I don't think this is true. Elite institutions, in addition to whatever signaling value they provide, do add something significant to the educational experienc

I don't think this is true. Elite institutions, in addition to whatever signaling value they provide, do add something significant to the educational experience, which you cannot get from a mail-based correspondence course: regular, in-person interaction with other students who were deemed by the institution to be bright enough to be admitted. I'm speaking from personal experience here: I was homeschooled for K-12, and I went to an average college and a prestigious law school. So I've had basically the full range of educational experiences across the continuum you're talking about, and I can tell you with certainty that there are significant differences completely unrelated to signaling. Much of a quality education takes place outside the classroom, and may not be strictly required by the curriculum itself. Whether online education, via greater interactivity relative to previous forms of delivery, can approximate this benefit is an open question -- but "live" education (in person or otherwise) provides benefits that are simply not available to an isolated reader of a static text. The Good Will Hunting quote about Harvard is cute, but it's false.