@imthereal - those are all issues related to the reputation of the medical school. I don’t necessarily agree with all of them, but they’re irrelevant in this discussion because the OP is choosing an undergraduate school, not a medical school. On that front, I totally disagree with you - name doesn’t matter that much when applying to medical school; students go to top medical schools from all over the country. I also find it hard to believe that fellowship directors (who are accepting you after you have completed an MD and a residency) are going to care where you went for undergrad either.
Your threads seem to indicate that you are a senior in high school, so I am curious as to where you are gleaning these conclusions. Your cousins’ situation is unfortunately - but they’re also an N = 2, and there are many other factors at play wrt competition for residencies.
Besides, whether or not UCLA will do better than Elon or Pfeiffer at getting OP into med school is kind of irrelevant, too, because UCLA is an OOS public for the OP. It won’t offer much merit aid, leaving the OP faced with paying nearly $220K over four years before even going to med school. That means she would face around $400K in debt after medical school - which is unsustainable even for well-paid doctors.
OP, in addition to looking at places like Elon and Pfeiffer (which are both private) you should also check out your state’s really good public universities - not only UNC-Chapel Hill and NCSU but also UNC-Asheville, UNC-Wilmington, Appalachian State, UNC-Charlotte and UNC-Greensboro.