A lot of the posts in this thread have been in reference to Ivy League schools and how difficult it is to gain admission. A great education and a good career can be had outside of those schools, so why bother with a system that drives people nuts? There are lots of other quality choices.
Because the perception is that these schools allow you access to jobs, such as I-banking, wall street finance, and business consulting that allow you to potentially climb the SES ladder and escape the grinding mediocrity and despair of middle class existence without having to go to med school and get one of the ROAD specialties. (I think I have this one right.)
Well, that and they *are* important if you have the insane idea that you want to go do law school because the status of a Good School makes it much easier to get into to a Good Law School. It's kind of entertaining to watch the entire Law School Complex slowly implode, but that has nothing to do with this.
