There’s a similar chain to this - UIUC or ASU (Barrett) and the difference is less - and people are still saying ASU.
I look at who I work with - you have people with no degrees bossing MBAs or people who went to schools you never heard of over people that went to Northwestern, etc. I think when you look at society, yes, higher pedigree schools will obviously do better, but there’s no hard and fast rule.
Ultimately, the cream rises to the top.
The other thing students don’t realize - because they’re all tops going in - is - depending on the study, between 35% to 60% of engineering and CS majors won’t be engineering or CS majors in a couple years. Either it’s not for them…or the major decides the student isn’t for the major.
My son is at Alabama - he’s a 4.6, top 1% of the class, 32 ACT, etc. etc. and they drop like flies!! He’s barely hanging on - and if you listened to his words, not his actions - he’d had failed out first year. Fortunately, he has a 3.7 but now is worried about failing Fluid Mechanics.
Another risk to all this debt is - you ultimately change your major to a liberal art (like math or physics) or like my son said - most go to business because according to him (not me) - it’s easy.