After months of waiting and wondering about which college will accept you, the time finally comes when the situation is reversed. An acceptance letter, even from a prestigious institution, is not a trophy but a cross-roads. However, at that point, if you have done your homework, you will know far more about both institutions than anyone around you. But none of that ever added a dime to my income.
Averages are treacherous.
Joining a basketball team will not make you any taller, even though the average basketball player is much taller than most people. The average income of its graduates is similarly a very shaky basis for choosing a college. The field that you major in probably has a much bigger effect. A given individual is unlikely to earn as high an income with a Harvard degree in sociology as with a Georgia Tech degree in engineering. If your interest is not so much in your prospects immediately after college, but rather in your career after finishing graduate school or medical or law school, then there is even less reason to select a big-name undergraduate institution, as such.