<p>I believe it halps at every step, and why it’s often resented. Not that a small percentage of the hundreds of thousands graduated from large state u’s do not find success, particularly in the local area where connections are good, but the mere 10,000 graduated each year from the eight Ivies finds disproportionate success up and down the business, banking, legal, academic etc. food chains across the nation. It doesn’t mean they are better, but the way out of proportion success is well routed in the type of person who gaims admission, who chooses to go, who gets a top flight education and then makes contacts in the process. </p>
<p>If parents who otherwise, even with sacrifice, could send their children where their chances of success are far greater but instead self-indulgently spend in other areas, they are not acting in their children’s best interests. </p>
<p>The Ivies and their immediate equivalents (not bogus “New” or “near” Ivies) are not right for everyone, not even everyone who can get in, but they offer something special and otherwise unavailable at a state u or a hum-drum private. Especially with terrific financial aid widely available up to 200k incomes, there is far less financial excuse not to obtain what is clearly a premier education and the opportunities that go with it.</p>