I’ve been in the tech business for years and I tell you for a fact that no one cares about where you went to school. If you read my other posts, you’ll see all the prestigious companies I’ve interviewed at, and YES Amazon and Google are on that list. Don’t fool yourself into thinking you’re going to make big bucks out of college going somewhere prestigious. Here’s a lesson in economics 101. You’re going to get a local market entry level salary, no more no less. If the employers start going any higher on the salary, they can attract an experienced professional to do the job. The “higher than average” starting salary stats these schools boast about are misleading, because these schools are on the east/west coast with a higher than average cost of living.
Zuckerberg and Gates were college dropouts who started their own companies, which means there was no prestige to begin with. If they went to Michigan, they would have still dropped out and started their own companies, because they were motivated to begin with.
Success in life is a function of internal motivation, not approval from other people.