As recently discussed in another thread, higher score/GPA kids are overrpresented among students who attend “elite” undergrad schools, so “elite” undergrad schools would be expected to be overrerpresnted at selective grad schools, even if admission to grad schools was purely based on stats, without considering name of college at all. Just looking at grad school matriculation totals in isolation tells you very little about whether grad/profession schools are focusing on prestige of undergrad college name, or even of college name has any influence at all in their decision.
Prestige of college name can be important for “elite” banking and consulting, but these industries are more the exception than the rule. The vast majority of employers place little weight on prestige of college name, as was indicated in the earlier survey. And among the small minority that do place significant weight on the college name, some would certainly favor the state flagship kid over the “elite” private kid all things being equal. This is more likely among companies located near the flagship that have a good network and history of past hires. Some persons in hiring positions have biases – both towards./against “elites” and towards/against their state flagship
sbdad12 indicated he works in tech. I work in tech as well, which may relate to part of difference in opinion. I majored in EE. In most fields of engineering, prestige of college name has extremely little to do with hiring decisions. The most desired companies often regularly recruit from state flagships or other nearby colleges with quality engineering programs, so flagships often have strong networks, which can lead to recruiting and hiring benefits that would not be found at an Ivy or similar generic prestigious college.
For example, if you want to be an engineer at Qualcomm, UCSD is likely to provide a lot of special recruiting, networking, and hiring benefits that would be far less likely to occur at Harvard or Yale. San Jose State has similar benefits with the nearby Apple headquarters. Engineering recruiting, networking, and hiring generally has little to do with which college is most prestigious. Quality of engineering at the college, concentration of likely hires, and past experiences can be influential; but the most prestigious colleges often do not excel in these areas for engineering (non-Cornell Ivies, Chicago, most LACs, etc…).
Instead employers generally focus on which applicant is likely to do the job well based on past work experience doing something similar (past internship at company is ideal, similar work at other company is also good) and having a desired skill set, so the hire is likely to be able hit the ground running without having to retrain everything that he/she should have learned in their engineering major. It’s common for engineering new jobs to require a specific related major and test applicants on related technical skills during the interview, rather than expecting a bright kid will be able to figure it out if hired.
That said, while I expect only a small portion of college students are interested in “elite” banking/consulting, this group is tremendously overrepresnted at certain “elite” colleges. In the new Harvard senior survey, 40% of grads who plan to enter the workforce said they will be initially working in finance or consulting. I wouldn’t be surprised if some other Ivies have an even higher percentage, such as Penn. This seems to be a popular career path among kids at “elite” colleges. I suspect a good portion of the appeal relates to the companies maintaining a similar aura of prestige/elite/exclusivity/top/… like certain “elite” colleges.
From an individual student’s perspective, whether the prestigious degree pays off or is expected to have a good ROI compared to alternatives depends on many factors. Some of the many relevant factors include planned major, employment goals/desires, difference between cost of "elite’ vs alternatives, family financial situation, how the student is likely to function in big fish vs small fish environments, what types of unique out of classroom opportunities the student is likely to pursue, and what the student hopes to obtain from the college experience beyond career earnings/goals. The answer will differ for different students.
