The universities are indeed gate keepers. Your degree signals that you're either a non-legacy who got in thanks to talent/brains/what ever. Or you are a legac

The universities are indeed gate keepers. Your degree signals that you're either a non-legacy who got in thanks to talent/brains/what ever. Or you are a legacy and have the IQ of a pumpkin. But even as a pumpkin brain, you probably have connections which guarantee your pumpkin brain will stay upper class. Further, a real college campus gets lots of young ambitious people together in one place and gives them common problems. This combined with a lot of free time and some but not too much responsibility, creates an environment where you will have more fun and make more friend, then at virtually any other time and place. You can also make friends with a lot of old money pumpkin brain legacies. None of the above has anything to do with education, or knowledge. You gain knowledge at university almost by accident, more osmosis then design.