them that operate under the radar of even the most sophisticated families. To address this, I’ve created a thread entitled, “An Outsider’s Guide to National LACs” with an initial list of 29 schools listed alphabetically with a few sentences designed to give a quick impression that will motivate you to do further research:
They span all parts of the country; they are all expensive; they all have fairly deep pockets in terms of need-based financial aid. AND, they all have pre-med programs.