I know that you're being sarcastic, waks, but I'm constantly surprised by the disconnect between reality and people's perceptions of the differences between, say, ivy league schools and "third-tier" schools (in engineering and the "hard" sciences, at least, which are all I know about). The most common differences - assuming that we're talking about people who don't suck at college - are self-confidence and networking, IMO. If you're a Harvard grad, you can fancy anyone/everyone else your minion and/or become a powerful politician using your connections with other social climbers from your school. If you're a K-State grad, you can take pleasure in the visible discomfort that your bargain-basement, land-grant degree inspires on the faces of colleagues who've spent $100k or more on undergraduate tuition alone (often in hopes of distancing themselves from peasants from lowly public schools) and are still paying off student loans.
Undergraduate program rankings are completely worthless, IMO. I've worked/studied in departments ranging from sub-mediocre to top-5 in my field (according to the vaunted US News rankings), and in terms of undergraduate-level course quality, the differences are minimal/nonexistent.
