<p>I think that somewhere along the line of responses we lost track of OPs question.</p>
<p>There are certainly advantages to going to the most academic/highest reputation and often most selective colleges. But to conclude that this puts the highly qualified and motivated student at a significant career disadvantage for choosing to go to one of the strong state flagship universities is simply not true. In technical fields, such as EE, Computer Science, ME, etc. often the State flagships such as University of Wisconsin Madison, University of Texas Austin, University of Illinois Urbana, and others have exceptional programs. They are rigorous and difficult programs, as one would expect for the discipline. Strong graduates from these schools are very much sought after by major corporations, and often more so than candidates from the top Ivies.</p>
<p>For less quantitative disciplines the private elite colleges may have a better reputation, but very strong graduates from strong public colleges do well – perhaps just as well.</p>
<p>So it is definitely more difficult to adjust academically and socially at the strong state flagships than at the elite private colleges. But for the strong motivated student who navigates the transition effectively the final results are just as good as those at the very best private colleges.</p>
<p>So to answer OPs question, certainly your State Flagship, and with less certainty many excellent private colleges.</p>