This is absolutely true, but it's not only about being risk averse in hiring -- it's about outsourcing your selection process to the universities. If you had t

This is absolutely true, but it's not only about being risk averse in hiring -- it's about outsourcing your selection process to the universities. If you had to find 100 young people to be the next class of analysts at your fancy consulting firm, where would you start looking? It just makes sense to go to the places where high-achieving young people congregate. There's not a better system (maybe standardized testing would work, but that doesn't solve the problem).