I agree with the programming/computer science distinction; in my experience the skillsets are fairly disjoint, and having a CS degree (or knowing what school it

I agree with the programming/computer science distinction; in my experience the skillsets are fairly disjoint, and having a CS degree (or knowing what school it was from) bears very little correlation to someone's ability to code. Honestly, having an MS or a PhD often has an inverse correlation to someone's ability to code, since it probably means they're more interested in the theoretical side and less concerned with the practical side (though I don't think that's true for a BS). I have, however, found that a college degree in general, regardless of the field, is often a good proxy for someone's communication skills. Someone with a degree from a "good" school is, in my experience, more likely to be a clear thinker/writer/talker that someone without a degree or with a degree from a middle-tier school, regardless of their ability to code. I don't want to hazard a guess as to which way the causal arrow points there, but it's definitely a pretty clear trend I've noticed from interviewing several dozen candidates over the last few years.