I think what he meant is that the kids who sat through the horrible Java and ASP.NET classes show that they can live through drudgery in the coding world.

It makes sense in theory, and I'm sure there are examples of it. Hiring a student who enjoys coding so much that they s/he is cripplingly unmotivated by doing the tedious/boring stuff may have considerable repercussions.

That being said, I think that this policy should give exceptions to people with proven industry experience, like you. It shows that they can live through the parts of the job that they don't like without being fired.