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> What are top tier universities doing to keep being competitive with those low cost boot camps?

Students from top tier universities go on to jobs where their education is actually useful. (Usually; there are always a number that don't quite make it.) Somebody has to write all the system software, database engines, compilers, and frameworks that the boot camp graduates use to do their jobs.

They signal to the employers, "our alumni are more likely to be either smart or well-connected than boot camp survivors". Hiring people is expensive, so interviewing people that have been preselected to be likely to show potential is cheaper in the long run.

No, it isn’t a waste, since many companies only hire from the narrow pool of top tier universities, as she pointed out.