> The CS program for undergrad in Havard is exactly the same as your closer public college.
No. Not even close. Unless you're taking about flagships like uiuc and Berkeley (which are not local for 99%).
This may be true in the humanities but is nowhere near true in the mathematical sciences.
My final year analysis course at college only covered a fraction of the content in the FIRST year advanced math sequence at Harvard.
As someone who went to one of those truly local state schools then taught at a #1 CS school: the quality difference in CS educations is absolutely insane. See also the "Java Schools" rant.