You are making several big assumptions here: 1. Grad students from non-Ivy PhD programs are useless as research collaborators. 2. People doing CS theory need to

You are making several big assumptions here: 1. Grad students from non-Ivy PhD programs are useless as research collaborators. 2. People doing CS theory need to be smarter than the average CS PhD. 3. People who go to non-Ivy schools are dumber. These all strike me as ego-driven and unfounded statements. (Not to mention the giant question mark around IQ as a valid measurement of general intellectual aptitude.)