The problem with CS is nobody really knows how to select students that are good at it or teach it. So there is little real difference between graduates of a top school and an average school with a few good instructors. As to networking, there are plenty of ways to network that don't cost 100,000$.
PS: Some schools still attract talent, but plenty of terrible programmers graduated from ex: MIT.
I do not attend MIT but I am a big fan of OCW videos and I still regret being rejected (probably will for life). I would love to be taught by Demaine, Leiserson et al.
I am not sure you can survive that rigorous a coursework and graduate with less-than-average skills in at least theory, systems, compilers / prog. languages (dunno if everyone there does other stuff like ML, Advanced theory courses etc).
PS: Some schools still attract talent, but plenty of terrible programmers graduated from ex: MIT.