<p>If finances are workable, I’d recommend UMich unless he’s a pre-med.</p>
<p>With regards to PhD programs, doing research helps a lot (which is why many LACs place well on a per capita basis and almost all of the top research universities as ranked by ARWU, which includes many publics, place well on an absolute basis). Recommendations from professors well-respected in their field also carry a lot of weight, and they’re invariably in the top research universities.</p>
<p>MBA programs are heavily affected by the quality of your work experience, but for some of those industries deemed high-quality/desirable, going to a target/semi-target school is an easier path in.</p>
<p>In short, whether the school you go to matters varies a lot by your career goals, and which schools are deemed elite also vary by field. As an example, Illinois isn’t seen as a target school by investment banks or MBB consulting firms (semi-target at best), but it definitely is a target school for the top software companies and places a ton of its grads in to STEM PhD programs (in absolute numbers, more UIUC undergrads go on to get science/engineering PhDs than any Ivy besides Cornell; more than any college, period, besides Cal, Cornell, and UMich, in fact). However, Dartmouth certainly is a target school for IB and MBB consulting, but almost no top software companies will bother to recruit Dartmouth, and it sends a relatively small amount of its grads in to science/engineering PhD programs even on a per capita basis (it ranks below Rochester and Case Western by that metric, for instance).</p>