If you guessed "It depends" then you are correct. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/01/education/edlife/are-elite-colleges-worth-the-cost-of-tuition.html?ref=education&_r=0
The chart seems to be correct, I assume this is based on the undergraduate because it is missing Medical and Legal (Laws). It worth if you go for business because of alumni network; if you want to be in Goldman Sachs....without prestigious would hard to get into the door.
It's a matter of supply and demand. We need scientists and any scientist will do in a pinch. When there is a supply then we can be more picky(e.g. business students).
I see where you are going with this statement and I don't mean to rain on a perfectly fine over simplification but it's important to just distinguish some of the ways supply and demand are impacted when it comes to labor. If I'm hiring scientists I'm not generally looking at the school they graduated from. I'm likely taking the first step of sorting by their field. Four PhD students in Chemistry receive their diplomas at the same time from the same school. But they can easily have very different research interests. If Im tasked with finding a neuroscientist who specializes in Alzheimer's research I can't put forward a candidate who is a neuroscientist who specializes in something different just because they have a degree from a "better" school. Business majors, in contrast, are typically hired after only an undergraduate education (before they specialize) or with a relatively broad graduate education (such as the MBA). If I'm hiring people just on the basis of their education then they likely lack work experience to differentiate them. As business professionals develop their careers they do tend to specialize, at least somewhat. If I'm hiring a Risk Manager I need to bring in experienced risk managers. I can't just bring in a parade of Harvard grads on the basis of "well, they we to Harvard, they can figure it out." So, yes, it is a supply and demand issue. But the demand is often narrowly defined while the supply is broadly defined. It's somewhat common at this stage for people to get mad at me for never calling them for an interview. When I point out that they lack the basic qualifications for the job posting they usually point out how they did a handful of tangentially related things and could learn the required things if I gave them the chance. And I empathize but the requirements for a job aren't goals for where you'll be in a year after we train you those are the qualifications you need to have just to get in the door.
That usually means but I am going to. I see where you are going also, I think you might be reading a bit too far into it. If we are hiring Ph.D's the game changes in the exact ways you state. If I graduated from Syracuse University with a BS Biology, I may not have the exact research focus or types of jobs. I could just go to SUNY-Albany and get the same opportunities . Of course, experience also changes the equation, yet again. For example, If I work in bio-chemical research after graduation, I am more likely to be able to find a job in that field 2 years down the road in another lab. If I work at Family Dollar for 2 years, I am less likely to be able do much with my degree. Of Course again, I am OVER simplifying for illustrative purposes.
