…I will argue until I die that good connections are NOT the result of going to a brand name college but are the result of energy applied at whatever college you do attend. All colleges have influential alums in many fields. If you devote some time and sweat to finding out who they are and how to reach them, it will yield great rewards. I am familiar with many Harvard grads who couldn't bother, and found that they had fewer choices than they thought they were entitled to given the name of their college."
Jay Mathews (posted as a comment in the post "Why getting in to Harvard is no longer an honor")