[impendia]

> The Ivy League - and other high-prestige schools like Stanford - are primarily useful for the connections you make and the status they convey to others.

I emphatically disagree.

I taught math at Stanford for three years as a postdoc, and got a permanent job at a second-tier state school. The Stanford students are getting a WAAAAY better education.

A lot of students here are weakly prepared, uninterested in academics, and/or have burdensome part time jobs. (I was amazed at how many full-time students here also work 30 hours a week.) This means the expectations are lower, the peer pressure to succeed is not there, and teachers can't get very far in their syllabi. We do okay, but we sure as heck don't compare to Stanford.

For me as an undergrad the choice of schools would have made a major difference. I always depended at least a little on being pushed by others -- those lucky few that do not can probably thrive anywhere.