The longer I live, the less I'm impressed by fancy schools.

They don't make great labor. They are normal labor with egos until the age of ~25. Then they become normal labor without egos as the system killed their ego.

I really expected some secret sauce in Ivys/UoM, and nope. Electrical Engineers there didn't know how to figure out mass of a part given density(based on material) and volume.

Because in America, Ivy versus non-Ivy isn't the distinction.

What matters is your major and whether it is a well respected program.

A CS@Texas student will have the ability to open the exact same doors professionally and prestige wise as a CS@Brown student.

You have Ivies, Ivy Tier Privates (Stanford, Chicago, Duke, USC, Caltech, MIT, NYU, Northwestern, Georgetown, CMU), and Public Ivies (Cal, UCLA, UCSD, Mich, UIUC, UW, UT, GT, Purdue, UNC Chapel Hill, UVA) that all recruit the same kind of applicant and place in the same careers and employers.