Not how I think about it.

It's looking at ROI. And the cost of education typically correlates with quality and long-term earnings. (Put your pitch forks down, not all schools, just generally.) So, if I think about this on a 20 year horizon. I have a $50K degree program at a state school vs a $200K degree from Harvard (numbers rounded). Lets just use 10% as the ROI. At 10% over 20 years, the return on the state school is ~$336,000. For Harvard, this yields ~$1,350,000. So, the ROI might be the same, but you basically get an extra million over 20 years for getting into Harvard.