Yes, they are a lot better than most. Like a lot a lot. They do have some ole boys and gals around, but they also have a lot of extremely hard working extremely talented young people.
This does not mean that there are not hardworking talented people elsewhere. They will make it too. But the density of talent at a place like MIT, compared to most other places on Earth in general, is unprecedented, and if that rubs you the wrong way, so be it.
I have. They're not any better than many other schools out there... The graduates are not any better either when it comes to actually working either. I am not blown away by any ideas from anyone who has a degree from UCB, Stanford, MIT, etc.
I don't subscribe to mysticism around some unimaginable quality of graduates from the top-20 universities, but I bet if you picked one person from each of the top 20 schools and one person from each of the schools ranked 181-200 (from any earnestly attempted ranking source), and worked with them for a month, by looking only at their work product, you could tell which group was which far, far more often than chance.
I think the same is true for 1-20 vs 21-40, but it wouldn't be quite as clear-cut.
Top universities being top is not some kind of mass hysteria.
This does not mean that there are not hardworking talented people elsewhere. They will make it too. But the density of talent at a place like MIT, compared to most other places on Earth in general, is unprecedented, and if that rubs you the wrong way, so be it.