[chrisBob]

Its not just about the classes and education. Its about the resume.

The Ivy League doesn't teach you anything you can't get at another school, but it makes it easier to get your next job which is what college is all about.

Ivy League schools do tend to offer slightly better than average educations partially because of their funding. The alumni are successful, and tend to give a lot of money back to the schools which offsets some of the cost for the undergrads. When my wife was attending undergrad, for example, she filled out the FASA paperwork, and then they paired her up with an alumni who just wrote a check to cover the portion of the cost that would otherwise be a student loan. If you are interested in any kind of research science, the Ivy League schools do tend to have well funded research programs also.

I am married to a Princeton grad, but I went to USMA myself. My school was similar in some ways, but its in a different sports league, and offers less undergraduate research options.

[lugg]

Does having a piece of paper from stanford stand out more than a piece of paper from somewhere else?

I'm from australia, we don't really care where you got the piece of paper, just that you did your time and even then you could probably argue your way into an interview without it.

We value education sure but we don't really have the whole ivy league elitism thing going on. I don't think there is even much of a deal to do with alumni.

Economies of scale I guess.

[maxerickson]

Most of the extra signaling value comes from the competitive admissions.

(Which I think as much as anything means they have a great pool of applicants to choose from, meaning they would have to do something pretty radical to screw it up)