@monydad No one is suggesting they’re chopped liver. but you’re cherry picking with the acceptance rates. USC’s School of Cinematic Arts has an acceptance rate that is a fraction of a percent, but that doesn’t reflect their overall rate. Cornell’s overall acceptance rate is more than twice that of Harvard, Yale, etc. There are a fair number of “non-Ivy” schools that are more selective – Stanford, MIT and CalTech of course, but also Northwestern, UChicago, Vanderbilt, Duke, etc.
And no, I was not joking about the STEM comment. Most people consider MIT, CalTech, Carnegie Mellon, GA Tech as being widely known for STEM. Cornell is known for other specialties. That said, the stats you cite about Cornell being one of the top feeders for stem graduate programs is impressive. U of Illinois consistently ranks highly for computer science and engineering, but most people don’t think of U of I as being widely known for STEM.
As for financial aid, I’m going by Cornell’s own article that was linked here. Most schools claim to meet financial need, but the way they define “need” varies, as does the way they define “meet”. According to the referenced article, Cornell’s definition of “need” is not as generous as Harvard or Yale’s, Also, Cornell “meets” this need, in part, with loans, while other schools do not require loans.
I’m not saying Cornell is something to sneeze at, but if someone were simply going after an “Ivy” brand, Cornell would be one of the easier means of obtaining it.