Random thoughts in no particular order
Expensive: I’d bet by time you potentially could graduate from med school, COA for privates and/or OOS publics will commonly exceed 500K, not counting interest. As med school is often paid for via loans, it’s good you’re thinking about COA at these colleges. Consider the college where you will graduate with as little debt as possible.
lack of professor contact: S attended very large CA school where students are grains of sands at the beach. There was no committee letter available. You just have to make yourself known to your profs, period. It’s not magic. And you don’t want just generic LORs, but strong ones which will only come from profs who actually know you. Don’t wait until end of junior year. Be proactive early on no matter where you’re at. And as LORs are submitted electronically, schools offer service (Interfolio) whereby once you have a letter writer, prof can send it to your Interfolio file, school will store it, and submit it when you’re ready.
Majors: “Marquette…biomedical sciences major seems weak"
Quoting Marquette’s website “Medical schools don’t require particular undergraduate majors.”
Quoting Creighton’s website “Students are accepted into medical … schools with a wide variety of academic backgrounds. No particular major is given preference. In choosing a major the rule is to follow your own interests. Ideally, the major should be one that will support an alternate career.
Quoting Illinois website: “…Illinois does not offer a major in pre-med. Instead, this is a pre-professional track. Pre-professional tracks allow an advisor to assist you in educational goals (leading towards your goal of med school) no matter what your major is”.
Do you get the picture? Pick a major that interests you as you’re more likely to do well (GPA wise) if you like material which will be of great importance to med schools. Also consider a major that offers a Plan B post college if you change your mind. Most med students pick a bio major because it kills two birds with one stone (satisfies premed and major reqs at same time.)
As to “being weak”: I’m not sure how you can evaluate this. Premed reqs will be essentially the same at any of the above. You might have jerks teaching them which could make your life challenging, but do you know right now who will be teaching premed reqs when you are actually taking them? It’s a chance ((teacher turns out to be jerk) you’ll take at any of above schools you apply/enroll. Also realize that premed bio, physics, chem etc are just bio, physics, chem courses, not bio, chem, etc with MCAT in mind. You’ll need some additional prep when time comes at all of the above schools.
very large, lots of competition / hard to differentiate myself there: only thing that is important is what you submit to med schools, not what your classmates are doing. It’s not important that you differentiate yourself from your classmates, especially if they’re other premeds, as most will end up choosing alternate career pathways.
As your college experience will be unique, nobody here will remove all your doubts. You’re talking about leaving the nest and venturing out on your own. It’s scary. Have you talked to your parents, counselors, etc…What’s your instinct telling you. In final analysis, all of above schools will provide you with tools you need to be a competitive med school applicant. Whether or not you become such an applicant is on you. Good luck.