You want a study? Here's a study: http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/21/revisiting-the-value-of-elite-colleges/ http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02

You want a study? Here's a study: http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/21/revisiting-the-value-of-elite-colleges/ http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/21/revisiting-the-... For underprivileged students, it's pretty clear that attending an elite university materially increases economic outcomes—even after controlling for the students themselves (a poor student who gets into both Yale and their local state university will do better if they go to Yale). Not that I expect you to actually listen to reason, since you're basically insinuating that tenured professors are making up evidence to boost undergraduate applications (if you think that's something professors would actually do, you clearly haven't spoken to many). If you're going to discount any research with a connection to a major university, it will indeed be hard to find any research.