<p>It is hard to say that going to an Ivy League school will not give the student an advantage in income or career status. That perception is very strong, and people basically believe what they want to believe anyway. If anyone is seriously considering going into heavy debt in order to attend an Ivy instead of a school where they can save money, they need to read the first chapter of "Harvard Schmarvard" by Jay Mathews. In it, the author presents anecdotal evidence such as what schools that the top 10 Fortune 500 CEO's graduated from, or the most influential newspaper editors, or the governors, or the senators. More importantly, he presents the statistical evidence that was obtained by a database of seventy-five thousand students who enrolled in thirty-four colleges in the years 1951, 1976, and 1989 that is available at the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Research Center.</p>