[quote=flu]I think if a kid can get in for something like business or law or medicine, then there might be some useful aspects to it. UPenn has a great undergrad business program and placement to Wharton MBA is pretty high, not to mention connections to wall street. Ditto for Harvard biz and law.[/quote]But business, law, and medicine are graduate and not undergrad. No one are where you got your premed, prelaw, etc. from. They just care where you get your MBA, law, MD from. So, if money matters, it would be smarter to go to states school (maybe even easy ones), get straight A and finish in 2-3 years, then apply to grad school.