Does attending Harvard, Yale, or Princeton change one's fate? - Quora

When I started my Masters in Counseling, our first professor handed us a copy of a study that showed High School students arrived at about the same economic and social places after 10 years with or without guidance counseling. He did it not so much to keep us humble, but to demonstrate the myriad of factors that influence outcomes in peoples' lives. Where you graduate from college may initially make some difference in getting a job or in setting up a network. My guess is that after about 10 years, the highly motivated, hardworking people end up as successful no mater where they went to school.

Personal Example: I taught pilot training. After 3 months we couldn't tell the difference among pilot training students who graduated from the Air Force Academy or were commissioned through ROTC or OCS. The university or college they graduated from made no real difference after the first day or so.

For most people, an undergrad degree is an undergrad degree. If you're selected to attend an Ivy League school and Faul out then perhaps you should have gone to a less expensive school.