UVA - Alumni/ae relation = Very Important

Any suggestions for specific schools that have Ivy-like benefits but not the single digit Ivy selectivity and legacy issues?

Which benefits are you looking for?

Carnegie-Mellon has low legacy and 25.5% admissions. The school of computer science there has the highest average salary straight out of an undergrad program than any other school. But no secret handshake admissions to the Illuminati that I heard of.

According to Payscale's Best Schools for Computer Science Majors CMU computer science grads start out well at $81,300 on average but are exceeded by graduates of Standard and a few other schools.

I was going by the Forbes list:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/susanadams/2013/04/12/25-college-diplomas-with-the-highest-pay/
Which puts CMU CS at 84,400

either way, Carnegie looks good. But one comment hit, where was Harvey Mudd. If they had all those females. I heard female engineering students are making way more because firms are trying to hire more women in STEM. Someone from GM told me they paid the women much more than the men.

http://www.payscale.com/college-salary-report-2014/best-schools-by-type/engineering-schools
this showed Caltech and Harvey Mudd and on potential Carnegie didn't make the top.

I am partial to Rice University - 16% acceptance rate and lots of medical and other internship opportunities close by.

I am OK with high selectivity just as long as it's based on academic merit alone.

I want my DD to have peers at university as intelligent and hard working ( or even more so ) than her.

There are other selective factors at work, though, because a great many high-ability candidates are selecting their way out, because the sticker price is too high. We would only achieve a true meritocracy if admissions were strictly based on ability, and price was not a barrier.