And let's be clear: those fields exist. I didn't get into the Peter Stark program at USC because my last name isn't Coppola. At the same time, my first week on the job, I had my coffee made by a guy who had just graduated from the Peter Stark program at USC. Saved me $200k right there and then, I did. If you're going to work for Bain or Goldman Sachs or their ilk, a Harvard degree probably matters. If you're going into research, studying under someone who knows their shit matters. Dated a girl whose sister had a theorem named after her by the time she was 20; her grad school choices were MIT, Stanford and Columbia. MIT gave her a $4k a year scholarship, Columbia wanted full sticker, and Stanford offered her a $20k a year stipend. So she went to Stanford and is now at the Max Planck Institute.