Yes, it's not a matter of how long you study. If you want to get right down to the coursework, ivy league schools expect a lot more from you than your state university professors will expect. They expect you to work harder (and so they assign more work), pick up concepts faster (and so they move through the book a lot faster than at state schools) and frankly be smarter (so they can go through more challenging material). They might use higher-level textbooks than your university and expect you to get through it faster. If you're not at a top school, your professors won't have the same expectations, so no matter how long you spend doing the work they assigned you, you probably won't get as much out of it as you would a course at a top university.