If you were a N.Y resident, would you rather go to Harvard or a land grant college at Cornell (17k cheaper per year), assuming you had plans to go to pre-med and had to pay full price for med school.
Cornell because it’s a nicer school in general. It just lacks the prestige of Harvard (as does any college).
Also, not all schools at Cornell are land grant supported.
I know I’m talking about a pre-med track in CALS, I’m not sure if the Harvard prestige is worth the 68k in the long run.
You will never be able to justify the additional cost for Harvard if your goal is to get into an accredited medical school and to become a practicing doctor somewhere. The content of your key undergraduate courses won’t be any different and the prestige – understanding that Cornell is a very, very prestigious institution, too – won’t be meaningfully more helpful. Cornell does an excellent job of preparing people for medical school and getting them in. Harvard may have a slight advantage in more opportunities for direct involvement in medical research during the school year (there are more research hospitals on the T system than there are within a two-hour drive from Ithaca, and Harvard’s medical school is nearby, not four hours away). If your goal is to get an MD/PhD and to be on the faculty of a top medical school, Harvard may give you a slightly better shot. But even then, I doubt it’s enough of a difference to justify paying that much more. If you have the kind of ability and drive it takes to do that, you can do what you need to at Cornell.