How big is the school's "name factor" in getting internships and employment?

However, note that school-prestige-consciousness, particularly for those with considerable work experience, tends to vary by industry, by specific employer within an industry, and by specific group or manager within an employer. In contrast to reply #1, my experience is that, when recruiting new graduates, employers have to select schools to recruit at, though not necessarily by the usual rankings (ranking/reputation in major, where major is relevant, and convenience of local schools are often important factors), while school prestige tends to fade away as a factor with experience. Of course, this is a field where technical questions in initial phone screens and actual interviews are common, so the reliance on indirect proxies like school prestige is less due to having a more direct assessment of the candidate’s skills.

But this is not the think tank industry or the political industry that you are looking at, so experiences outside of that industry may not apply. You may want to ask specifically about those industries, since assumptions based on other industries may not match those industries. In the political industry, political ideology may also affect which schools are considered prestigious (e.g. a conservative religious college of some Christian denomination may be highly regarded among religiously conservative politicians but have negative prestige with secular liberal politicians).