You may be right that someone could get as good an education somewhere else — say a good state school — as they could get at Harvard. But the fact remains that nearly everyone graduating from Harvard gets a great education, while not everyone getting a degree from a state school gets a great education.

That means that a Harvard graduate will have more doors open to him than the students at the state school — because employers know what they are getting.

I have taught at a prestigious Ivy League school (the Wharton School) and am now at a great public university. My best undergraduate students here are as good as my undergraduate students at Wharton. But my Wharton students were courted by the best companies in the world and offered six figure salaries out of college. My students at the state school get good jobs — but not from those companies or at that salary.

Use logic next time you want to put down a great university — and get your facts straight.