Truth be told, an Ivy League degree would not get you much by itself. There are a number of schools just as good as the Ivy League, and similar brand recognition in particular fields for schools that otherwise aren't highly regarded or well-known.
The Ivy League degree primarily buys you an opportunity to network with the powerful, get interesting internships and so forth. Not everyone does much with this. Those who don't might get +5 points or something but it's not a night and day difference.
(Except if you are looking at a specific school-to-company nexus like Stanford has with certain companies)
Those goods are not impossible to get from schools with somewhat less standing.
The problem is that in school, nobody is very aggressively counseling and seeking the interest of students who do not know what to do and might not even be aware there is anything they would have to do.
So the slack has to be taken up after you leave school in various ways and it can just be hard. One of the things you have to do is pretend to be happy with the status quo, not look negative and make people feel smart and awesome if they have something to hold over you.
The Ivy League degree primarily buys you an opportunity to network with the powerful, get interesting internships and so forth. Not everyone does much with this. Those who don't might get +5 points or something but it's not a night and day difference.
(Except if you are looking at a specific school-to-company nexus like Stanford has with certain companies)
Those goods are not impossible to get from schools with somewhat less standing.
The problem is that in school, nobody is very aggressively counseling and seeking the interest of students who do not know what to do and might not even be aware there is anything they would have to do.
So the slack has to be taken up after you leave school in various ways and it can just be hard. One of the things you have to do is pretend to be happy with the status quo, not look negative and make people feel smart and awesome if they have something to hold over you.