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The value of great institutions lies not merely in education, but in bringing great people together. Simply attracting already smart people (or determined and otherwise talented people) is a value in and of itself.

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Robin Hanson and Tyler Cowen have had a lot of interesting discussions on the role and extent of "signalling" in higher education. I think Hanson takes the extreme view that it is mostly signalling, rather than skills (human capital).

Obviously we see that at some level. "He's a college man" doesn't have the cache it did in 1920.

We have those and they're generally free. We call them "social clubs" and "mixers". Heck, Mensa is basically a social club for smart folk.

well, yeah, but in a college, you're not just brought together to be in some sort of self-primping club, but you also do things like "work collaboratively on projects" and "pursue a guided learning track".

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