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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]It's interesting how much weight and heft people are giving the so-called Ivy and "elite" institutions given that they educate such a small number of the U.S. student population.  In fact, the weight given seems outsize to their actual impact.

Since people in these fora tend to equate "success" with wealth and power" let's take a look at where the leaders of the top 10 Fortune 500 companies went to school.

Doug McMillon (Wal-Mart Stores) — University of Arkansas (BS), University of Tulsa (MBA)
Rex Tillerson (Exxon Mobil) — University of Texas at Austin (BS)
John S. Watson (Chevron) — University of California, Davis (BA), University of Chicago (MBA)
Warren E. Buffett (Berkshire Hathaway) — University of Nebraska (BS), Columbia University (MS)
Tim Cook (Apple) — Auburn University (BS), Duke University (MBA)
Greg C. Garland (Phillips 66) — Texas A&M University (BS)
Mary Barra (General Motors) — General Motors Institute/Kettering University (BS), Stanford University (MBA)
Mark Fields (Ford Motor) — Rutgers University (BA), Harvard University (MBA)
Jeff Immelt (General Electric) — Dartmouth College (BA), Harvard University (MBA)
Joe Gorder (Valero Energy) — University of Missouri-St. Louis (BA), Our Lady of the Lake University (MBA)

Additionally, Forbes list of 30 Under 30 listing the most influential people in their fields under 30 has a wide majority of people who did not attend Stanford, Yale Harvard and any other of these storied schools.

http://www.businessinsider.com/where-fortune-500-ceos-went-to-college-2015-3[/quote]

This is all well worn, but does not apply whatsoever to the decision of an individual.  While it is clearly true that the majority of leaders in most fields (as measured by lifetime earnings or other) come from places other than the most selective colleges, this is to be expected given the relative sample sets.  In other words, there will of course be more "winners" from the pool representing 99.7% of the undergrad population than there will be from the 0.3% (the approximate percentage of high school graduates who will matriculate at the Ivys plus Stanford plus MIT).  If you look at the entire list you reference, you will find that pound-for-pound, these most selective colleges are overrepresented by at least a factor of 10.  If you were to look at the same list for the field of medicine, highly selective undergraduate programs will be even more disproportionately represented.  [u]Successful people clearly can come from all types of backgrounds and choices[/u].  The question at hand is what choice made by an individual will give him/her the highest probability of success, recognizing of course it is what that individual does with the opportunity that is the biggest determinant.[/quote]

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