<p>And having said all that above, let me qualify it a bit. I hope this doesn't discourage anyone who can't get into one of the "elite" colleges. </p>
<p>As Stephen Gould (famed scientist who was diagnosed and later died of cancer) wrote, "The median is not the message". Gould at first was discouraged by the short time he was told he had left, then realized the single number didn't really capture reality. See <a href="http://www.cancerguide.org/median_not_msg.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.cancerguide.org/median_not_msg.html</a> </p>
<p>You don't get the average income by attending Harvard, or by Cal-State Northridge. Averages are a single number, but the graph of the incomes earned by the graduates of any college forms a distribution. I suspect the range of any college far overlaps the average of even the elite colleges. Your drive, your work, your personal qualities in the end play a much larger role in determining where you end up on that distribution.</p>