For grad schools, probably (keeping in mind that engineering/cs grad students almost never pay a dime to go to grad school). For undergrad, no. I went to my st

For grad schools, probably (keeping in mind that engineering/cs grad students almost never pay a dime to go to grad school). For undergrad, no. I went to my state school (UF) instead of several ivy-caliber schools (Carnegie Mellon) because of financial situations. I got such a superior all-around college experience. I wouldn't have traded those 4 years for anything in the world. Big name schools have big name people because of the research they do, not the classes they teach. That means unless you are doing research, you aren't benefiting. The only benefit is that, on average, you'll be around smarter people. You only need to find a small group of really smart people to make that part of college work for you, and you can find those at any good school.