That's a purpose but not primary, if that were the case the hyper competitive college admissions process would cease to exist, as there's plenty of reasonable s

That's a purpose but not primary, if that were the case the hyper competitive college admissions process would cease to exist, as there's plenty of reasonable substitutes in terms of education provided, in some ways these less prestigous places even offer better educations than the places with the top published professors. It's primarily about acquiring economic opportunity, full stop.