Internet discussions about universities seem to love to ignore this aspect of what makes elite institutions elite - sure, they're often old boys clubs, but thos

Internet discussions about universities seem to love to ignore this aspect of what makes elite institutions elite - sure, they're often old boys clubs, but those old boys fund endowments that can support specialty programs staffed by elite experts with elite lab facilities and guest speakers and all sorts of other opportunities beyond classroom learning. I'm not saying that you can't get a good or even great education at a community college or average state school - but I am saying that its silly to pretend that all university experiences are created equal and are just a way to consolidate class or whatever. What you do matters more than where you go, but an institution with better resources is going to have far more opportunity for its students to do meaningfully educational things. I'm going to take a resume that has some do-nothing degree from Central Midwest State U about as seriously as one that has a do-nothing degree from Stanford on it, but I would fully expect that your average Stanford resume might have a few more interesting line-items on it than the CMSU one based simply on having more opportunities available to them. (And for the record, I didn't attend a particularly prestigious school, and studied music in college despite working in tech now. I'm not exactly trying to defend my own background with this post).