You're conflating "proper background" with legacy and they are very different things. Harvard (and most/all other Ivy League institutions) dramatically lower th

You're conflating "proper background" with legacy and they are very different things. Harvard (and most/all other Ivy League institutions) dramatically lower the standards of enrollment for legacy applicants. In other words people whose father or mother went to Harvard. This is not how Bill Gates got in. His father went to the University of Washington on the G.I. Bill. A "proper background", outside of legacy, is generally a negative thing when applying to elite institutions as applicants from 'improper backgrounds' will receive bonus points on their applicant score. All other things being equal the guy who went to Bodunk High is generally going to have a better admittance score better than the guy who went Carnegie College Preparatory Academy. The one issue of course is that all other things are often not equal. The guy who went to our imaginary prep school is probably going to have had greater resources to enable his endeavors and often a better family life at home. And that's why the guy from Bodunk High is given a boost on his score. And in my opinion, having been somebody who came from a poor background and was able to go to a top tier university, I don't think it really makes much of a difference. The crazy high overachievers who go on to become the Bill Gates didn't achieve that because of Harvard, and obviously in Bill Gates case as he dropped out - he would have done phenomenal whether he went to Harvard or Party U. It's a similar story with people like Michael Dell. He came from an upper middle class family but nonetheless worked jobs ranging from dish washer to telemarketer. In college at UT he started what would become Dell literally from his dorm room. He would drop out his freshman year once it became clear the business was viable. Elite universities just have this sort of win-win feedback scenario going for them. They attract all these sorts of individuals and then get to implicitly take some credit for their achievements, which then affirms the university's elite status. Meh. I would fully agree though that if your ambition is just to go send out resumes and gradually work your way up for other people, then an elite university degree would help you eventually end up with a somewhat nicer white picket fence than somebody who went to a less premier institution. But these are not the sort of people we're talking about.