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<p>The sentiment of your last sentence is correct. Attending a top school gives you a better (not guaranteed, but better) shot at a better employe who can provide you with more valuable experience. Hence, advantages tend to accumulate. </p>
<p>Naturally, you have to actively pursue those opportunities. If you graduate from MIT only to take a mediocre engineering job that provides little useful experience, then you’ve squandered much of the value of the MIT experience. </p>
<p>However, it should also be said that much of the value of a name-brand college is in the networking. Graduating from MIT provides access to an alumni network that is well connected throughout the top tiers of the world’s engineering industry. That alone may provide entree to career opportunities that graduates from lower-ranked schools won’t even know about. For example, I recently met an entrepreneur who obtained funding from a VC firm where one of the partners just so happened to be his old MIT dormmate from years ago. Other entrepreneurs may have had ideas just as impressive, but they don’t know the venture capitalist in question, so they’re not funded.</p>