The network you can make and the doors it opens are tremendous and without them you have to hustle in a completely different area than you otherwise would. It'

The network you can make and the doors it opens are tremendous and without them you have to hustle in a completely different area than you otherwise would. It's not that they give you a free win, but rather an advantage you can play later as needed. Getting a degree from a no name liberal arts school or a smaller state school is not going to mean the same thing for certain pursuits. That said, an overachiever can do amazing things with limited opportunity. Advantage or disadvantage, it depends on how you use it.