<p>One of my d.'s mentors is the chair of the composition program at the Univ. of Oregon, the largest and most prestigious graduate program in composition on the west coast. Unasked, he volunteered that his best graduate students were not coming out of NEC, or Indiana, or Oberlin, etc., but out of Williams. (Doesn't matter - 80% of them will end up happily employed in the computer industry, or health care, or whereever.)</p>
<p>I don't think there are any easy answers to a question like this. You might, for example, get better training/teaching etc. at an Indiana, and less possibility of making a career of it, as you end up thinking of yourself as the little fish in the big pond. Or it might drive you to even greater effort. It might be the better school, and worse for a career - or vice versa.</p>
<p>I think it is a grave error in looking at ANY kind of college possibility to ask what happens to the best students at each of the schools. The best students at all schools - first tier to third tier - tend to do great wherever they go. The big question is what happens to the AVERAGE student - does the school bring out great things in them, or do they simply come to accept their mediocrity?</p>
<p>At any rate, I can only report what I know. The NEC, Rice, Indiana, Oberlin, etc. graduates competed for spots in our opera company (which pays pretty well for a little local company) (there were usually several dozen applicants for every role) with the graduates of the places I posted, and, over a three-year period, not a single one got hired.</p>