To bolster your point, I averaged about $25k/year at UCLA math in the 2010's, and I had a car by the time I graduated (granted I tutored to Beverly Hills high s

To bolster your point, I averaged about $25k/year at UCLA math in the 2010's, and I had a car by the time I graduated (granted I tutored to Beverly Hills high school students on the side). I would even say there's a substantial difference between a typical grad student from a top-10-and-not-top-5 university and a typical grad student from Harvard; this is not at all meant to disparage the former schools, but basically every student I met from Harvard REALLY knew their stuff. By the way, to those saying the system is not a meritocracy, I got into UCLA coming from an undergraduate institution that's not even top-100 because I was bright and I worked my tail off. Would it have been easier if my parents were buddies with the president of Harvard? Sure, but life's not fair.