<p>I’m not positive, but I think that if a student is good enough to get into the prestigious private institutions that you mentioned, they would likely graduate at the top of their class at a state university, thereby increasing their ability to get a decent job out of college. Also, some of the top state schools are fairly well respected by employers (i.e. Virginia, Michigan, Wisconsin, etc.) so going to one of those schools and doing well is not necessarily a bad thing.</p>