<p>You’ll definitely have an easier time of getting scholys and into Honors Colleges at less-prestigious universities. Plus, like every smart grad student says (like the med student who goes to Dartmouth who sat in on my med checkup today), spend as little money as possible as an undergrad, then pay up for grad school. I recently saw some charts comparing the starting salaries for undergrads from a SUNY and Columbia, and there was, at most, a $14,000 difference (not much). But when it comes to grad school, the differences are huge. So save up your money for grad school, and then you’ll be all set</p>