You are in a good position right now, an in-state program is so much better. This is one of the best post I have ever read. People who don't know anything about medicine think that attending a "Big Name" medical school means you were either 'special' or received a better education. In truth, all it means is that you paid $70,000 per year for the same education you could have received for $40,000 a year. There are two phases in every medical school. During first two years Basic Sciences, students study subjects such as microbiology, histology, physiology and biochemistry. The content of these courses is the same regardless if your school is on the East or West coast, North or South. Nobody learns medicine by listening to an instructor lecture. Medicine is learned by hours and hours of studying. So pharmacology at one school is the same pharmacology being taught at another school. The difference in outcomes is the quality of the student.
As for research, it is logical that you would choose a school conducting research in the area that interests you. All medical schools are required to have research projects and must make research opportunities available to every student. But the truth is, most students do not have the time or the interest for research.
Clinical rotations are also divided into two phases. Every medical student must complete the same rotations through the major medical specialties: Internal Medicine, General Surgery, Pediatrics (or Family Medicine), Psychiatry and Ob/Gyn. These are called the Core Rotations and are usually done in the third year of medical school. What many people do not know is that this training can only be done at hospitals that are certified in that specialty (there is an accreditation process for each medical specialty). Once accredited, that facility is known as being "Green Booked" for that specialty. There are very few institutions that are Green Booked for every medical specialty, which means that students have to move around to various facilities to complete their rotations. This is especially common during the fourth and final year of medical school when students are doing their elective rotations. Electives are where students get to choose rotations in specialties that interest them.
The bottom line is that any medical school is like basic training for physicians. It really doesn't matter where you are, you're going to be learning the same thing as any other medical student. And the only thing that influences how well you do is your own abilities.
Nobody in medicine cares where you went to medical school. It holds about as much interest as when you were in college and somebody asked what high school you went to. That's because people already working in medicine know that one medical school is as good as another. There is a constant quality assurance program overseeing every medical school to assure that the education at one school is as good as the education at any other.
What does matter is where you are trained for your specialty. Not only does it matter where you start your residency, but it's also important where you finish. In a typical three year residency program there are a large number of slots available for the first year, probably half that number for the second year and then again half that number for the third year. Getting into a program is not a guarantee that you will stay in that program. The stronger residents will be asked to stay, or offered a slot in the next year. The residents not selected have to apply to other programs. But that's a two-way street. Residents not doing as well are moving to lesser quality programs while residents who did well in the lesser programs are moving up to the better programs.
From the moment you enter medical school all the way through your residency training, everything you do is going to be reviewed by a potential employer. Everything is documented, so they know how good of a physician you became. They'll base their offer to you on that. If you are great, there will be several offers competing for you. If you weren't so hot, you'll be mailing out job applications.