USNews research uses the amount of NIH/NSF research funding the medical school draws as one of major components in research rankings. This money goes to research, not to medical education or clinical training. So the rankings can be pretty useless for choosing a school where you can get a good educational experience.
The first 2 years of medical education is extremely standardized. All LCME accredited medical schools are required to teach the same material and all medical students take the same national standardized exams at the end of 2nd year and at the end of 3rd year. All 3rd year med students do rotations in all the basic medical/surgical specialties (family med, Internal med, pediatrics, Ob/Gyn, psych, neurology, general surgery). Experiences during clinical rotations will differ because they are dependent upon the particular preceptor you have. Experiences can differ significantly even at the same school because there will be a dozen or more residents and attendings who are preceptors for each specialty rotation and the same preceptors don’t teach every rotation. It’s luck of the draw to certain extent.
But medical school is mostly what you make of it. Even students from low or mid-ranked med school match into top residency programs and into competitive specialties. (And, a little secret–where you do your residency training is more important than where you go to med school.)
The first rule of applying to med school is you go wherever you get accepted. Most applicants get a single acceptance; one-fifth of applicants get their only acceptance off a waitlist over the summer. For most applicants, your home state public medical schools offer the best chance for an acceptance.
Once you have a final GPA and sGPA and a MCAT score, then you can start worrying about what med schools to apply to. You have a very long way to go yet.