The places I’ve worked, the programmers from top universities and directional state universities all do the same tasks and sit in the same style of office or cubicle, or sit right next to each other on an open floor.
The point being that going to a top-ranked university doesn’t mean you’re going to do better than someone from a directional state university in the job market. Last place I worked the department was run by a guy from San Jose State, and we had people from Stanford, Harvard, Cal, USC, UCLA, various CSUs, and foreign universities you’ve never heard of sitting side by side doing the programming grunt work.