There's a study that concluded that Ivy League schools don't really add value (in terms of lifetime earnings) to non-black, non-latino, non-poor students. Here

There's a study that concluded that Ivy League schools don't really add value (in terms of lifetime earnings) to non-black, non-latino, non-poor students. Here's a summary: http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/21/revisiting-the-value-of-elite-colleges/ http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/21/revisiting-the-... Here's the paper: http://www.nber.org/papers/w17159 http://www.nber.org/papers/w17159 The study worked by looking at students that got in to a more- and less-prestigious school and chose the less-prestigious one. In short, being good enough to get in to Harvard is what matters, not actually attending.