I will say though, that pretending there isn't a difference in education is just untrue sadly. I've had to come to terms with this, going from a very small state college to a more prestigious private school for graduate studies. Nearly everyone around me is from a large, more expensive school, literally everyone else in my program is significantly better educated than me. Of course you can find good programs at small schools, they try very hard. But there's just a difference between a school that can afford to run classical mechanics 2 and one that cannot, a school that can afford to pick and choose a good professor for their classes and one that cannot. And that gap is vastly wider than i had imagined

Funnily enough, if you think about for networking you'd much rather be surrounded by kids who can afford that 200k price tag upfront.

That depends who you are. You want to be surrounded by kids who have assets you don't. If you're there on an academic scholarship, you want rich contacts. If you're there on family prestige, you want capable contacts.

If you're there on a need-based scholarship, you need both kinds, but neither of them need you.

Networking is a way to maximize your optionality. If you limit your network you limit your potential options. Rich kids have more options and there’s absolutely zero downside to being exposed to some of them. (Don’t confuse with actually exercising them when they appear, I’m just talking about having them.)