This is a very limited sample size of 1, but:
I went to my state school on a full-ride and I feel the education I got out of here was excellent.
Biochemistry, physics, other class is the same material no matter where you go. If you put the effort in you will learn.
One problem about my very large school was I had to be careful to find a good teacher who wasn't an evil grader for some of my classes.
I think that at my school there were a lot of professors who basically thought of teaching as an afterthought. It was an obligation they had to fulfill but what they really came to work every day for was research etc. I think this is a pt for liberal arts schools. I think professors come there to teacher. However if the school is small there might only be 1 professor teaching a required class and said teacher might be a tough sob which will require you to work your butt off. The hardest classes I ever had were organic chem and intro english which were difficult respectively because I took teachers with high standards.
Another problem is that a famous name does not a good teacher make. I remember for intro chemistry my freshmen year I was placed in a class with a very famous and prestigious researcher and despite his best efforts to teach (teacher was a good guy and the TA also worked his butt off) I had to do a lot of book/self learning because I got little out of lecture.
About research, I think the comparison above about proton therapy versus fruit flies is unfair. All these researchers secured a grant. So whatever research you do it's going to be cutting edge work. The fruit fly, E Coli, other model organisms are an important part of advancing science. If the comparison is basic science (on the lab bench) to clinical then I guess you can find clinical by going to the school that has a medical school affiliation.
In the end, I got a high GPA at my school (not quite a 4.0) , years of research experience, a little clinical experience (was my fault for not pursuing this earlier). I also did very well on my MCAT (40+).
So I applied this year and got some interviews. What struck me is that at everywhere I went med students were disproportionately from more prestigious undergrads. Some of this might be because of the quality of students that said prestigious undergrads attracts but I think at least a good part of it is institutional bias. So anecdotaly I feel that there's an advantage to going to a more prestigious school. However the good students at my university succeed regardless (and I have friends from my school heading to Harvard med and Stanford med next year) but many of the slightly-more-middle-of-the-road students (those who got low 30's MCATS and 3.7+ GPAs but really didn't do anything too out of the ordinary to stand out) either don't get in at all or only to the state school/lower tier school. Maybe this is a problem everywhere but the students at the prestigious schools just know how to stand out a bit better. Personally I didn't do quite as well as I'd hoped but I'm still going to a good med school (as if there are non-good ones?) next year.
Wow, that was a rant. Hopefully it helped.
Oh ya, in terms of the schools above:
Assuming you're from NY, I think you ought to pick between your SUNY and your favorite liberal arts school. The SUNY will be cheaper ($$) and has an affiliated med school which could provide for clinical experiences and clinical research. The liberal arts school will be a smaller pond. The professors there came there to teach. You will have the more movie-esque college experience. Also I think that there is a certain degree of prestige at Colgate and Bucknell. Those are nationally known private schools. However it'll be expensive.
Also maybe you'll go to school for a few years and realize medicine just isn't for you but you really like business or engineering or philosophy etc. Enjoy school. Keep an open mind.