I can't confirm that's how many hours she has in her log book. I know she has been flying over a 100 hours a month mostly in floats for the past 30 or so years. I am not really sure if she even really keeps a log book anymore. Most of her time now is spent teaching floats and doing checkrides. I know she was telling me a bunch of crazy stories but it might've been 60,000 between her and her husband. Either way I know she has 20,000 or so on floats. She was very knowledgeable and I really did learn a lot for her.
As for the where you go to school piece. I judge the instructor based off the instructor. I hope that when I become an instructor I am judged off my abilities and not where I went to school. When I passed my first check ride the examine told me he was giving me a license to learn. I will never forget that and am always open to constructive criticism. Hopefully, when I land my job in the bush I can prove that not all pilots (especially bush) are not cocky and arrogant. I treat every flight the same way and am never in a rush. When I start reaching that point I know it's time to look in the mirror and evaluate what went wrong and why I was rushing. Normally one things snow balls into another. I would certainly be foolish to think that ten years from now I will know everything about aviation. I certainly love to read lots of books though.