<p>The general public’s perception of the quality of graduate schools is irrelevant; but academics are very snooty about provenance, and they do the hiring. This is not to say that you can’t be successful if you go to a school that is not recognized by academics in the field as a “top” program, but it will help. It is true, though, that if you have a strong speciality interest going in, it could be a good idea to include among your considerations the specific specialities of the professors in the program you are interested in.<br>
Investing years in graduate school to wind up with few if any prospects is a dismal idea – 5 years into the program it is downright depressing to think that you might not get a job, and that applies to students even at the “top” schools – the rate of hiring is not so great and the openings are erratic.<br>
I don’t believe the same is true of undergraduate institutions for musicology; for example, there are plenty of graduate students now at Harvard (which lists its students and where they are from) who went to non-Ivy-level schools.</p>