>> I don't think wealthy families send their kids to any of these private schools with a view to jobs at LocMart, Boeing, or Argonne. > You're underestimating

>> I don't think wealthy families send their kids to any of these private schools with a view to jobs at LocMart, Boeing, or Argonne. > You're underestimating rich people (or maybe the rich people I know have a tech bias, given that we all work in the tech industry). I didn't think the HN community considers big aerospace (and I work in one of them!) to be tech in the sense of startups on the one side and FAANG on the other. Some have even said as much. Yes, my shop hires from UCLA and USC, slightly less from Caltech in recent years but the promotions go predominantly to USC people. Can't be because of technical or managerial quality, either. I must have been at Berkeley and then Stanford (grad school) during downturns. I finished up the latter in 1990 before the dotcom boom changed everything and apparently the former has grown in reputation although along different axes as well. When I was an undergrad, Berkeley's powerhouse rep. in the physical sciences and elsewhere were good for instruction and research opportunities. Lots of Type A profs didn't like to be bad at anything so they taught well or at least tried hard at it. Research opportunities speak for themselves since the labs were well equipped with hardware and people and LBL was nearby. Helped me get into grad schools and with a nice external fellowship to pay for it but from the late 1990s on, that background has never helped in job searches or advancement. Edit: I should also note that Berkeley may be placing people in the SF Bay Area (your post) but that the Ivies/MIT/Stanford have name recognition and influence far beyond their regions.