That is certainly the case for law, consulting, and finance. And it has been like that for decades. For the most part, I think it's due to two things: - Signa

That is certainly the case for law, consulting, and finance. And it has been like that for decades. For the most part, I think it's due to two things: - Signaling to clients ("We're hiring the best students from the best schools") - The workload that these people are expected to tackle. If you hire a 3.5 GPA student from good schools, with a impressive resume, there's a good chance that he/she is - Smart. Not necessarily a genius, but smart enough to tackle most problems they get. Some fields, like consulting, require relatively fast thinking and soaking up new information / knowledge. - Hard-working / good work ethics. They probably put in a lot of hours during their school years, which also happens to be something you'll meet in those industries - Structured. People that go to the top schools don't tend to just stumble into them, there's a good chance they've planned and stuck to it. And if you're a bit cynical, and it could also maybe signal: - That they're from the "correct" socio-economic class. The majority of HYPS students come from well-off families. When the majority of your clients have similar backgrounds (upper middle-class to upper class), the social interaction can be a bit smoother. But with that said, these companies have become more open and lenient on these kinds of things. They see that top students from "lesser" ranked schools are just as good as their peers from the Ivies. Other fields, like tech, is a serious competitor for top talent. 30-40 years ago Ivy league grads flocked to management consulting and investment banking; And they still do, but top tech companies are attracting them too.