Hope I don't come off as a conspiracy nut, but: I think it's important to remember that in the big picture of things, very, very few employers care about wheth

Hope I don't come off as a conspiracy nut, but: I think it's important to remember that in the big picture of things, very, very few employers care about whether a hire went to Harvard or not. But as it happens, the ones that do, also wield a lot of power. I think a lot of these places only care partially about the intellectual prowess of their candidates, but also about a lot of other factors. Socioeconomic background, networks, pedigree, and what not. Hiring the right kid from Harvard / Yale / Princeton / whatever means that he/she can be a good future resource not just because they're smart, but because they have many other attributes with considerable upsides 20-30 years down the road. Hell, I'll put it in plain text: I think a lot of elite universities are valued in the job market because they're breeding grounds for rich elites, where the new generation of rulers can mingle and network, which is very useful for future operations. It's about grooming people for succession . Obviously doesn't hold true for everyone there, but the ones that know how the system is rigged, will follow the rules.