But if you are interviewing a team and realize that the quality of their 3 first hired engineers will be critical to their success, then you consider that being

But if you are interviewing a team and realize that the quality of their 3 first hired engineers will be critical to their success, then you consider that being on MIT, Stanford or Harvard might help them recruit this talent among their social circles, which is always easier and more effective when you are not a hit yet. There it is, you are taking the brand in account, even if it is not completely fetichism, because it's experience based. If you count on this advantage before it happened, than it is brand.