There is a term for this discussion, and that is “signaling”. The question is how much of the value of a college degree comes from signaling (or the information conveyed to another person by the fact that you attended college, or perhaps a certain college) relative to human capital (the skills and knowledge acquired from learning in college).
I won’t wade into this debate because it is rather controversial, but just wanted to point out that a larger context exists.
I think MIT and a few other schools are associated with all their grads being quite smart.
But, is the same true at Harvard? At Princeton? At Brown? At Wharton?
Probably to some degree, and on the other hand there may be some skepticism as in “did anyone donate a lot of money?” (Not to mention any names of prominent people we know who attended Harvard and U. Penn with less than the most stellar academics.)
Also, regarding the question of a kid who worked hard in high school going to U. of O. for free with the students who blew off high school. I wonder if that kid might also have a chance to receive a full merit ride at a smaller liberal arts college that might not admit all those kids who blew off high schools. (Or perhaps it would admit those whose families could pay full tuition.)
Look at the ones hiring you for a job. If you look at professional job postings, you see no distinction between schools with a bachelors. The only distinction they make is bachelors or master’s degree. The career world is driven by work experience, which basically means, the longer you’re in the career world, the less your degree matters. 99% of the workforce never went to an ivy league, and the U.S. economy runs just fine. The other 1% work in the exact same economy as everyone else. There’s no “special” economy for ivy league graduates that I’m aware of. Thinking that an ivy league is going to be a golden ticket to wealth is a misguided assumption driven by emotion and ego. The career world has a way of bringing egos down to earth really fast.
OK, I’ll bite 
I agree that experience is the great equalizer and that “the longer you’re in the career world, the less your degree matters”. However, when it comes to getting that early experience (including internships and first real job) what you are studying, where you are studying, and what your network looks like matters.
Last summer my kid had had an internship with about 20 others. The best internships went to kids from Yale, Columbia, Cornell, and UNC. Everyone had to do a presentation at the end. My kid received a note from the president saying they had the best presentation, so she still questions why she was rejected. Maybe grad school?
@homerdog not dismissing that you are grateful for a great education, but there seems to be a misconception that students are at a disadvantage or will find it difficult to have a meaningful experience at a large public and are even worse off at a lower ranked large public.
I attended Ohio University (currently USNWR ranked #151) and had no trouble obtaining an incredibly diverse and meaningful education. I met hundreds of unique individuals and had scores of fantastic experiences and opportunities. I lived in the international dorm with all kinds of diverse students, became friends with people from Greece, Peru, Pakistan (Dad was a high ranking exec at Coca-Cola), Hong Kong, Morocco (Dad was a diplomat), India (Dad was a Bollywood movie director and his mom an actress), many from Appalachia (Dads were a coal minors or farmers), an older student who had served in the military, Chicago, a debutante from Columbus, Cleveland (one kid’s Dad went on to be the Governor of Ohio and another’s mom was a morning show news anchor); you get my point! We spent spring breaks trips in Boston & Toronto instead of Daytona Beach. I had friends in the honors tutorial college (modeled on the Oxbridge tutorial system) and the theater department. I earned my work/study funds in the Center for International Studies where I met and worked with Rhodes & Fulbright scholars and Peace Corps volunteers. I did a study abroad semester at the University of London and took a class at the London School of Economics. My peers have gone on to careers as diverse as a professor at Princeton, editor at a major newspaper in Washington DC, partner at a prestigious national law firm, teacher of HS French in West Virginia, Broadway actor.
If you are willing and able to take advantage of a “prestige brand” school that is a personal choice, and I don’t disagree prestige matters, sometimes, as you say; but, the implication that kids at large publics are surrounded by a bunch of homogeneous, intellectually inferior, party animals is a misconception that needs to be put rest, particularly here on CC. Let’s not perpetuate it!
@labegg Thanks for your post. I only have my own experience to go on and I’m glad to hear yours. In my case, so many of my high school friends went to UIUC and it was virtually all kids from the Chicago suburbs (remember that this is 1985). Lots of kids even decided to live with their high school friends. That was the comparison I was making. I wish I had known to apply to other schools that had greater diversity at a lower price but that was then and this is now!
Life works in mysterious ways. Friend’s kid, chooses state flagship (also accepted to Cornell), got great summer internships including one prominent Silicon Valley public company, after graduation applied to a top-20 law school, received full scholarship (tuition paid all 3 years plus guaranteed paid summer internship at a top corporate law firm ) and likely job offer upon law school graduation. Very bright kid but I don’t think she could have done much better had she paid full price attending a more prestigious top school. Driven, smart kids will be successful if given the opportunity whether its at an ivy or a cheaper, less prestigious flagship. The cream will rise to the top.
@moscott: “For football reasons”
Right, and other people would have reasons specific to them to consider all sorts of other schools even if they got in to MIT.
Prestigious institutions hire the best professors with the highest amount of research output. There’s also more research money available. For example, when I applied for a predoctoral fellowship, strength of the institution was explicitly mentioned as a criterion for evaluation. I guess my example is less relevant because I’m talking specifically about academia.
@Edwardz, right, but prestige would vary by field.
Rutgers would be prestigious in philosophy, for instance.
Last year, the MIT yield was 76%. It’ll likely be even higher this year. So, fewer than 1 in 4 of the admitted students “consider all sorts of other schools even if they got into MIT.” It’s not at all common to turn down an offer to attend MIT.
http://mitadmissions.org/blogs/entry/class-of-2021-wait-list
@edwardz, thats interesting about the predoctoral fellows. I suppose we can add that to the list of instances where undergraduate prestige is highly significant. And, as @PurpleTitan has pointed out, its the prestige of the department, not necessarily the prestige of the entire university that seems to matter.
@PurpleTitan Meaning if it weren’t for football it wouldn’t even be close for the decision academically.
@moscott, right, and for other people, if it wasn’t for other reasons, the decision may not be close either.
I do believe that rigor matters, but you can seek out rigor many different ways, and life doesn’t end after undergrad.
@PurpleTitan True but typically the discussion revolves around academic comparisons. Of course there can always be outliers beyond that.
@moscott, on the academics, it comes down to options, goals, and researching the details.
Some honors colleges are a joke, some provide rich opportunities. And not all publics are the same either (nor are all privates).
If I can afford to be full-pay but am not rich enough that it wouldn’t be a struggle, to give two examples recently seen on CC:
@PurpleTitan full pay at Stanford for four years comes to $280k, not including any tuition hikes over the next four years. That seems like an absurd amount to pay for an undecided student if you have to “struggle” to accomplish it. Now, if you were rich enough that the money would not be missed, or if it were already saved in a 529 plan, that would be a different matter. But what happens if you get there and decide on a career goal that doesn’t earn a tremendous amount? What if you decide you want grad school in a field where grad school costs a fortune? Any student who can get into Stanford, surely has reasonable options with solid academics and a reasonable price.
At least in the world of finance, where you go to school matters a tremendous amount. Top firms only hire from a very exclusive list of schools. If you’re confident you can do very well at Wharton it Harvars, it’s worth the cost over any state school several times over.
@gallentjill, fair point. Maybe use “uncomfortable” with “struggle”.
@NashSaddle: “over any state school”
So I’m curious what your experience in finance is. Many people here know what the IB, PE, etc. targets are.