The purpose of going to the best college possible is to have the most possible doors opened when entering the working world. But ultimately you have to prove yourself. Yes, there are other side benefits that may not ultimately matter.**
But don’t you think a motivated, highly intelligent, high IQ person who attended an Ivy would ultimately get to the same place professionally if he attended Wossamottah U.
** A friend of mine, a farm boy from Nebraska went to Harvard for football and he was bright. He married a Wellesley girl from a generationally wealthy Brahmin Boston family looking for a Harvard boy. Anything else would have been unacceptable to her family.
It took a long time for the family to accept him. I think it was when he became a senior partner in one of the top private equity firms in the world and worked out of the London office they accepted him.
It cracked me up at the Hyannisport Country Club when snobs would snicker quietly, “You know, he’s not from money.” I would think to myself, “He’s wealthier than all of you. AND, he earned it.”