“And there are plenty of engineers working at those companies who graduate from any variety of colleges. Not all are from MIT or Cal tech…or the like.”
This. A friend from MIT got X salary at Microsoft, B housing stipend, C transportation stipend, D airport stipend, and Y signing bonus. Guess what I got, from an unranked school? Exact same thing.
We were both good enough to be hired, so we both get the same thing. That’s how it works at the top cs companies.