<p>I have no idea where top-tier ends and second-tier begins. It’s an artificial distinction that people on CC might obsess about, but it isn’t very important in the professional world.</p>
<p>I got my CS degree from the University of Alaska (along with an irrelevant Masters in IE from USC,) and have had lots of co-workers from places like Stanford, Berkeley, Harvard, CMU, MIT, state flagships, regional state universities, LACs, schools I’d barely heard of, overseas universities I’d never heard of, and college dropouts. We all occupied the same cubes and benches, doing the same work on the same projects. For computer-related jobs, it’s about what you know, not where you went to school. The CS material covered at Kent State and Wichita State is no different than that covered at Stanford or Cal. After you start working, it doesn’t take long to observe that where someone got their degree has almost nothing to do with how productive they are, and nobody makes a big deal about where they went to school.</p>
<p>I also don’t remember my managers being disproportionately from top-tier schools.</p>
<p>If there’s an advantage to going to a place like Stanford or MIT, it’s that you might make some personal connections that would help you later in your career. Their locations also offer opportunities that wouldn’t be easily available to someone going to Fresno State or Indiana.</p>