For the most part the making-contacts thing applies to people who are already in the club - the Lodges talk only to the Cabots and the Cabots talk only to God kind of thing. Trailer trash isn't getting into the circle no matter how much money he pays in tuition.More importantly to me is that at the BS/BA level you're taught by freshly minted PhDs or graduate assistants for the most part, especially at the big name schools - for the money you never get the one-on-one contact with senior faculty that they imply in the catalogs. Hell, some of them brag these days you never have to leave your room - just log in to lectures and exams.
To me, if you're going to drop big bucks, do it for post-grad school.