It's not that the employer cares about your failure to get into Harvard; it's that they may be impressed with the Harvard grad more. I have seen cases where, g

It's not that the employer cares about your failure to get into Harvard; it's that they may be impressed with the Harvard grad more. I have seen cases where, given a choice between candidates, an Ivy-leaguer picked another Ivy-leaguer solely on that basis. You could argue that such a manager would be an idiot (and you'd be right) but the brand-name-school phenomenon affects even smart employers like Google and Microsoft. Someone with MIT, Stanford, or Waterloo credentials rises to the top of the resume pile more often.