If it's just about salary, at least for software engineers, you don't need to get into MIT or anything on par with it. Not nowadays. At universities far below M

If it's just about salary, at least for software engineers, you don't need to get into MIT or anything on par with it. Not nowadays. At universities far below MIT, plenty earn six-figure starting salaries, and a few people earn upwards of 300k starting (yes, only a few, but only a few from places like MIT as well, because this is a difficult thing to do whether you're at MIT or not. Perhaps the proportion of people who get such jobs is higher at MIT, but I would wager that this is because MIT tends to attract highly talented students moreso than other universities, not because of the MIT name). Not to say MIT isn't a good goal to shoot for, of course. But doing so primarily out of financial interest isn't just heavily discouraged (I'm sure any MIT recruiter would tell you this) but also probably not worth it (particularly if you have to pay!). At least, not for software engineers, though I wouldn't be surprised if the same applied to other fields.