@Tigerkat pre-med isn’t a major, it is a parallel curriculum to any major you want. My physician was an art history major. Many pre-med students have a life or physical science major, not all.
Schools differ in how pre-med students are shepherded through the pre-med process. Where I went to undergraduate school, back in the Jurassic period, the college had a pre-med committee. It monitored the progress of all of the pre-med students and closely guided them towards their senior year application process. In a nutshell, the committee members knew the premed students very well. They wrote the recommendation letter for med schools and were fantastic at steering kids towards good fit medical schools. The chair of the committee was very connected in med school circles and was known to nudge a medical school admissions decision if he felt they made a mistake.
Not all colleges have this sort of thing for premed students. You should inquire about that when looking at schools - along with the quality of the department for your intended major. Many highly ranked schools have a department or two which are real dogs. Don’t join one of those departments.
My S20 sounds a lot like you in terms of stats and early approach to list building. He investigated schools very carefully in terms of the quality of the program of his intended major. He was attracted to prestige, but almost every prestigious school got knocked off the list as he compared carefully to our state flagship (tOSU). If fact, a couple of very highly ranked universities were pitifully weak next to tOSU under his pretty objective review of the program and the scholarly work of the faculty. He wanted to find a bunch of schools which had what he wanted academically, but he couldn’t. His list currently has only two schools on it. He’s completely sick of looking at colleges and is pretty disappointed in how few met all of his (admittedly demanding) criteria. One caveat is that a LOT of OOS flagships were great, but, he couldn’t justify paying full price to a State flagship unless it knocked it out of the the park compared to tOSU for his major. He couldn’t find such a place.
I encourage you to start with UMCP, because you absolutely need to worry about finances for med school. Explore which major(s) you would likely pursue. Learn about the faculty. Investigate their scholarly or scientific pursuits. This shapes the tone and quality of the instruction of the whole department, even if those faculty never even talk to undergrads. Then use that as a benchmark against other schools you are interested in. Also understand their premed program. How many students start as premed, and how many finish? And what is their medical school placement rate? Compare this across schools. Some small LACs may give fantastic basic premed class preparation, but are nowhere near opportunities for shadowing docs or participating in volunteer activities in medicine. Some are adjacent to world-class medical facilities (U of Rochester, e.g.).
You are a spectacular candidate who will bring a lot to any school lucky enough to get you. You are spending not only your money, but your time there. Which place is going to prepare you best for the next step? Fit matters, but so does the quality of the education. You have sought the best in HS, so don’t stop now. Find the best that can be found, you may find it is at UMCP, or at a highly selective school, or a small LAC. Have an open mind, ask many questions and look beyond the college admissions presentation. But satisfy yourself that your precious four years in college are affording you the best. You’ve earned that.