When Wall Street firms look for summer interns, they only consider students from a limited number of universities. Northwestern can be one of those, depending on the firm. Iowa is not one of them.
Most kids who apply to Northwestern are hoping to attend. Northwestern is known as a target school, especially in the Midwest. The kids with Ivy League credentials might use NU as a safety. A lot of kids from the northeast and west coasts really only know Northwestern by its academic rankings.
Most kids from the Midwest who think they have a good chance at being accepted at NU will usually apply to Wisconsin or Illinois or Michigan or Ohio State or Purdue as a safety school, depending on where they live. Many will apply "Early Decision" to Northwestern, meaning they must attend, if accepted. Obviously this is completely in favor of families who expect to pay the full tuition. Kids from families with less money can't commit like that.
Education isn't strictly about the material. Its about the quality of the professors, the competition from your classmates, the amount of material covered and the uplifting aspects of being surrounded by highly capable people. Thats one thing that gives the top universities a big advantage, such that Macro Economics or Organic Chemistry at Northwestern is usually more educational than it is at "lesser" schools.
Obviously there are stars that graduate from every school, but many of them are attending those universities for financial reasons.
