just a litte off topic side note to that... I think given all those thoughts it is about time to critically question the role of the "elite" universities in world. Just go to ocw.mit.edu, there you can see lectures from the mighty MIT, if I look at the Physics and math lectures, they are no different from the lectures I'm used to here in Germany... I don't know if there is that saying in english... but in German one would they, they also just cook with water... meaning, well, at the end, the substance is not that different. It is not what they are doing that makes them so much surperior to other insitutes, it is their handpicked student body I think. So if you are a great mind, you will be much likely to succeed at any institution there is, it might be easyer at MIT and its Ivy frineds, but struggles and obstracles can be great teachers as well. If it is very hard to reach your professor and they have only very limited time to answer your questions, as it is common on schools with poor staff student ratio, you are forced to carefully pick your questions, and try on your own first. Later on, once you are into research there might be only very few specialist that can advice you, there the those skills might come in quite handy.
So, over all, I know that for now, we will still all try to get into top schools around the world, because that is just the way it it, but maybe once we are in power of picking employees etc. we should be more relaxed about the whole elite thingy...