Interesting perspective:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/ccap/2015/03/24/prestige-and-price-why-top-colleges-arent-for-everyone/
Your major can make a very big difference in financial ROI.
^^^Agreed
There is a lot to consider in this argument. First off assuming an applicant was accepted to both universities the cost differential might be either greater or smaller depending on the applicants parent’s income. An Ohio resident with the grades and application good enough to get into Harvard will likely be given scholarships that will bring his COA at OU pretty close to the cost of room and board. If they are low income Harvard may very well be free or close to it giving the cost advantage to Harvard, if they are well to do, Harvard would be full pay and OU would probably cost closer to $15k/yr. and the differential would be greater than the article indicates. Where the differential really presents a cost comparison is when comparing schools chosen by a normal college applicant. The student with the 3.5 GPA and 26 ACT would probably benefit financially by attending OU vs. a comparable private university that would accept him/her with those stats.
What about comparing their incomes 10 years out?
The author is a junior at OU.
Tbh, there aren’t many top colleges taking a 3.5 gpa and 26 ACT.
Kids with very high GPAs and SAT/ACT scores aren’t abnormal. Unusual, yes, but I think you’ll find that most are perfectly normal human beings.
But there are a whole lot of kids at elite schools who do not pay anything near the full sticker price. We paid less than the cost of a SUNY at my kid’s $60K/yr school.
Plus, it’s highly likely the kids in both cases aren’t paying anything to go to school - their parents are So, the kid who goes to the elite school is better off simply because their starting salary, on average, is higher than the OU student. It’s not like parents ask to be paid back for the amount they spent on their kid for college.
As I parent, I am just happy my kid will be gainfully employed after graduating and earning enough that there won’t be a need for us to subsidize him. 
@Marian213
They wouldn’t be classified as abnormal but above normal…beyond that exceptional.
@marion I apologize for my poor choice of words but I do believe my meaning was clear. I was speaking of their academic statistics not them as people. The students with the stats to get into Harvard are not in the middle 50% of college applicants, frankly neither is the student with the 3.5 and 26 ACT.
Just as long as we all agree that they’re not freaks.
For generations, highly academic kids in some schools and neighborhoods have been teased, mocked, and bullied. It still happens in some places today. Calling these kids abnormal doesn’t help.
@Marian Who used the word abnormal?