We're increasingly seeing highly critical re-evaluations of the current higher education paradigm, and we're increasingly at a point where an Ivy League diploma has little value save that of a status symbol. (One which basically says "I am conventionally-minded, inclined to do things the 'right' way, and I hold the correct opinions.")
Maybe in some industries. I will be more convinced if entry class of big successful banks like Goldman Sachs isn't full of ivy grads.
I personally know people that have flunked phone screens and were given the benefit of the doubt because they went to prestigious schools.
Ivy league is about as useful of a signal as a state school at this point.
If you want to get into Google, a degree from Stanford, Caltech, MIT, or school with similarly prestigious STEM programs will grease the skids. Matter of fact it's nearly a requirement unless you can elevate their ESG score (by being a visible and/or gender-identity or sexual-orientation minority).
I have interviewed many candidates for a FAANG over several years, and I try to not bias myself on whether they went to an Ivy or not.
That said, I have also heard that some deca-unicorn gave up going to non prestigious schools for recruiting because the hit rate was low. This deca unicorn was previously proud of outsmarting other big companies by finding diamonds in the rough by recruiting at no name schools.
To some high schoolers reading this: I wouldn't discount the value of a prestigious school to 0. It is not a prerequisite for success, but it will likely make it easier.
The value has never been about the actual teaching, it’s about the signaling. While many higher “ranked” schools are able to have more difficult courses due to being able to ask more of their students, it’s not so much that which adds value. Really companies just want the traits we associate with having gone to these schools: being well socialized, able to jump through hoops, having connections, a solid education and likely to be generally intelligent.
Of course you can have most of those traits without having ever heard of Dartmouth or Pickelball but the density of those traits coming out of Ivy leagues is high, and it’s reflected in industry (especially in finance, consulting, and academia). Just not so much generic SWE right now since even companies like F/G cannot meet hiring goals by limiting their candidate pool to these schools.
I think you're wrong about that.
Working in SV startup space, you can see that there's a lot of social value placed on an Ivy pedigree.
I'd make the case that an Ivy is less important for the higher education than it is for the network and social value gained.
If anyone's treating attending a non-Ivy school as a negative signal for competence, I can only treat that as a negative signal for their competence.
> Please understand that this is in no way a judgment of you as a student or as a person, since our decision has more to do with the applicant pool than anything else—many of our applicants are not offered admission simply because we don’t have enough space in our entering class.