A student in IT uses google to search for google, then uses that to search for facebook. Another good student couldn't write a "separate the digits in a number" program. Another top student couldn't write a "selection sort and then select alternate elements" program. The top nerds use drag and drop programming. A friend who runs an IT outsourcing company told me about all the candidates with fake experience certificates who can't code a Hello World program.
All these people have impressive academic records - Good GPA, graduation from a reputed university, research papers, internships.
That's not to say everyone's like that, I've seen great programmers too in my college, but the majority of people I've come across fall in that category.