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if you look at aggregate graduate rankings the ranking is as follows: Berkeley, Harvard, Stanford, Michigan…everybody else;
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if you look at the undergraduate division, somehow there is a theory that despite having one of the most decorated faculties in the country (in the top 5 in the country, fellowships attained, patents, citation strength…), and despite having among the best facilities in the country, the undergraduate division is presumed to be in some sort of bubble where it is divorced from the graduate schools and is ranked 29th in the country. The reality is that the upper 3 quartiles of the undergraduate population can compete anywhere. 2/3 of the undergraduate population has an Ivy league board score and the top quartile has an Ivy league board score and a perfect GPA. Note that Michigan’s top quartile on a standalone basis is larger than Harvard’s entire undergraduate population and matriculates with roughly the same metrics as an entering Ivy League student. Despite all of the foregoing, Michigan seems to be ranked on the basis of the bottom quartile.
If you summarize the above paragraph, Michigan is in the same neighborhood as Cornell.
If you look at the joint space for graduate school and for the undergraduate division (i.e., combined), the matriculants at Michigan are not so radically different than the students at Penn or Cornell. This can be substantiated by looking at the rate at which Michigan students enter elite programs and by measuring post-graduate accomplishments.