[exogeny]

I would dispute this, if only using personal experience. The value of my degree from CMU has paid itself back multiple times over in terms of doors opened.

Your statement feels like too broad of a brush. In my view, there’s a huge fat tail of non-value add schools that are only surviving because of this perception, but the narrow bulb of the elite schools maintains that value if only due to networking and social proof.

[ada1981]

Did you study engineering at CMU and literally design a system that opens doors?

That would be awesome.

[SketchySeaBeast]

"We here believe that the most important thing a college can do is lift its students up and open doors for them here at the Central Minnesota School of automatic door and elevator repair. Keeping you cool under pressure is the job of our sister school, the Minnesota Institution of Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning."

[rcarrigan87]

Agreed, the value issue has many sides- school and degree are important factors. If we didn't have gov't subsidized loans that can't be discharged through bankruptcy the system would have naturally figured this out already.