I think it is very difficult, if not impossible, for a student to get an education at many/most state schools that is on par with the average education a student would receive at ND or an Ivy league (i.e. "great education"), regardless of how hard the student works at the state school.
Sorry, but I find that to be one of the most ridiculous, erroneous, and elitist things I've ever heard. How do you explain the countless examples of State U grads who succeed far beyond their peers from Elite U, or the student bodies at the most prestigious law, medical and other graduate schools containing so many State U grads?
Nobody is arguing that Elite U doesn't have tougher standards and a higher percentage of especially intelligent and hyper-driven students, but that same type of student at virtually any school, even an average state school, can still get a great education if he works hard enough, and will run circles around the average Elite U grad in the real world after college.
I took classes at Bama where we used the same texts as used at Harvard, heard the same lectures, covered the same material, and did the same work. I can't see how the guy at Harvard knew more or was better educated on the subject than I was. The key is how much effort and work the student puts into it. The biggest difference I can see is that at State U perhaps 10% of the students are exceptionally brilliant, devour every piece of info, go above and beyond to learn more, will put in the extra work, and do all this to actually learn the material instead of just to pass the class. At Elite U, you might find that 30-40% of the students are like that. Testing at Elite U is probably tougher because of this, and as someone pointed out above, you can't coast through some programs or classes at Elite U as you might at State U. If a student is willing to put in the effort, work hard, and take responsibility for how much he learns, he can get an excellent education almost anywhere, though.
I did my undergrad at Bama and got into one of the top 10 med schools in the country. My class was full of grads from Harvard, Stanford, ND, Yale and just about every other elite school. At no point did I ever feel that my education was inferior to theirs and I didn't find med school any more difficult than they did. It's not that those aren't excellent schools with overall better academics than Bama. It's that I did what I needed to do in order to get the most out of my education at Bama. One of my best friends graduated from Auburn with a degree in Aerospace Engineering. He's spent the past 30 years competing against guys from Cal, ND, MIT, etc. He's done quite well against the top grads from those schools and far outpaced any of the average grads from them (he's the VP of R&D for one of the nation's biggest aerospace/defense contractors).
Many of the top people in virtually every field went to a state university and clearly got an excellent education that's equal to that from an elite school. To say it's extremely difficult or impossible is baloney. How good your education is depends almost entirely on how much work and effort you put into it.
