I would argue that being well educated is not about the name of the institution, but the breadth and depth of knowledge. A master's degree in CS from a top school does not make you well educated without the insight of how to apply it. That insight comes from more broad study in humanities and the arts.
No, in my experience it's mostly about the competence of your peers and the expectations of your professors. Decent schools teach you about operating systems. Great schools make you write an operating system and don't care when you bitch that it's "too hard" and takes 20 hours a week for that one class.
For me being well-educated is about expanding one's scope of knowledge beyond a myopic mastery of a particular niche to an understanding of the power and potential of their craft, in the context of current society as well as history.
How can I use what I know to improve things, and what have others tried before? What knowledge can I borrow from other fields to be more effective?
