Pre-med anywhere should be expected to be cutthroat competitive, since getting into medical school is an elite-or-bust path. Many frosh pre-meds abandon the idea when they see that their GPA is not high enough; of those who apply to medical schools, half get no admissions.
Also, medical school is expensive, so saving money and avoiding debt in undergraduate can be helpful. You are probably looking at $200,000 debt for a UC medical school as a California resident, or $320,000 debt for a private medical school.
Cornell’s location may not be ideal if you want to apply to UC medical schools, because of more difficult / expensive travel logistics for short-notice medical school interviews.