<p>Even if the MIT or Cal Tech grads are handled differently in a few cases, that’s not really the point. The OP’s child isn’t considering either one of those schools. </p>
<p>When looking over the schools on the OP’s D’s list, none of those schools are going to result in a higher paying job just because she went to School X. Even a slightly higher salary isn’t going to justify paying $40k - 80k more for the undergrad education UNLESS it can easily be spent with little to no debt. </p>
<p>When discussions about eng’g schools come up, only rarely is the topic, “MIT vs local state school”. Usually the topic is something like, “Purdue vs RPI” or "OOS UMich vs “My Flagship” or “Cornell vs UFlorida”. None of those schools are going to warrant getting paid more.</p>