Native intelligence and other privileges such as social networks trump formal education.
I think about this all the time. Einstein was a bad math and physics student who thought about the universe differently than other "schooled". Many of my managers in businesses I've worked for, or non-commissioned officers in the army, were horrible writers with meager vocabularies (probably due to lack of college education), but who also wielded beaucoup power. The list goes on and on.
Formal education is not only a gamble that may or may not yield the expected tangible benefits, it's also a potential opportunity cost at the college age.
Life is often not fair and our society is not a "perfect meritocracy."