"the recruiting opportunities, and the information learned (mostly outside the classroom) about how the economy and society actually work"
The recruiting opportunities are part of the connections too. The information that you learned outside of class is mostly from your connection outside the class too.
This may not be a strong case for a local resident in US. For my case, I did have a stronger connections(friendship) than in my country(Malaysia). I am sure that I cannat achieve what I have done so far here if I decided not to further my college in US.
I think that an elite college degree is worth $150k for most people, but I don't think it's the connections that add the value, so much as the prestige of the degree, the recruiting opportunities, and the information learned (mostly outside the classroom) about how the economy and society actually work.