I'm an engineer who spent a few years doing recruiting for top Bay Area startups.

For the kinds of companies, I recruited for, if your school is top-tier, having that brand on your resume is going to open doors. If it's not, then you might as well go self-taught and save some money because at least then you'll look a bit unique and like someone with grit/initiative. Resumes from n-tier schools very rarely make it past the gatekeepers, unless you have some really salient projects or come in as a referral.

This is all rather silly, of course. I wrote at length about it here: http://blog.alinelerner.com/silicon-valley-hiring-is-not-a-m...