<p>It’s better to graduate with A’s at Georgia Tech than A’s at UF. It’s better to graduate with A’s at UF than C’s at Georgia Tech, but I don’t think this is a realistic comparison. It’s not THAAAT much harder at Georgia Tech.</p>
<p>In my experience, prestige does matter a bit. If you can get the interview then it’s pretty irrelevant, but on campus recruiting is a lot better at prestigious engineering schools than no name schools. I transferred from UCR to UCLA and my job opportunities got considerably better because of the switch. That’s the only area where I think it really matters. Prestige isn’t a fine-grained measure though. All the best recruiters at MIT also recruit at UCLA, UCSD, Berkeley, Purdue, Waterloo, Michigan, Georgia Tech, maybe even UCSB etc. It’s only when you’re talking UCLA vs. UCR that you see a real difference in opportunities.</p>