it is true that the reputation of your school CAN be very important, but again it doesn’t necessarily mean that you can’t do well for yourself from and 2nd tier or even 3rd tied b-school.
you will learn a lot getting an MBA contrary to the impression i’m getting from carton. but more so than in other programs, what you put in will determine by far what you get out. and don’t minimize the importance of networking with your piers… statistically, most of the business contact you use later in your career were initiated in business school…
again i’m not speaking from experience except from what i’ve heard and talked with my MBA friends