In reality it’s “I have an education from Stanford and therefore potential employers can assume I’m smart/talented” (else Stanford wouldn’t have admitted me).
Which is somewhat ironic, because it wasn’t the smartest kids at our high school that got in there.
No, it is “because you were smart/talented while in high school and had a decent parental situation*, you have an education from Stanford.”
But it does not mean “you are not smart/talented because you have an education from a less selective college.”
*Enough parental money and no issues like uncooperative divorced parents that block financial aid.
@ucbalumnus I agree somewhat with your post #121. I disagree with the “decent parental situation.” It is as simple as kids are dependent on what their parents are willing to spend. And, no, paying for an elite college education does not define good parenting. 
I find the list of numbers that posters keep listing as more of a testament to not pay for an elite education than evidence to the contrary. These are numbers listed just for chemE:
MIT Chemical Engineering 71,138 72,500
…Stevens UCB Alabama UIUC UM-AA UVA GT
Chemical Eng 69150 68818 65178 68887 70290 65629 72500
Take the above list. A student attending Bama on scholarship might spend anywhere from $0 to say a max of $60,000 (living in most expensive housing and staying on a meal plan or eating out all of the time) for 4 yrs of college. What it would cost at the other schools is highly variable. Say $10,000 for very low income to $280,000 for high income parents.
Career-wise, my dh and oldest ds are both chemEs. I know that for the different companies that they have worked for that “school pedigree” has absolutely nothing to do with where they are in their respective careers, and it has absolutely everything to do with how they do their jobs.
MODERATOR’S NOTE:
Actually, it’s not CC; it’s some users on CC.
I’m not sure that’s the adjective I would have used, but it is just going around in circles. So, since I see nothing more that can be meaningfully added, I will close.