I can’t tell you how many Doctors and Attorneys have told me that no one cares where they went to college, just where they went to medical school or law school. If a smart kid works hard at MSU or any other decent state school, then scores well on the MCAT or LSAT, he or she will be able to get into the top professional schools. Getting an MBA is pretty much the same deal. And engineering courses are pretty much same everywhere. A kid who graduates from no-name “U” with an engineering degree may not have the benefit of big career fairs and super placement offices, but good jobs are still available. I was talking to a dad whose kid graduated in Mechanical Engineering from Northern Arizona (ranked 63rd in engineering among schools that do not offer PhDs). Flagstaff was a great place to live and go to school and his son is now happily employed by Boeing.
Now if your kid is determined to run for President, be a professor of some liberal arts discipline, or is a huge snob, then that Ivy league degree may make a big difference. (“I haven’t seen rain like this since that big storm in Cambridge back in 2002”).
Even the NY Times is coming around to the view that public university honors colleges are prudent options: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/09/opinion/sunday/frank-bruni-a-prudent-college-path.html
I will have three in college next year, so I could not afford three Ivy league educations anyway, but I am not sorry at all about my kids’ options. Son number one is a rising sophomore in the Honors College at Texas A&M, studying Aerospace Engineering. Son number two starts next week in the Miami (Ohio) University Honors Program, studying Mechanical Engineering. Both kids got great merit scholarships. Finally, son number three will be starting college next year. His two favorites right now are the honors colleges at MSU (hooray!) and ASU.