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</p>
<p>The data suggests otherwise:</p>
<p>
“attending a selective a selective college enhances occupational attainment in specific professions such as medicine and law. … [one study, after controlling for various factors, showed] the academic selectivity of the college attended had a statistically significant, positive influence on admission to medical school . … [another study showed] attending one of the 74 most selective private colleges in the United States significantly increased one’s likelihood of completing a high-status professional degree (that is, M.D. , J.D., M.B.A.). … In both studies the effect is nonlinear and generally accrued only to those students attending the most selective or elite institutions in the country. … Such institutions, at most, educated about 1 or 2 percent of all four-year college students in the national postsecondary system. For the remaining 98 percent or so of all four-year college students, the selectivity of the institution made little or no difference.”
– Pascarella and Terenzini, p. 469 [emphasis added]</p>
<p>I realize that statistically significant results from tightly controlled research studies are unlikely to impress some people. For those that care, there it is.</p>