<p>Keshira:</p>
<p>“But you’ll find that those who go to a Top 20 ON AVERAGE are more successful in their careers.”</p>
<p>“Though I agree it’s arguable whether this is because of the quality of the university or the quality of the applicants.”</p>
<p>There are several studies that compare “success rates” on the basis of looking at entire student bodies. The results of these studies seem to vary between a very slight advantage, to a somewhat significant advantage for the elite schools. The glaring problem with such studies, however, as you have hinted at above, is that there are no controls applied in these studies which would account for differences in the characteristics of the students themselves: things like High School GPA, entrance test scores, family education level, family income, etc. The real question should be, how do outcomes compare for GROUPS OF SIMILAR STUDENTS, the answer to which provides the closest answer to, “how would results vary for any given student?”, or even, “how would results differ for YOU?” There appear to be relatively few studies available that look at things this way, but those that have been done seem to suggest virtually no significance associated with school prestige. Of course, you can always question such studies from the point of view of the criteria defining “success”.</p>