I have long believed that, from the perspective of bettering yourself, where you went to school is far more important than what your GPA was. My family came to this country when I was 17, right after I graduated high school. When I arrived to NYC in 1992, I went to Baruch college (a part of CUNY for all you Midwest suburban kids who later become NYC "users"). I had a 3.9 GPA and transferred to Penn during my sophomore year. Not just Penn - Wharton Undergrad, which has by far the most competitive curve of any UG program in the country. I felt a sense of accomplishment, didn't work too hard, and graduated with a 3.2.
Why am I telling you all this? Because regardless of my academic performance and how much, or little, I enjoyed my Penn experience, it gave me the confidence and opened my eyes to a world of possibilities that help me to this day and will, undoubtedly, continue to do so. Could I have learned the same thing at, say... SUNY Binghampton? Sure. Would I really know the things I got to know coming out of Wharton? No way in hell.
I will forever believe that a kid, who for four years, bummed in the back of his economics class in Harvard is getting a much better bang for a buck than someone who's sweating his ass off at the Local State. It will pay its dividends later in life (when he decides to do something with his life). Can everybody go to HYPSPCCC? No. But, if you can, it's stupid, in fact, it's a crime not to.
And, btw, my parents were on welfare at the time. Penn gave me half of tuition in grants and I paid off the remaining loans and now donate to the school. The money argument is the biggest BS I've ever heard.