You also network with old money, the politically connected, and the global elite. The “top” universities don’t really need to be better, they just need to have

You also network with old money, the politically connected, and the global elite. The “top” universities don’t really need to be better, they just need to have the correct names and the prestige to attract those names. You may have the best professor teaching all the most useful knowledge in the middle of no where state university, but the folks attending won’t have as much opportunity despite their education because they won’t get connected to money or to power.