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Notes -
But college admits aren’t nearly as hard as blue tribe elites think they are- good students nearly always get in to their state flagships, which are as good on a resume as any non-Harvard school.
It can’t be a real effect when the admissions officers have far less power than commonly believed.
At first glance, Harvard appears to have about a 4% salary premium over the top California state schools or Georgia Tech, 15% over U. Virginia, 20-25% over U. Michigan or UT-Austin, and about 55% over my childhood state's "flagship".
Plus, even the flagship schools aren't exactly guarantees. UT-Austin just tightened its auto-acceptance rate (the way 85% of its in-state students get in) to the top 5%. If you were only in the top 6% of your high school, I'd say you're a good student, but you didn't make the cut this year; if you were in the top 10% of your high school, I'd still say you're a good student, but you never really stood a chance.
UT Austin takes enormous numbers of transfer students, though, so good students have the option to graduate from their even if they have to do community college for the first two years.
Plus, Harvard is in a league of its own and feeds into an unusually high salary market. In purchasing power/multiples of local salary in the nearby market the numbers are probably a lot more even. Except for the very small percentage of population which can get into a top Ivy, ‘worry less about college admissions’ is the correct move.
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