I used to recruit for tech start ups and can confirm that school is just about always the most important thing to get you in the door, particularly early on in

I used to recruit for tech start ups and can confirm that school is just about always the most important thing to get you in the door, particularly early on in your career. It's something that I fought against (I have a technical background and had the advantage of being able to evaluate technical skill somewhat independently), and did well because of it. There were a few candidates that I brought in that I was reprimanded for - physically brought into our partners' office to be told off - only to have that candidate receive multiple job offers from our clients. The partners weren't qualified to really evaluate technical skill, but knew what candidate qualities that a start up is willing to pay a recruiter's fee for. At the end of the day, my candidates were exceptional for having risen above their alma maters' reputations, and the Ivy league grads are more consistently good/qualified. When hiring, time is such an important factor. Many engineering teams are unwilling to take the chance on an a candidate that graduated from unfamiliar school because their hiring process is weak and/or inefficient. Or they waited too long to hire, and need someone "yesterday". At least they're more likely to end up with a good candidate by using the school as the qualifier, even if it costs them more because of the candidate's demand. TL;DR : The 'top' candidates' values are artificially inflated as a result of high demand, which itself is due to ill-conceived and insufficient hiring processes across most companies.