> Further, is the curriculum at these schools that much better than everywhere else or is it more a factor of surrounding yourself with highly motivated peers that makes it better?

I've watched the full set of lectures for a few classes at top universities (Yale, MIT, that kind of thing) for a topic area in which I took a lot of classes at a very-cheap low-tier ex-normal-school state university that's completely unknown outside a ~150 mile radius, and only somewhat recognized within it.

From what I could tell, the content, pace, and amount & sort of assigned work were all pretty similar.

What differed? Two main things:

1) The guest lecturers—cheap state school, none, or unremarkable ones; the fancy schools, both more common to have them, and universally very impressive credentials, possibly someone you've heard of even if you don't really follow the topic, basically, their guests were "celebrities", at least within a field.

2) How engaged the students seemed to be—not at all, at the cheap state school; very, at the fancy schools.

This is for undergrad. The ways they differ may not be the same in grad school.