mostly the second. A study showed that people who get into Harvard/Yale/Princeton and instead go to state school make almost as much money as they would have otherwise.
Re:Is College Working?
by paraschopra on Friday January 30, 2009 @06:24AM
(#457982)
Do you have a link? I would love to read the study.
Ask and ye shall receive.
http://www.nber.org/papers/w7322.pdf
I'm not sure if this is a generally available link; I am using it from a Stanford IP which may have purchased access. The paper is Dale and Krueger, "Estimating the Payoff to Attending a More Selective College: An Application of Selection on Observables and Unobservables."
- The rolodex factor.
- The fact that people that go to Harvard are already smart, and they would be successful anyway.