<p>I have to disagree with the networking comment as a reason why top tier schools are automatically superior to (not surprisingly) USNWR lower ranked schools. If Harvard grads are the only people to have access to the network of Harvard alumns, then by that logic someone from Stanford will never have access to those possibilities. While I highly question the accuracy (or actual effect) of the 90% of jobs claim, experience should make much more of a difference than where you graduated from.</p>
<p>This is not to say Berkeley, Stanford, and MIT don’t have great CompSci programs - just that out of the hundreds of other colleges that offer degrees that teach the same material, you can have the same potential to learn and perfect the trade. As an employer, I would almost assuredly prefer someone from Podunk U who is fluent in the same coding languages as a UCB/Stanford/MIT, but has an internship or two, maybe even a co-op, some research, and took the time to really get to know some professors (that last point isn’t necessarily impossible at “high ranked” places, but not everyone that goes to those places does that). College is what you make of it, not just where you go.</p>