<p>In Silicon Valley it’s what you know. People aren’t as impressed with elite universities as those on the east coast seemed to be when I worked there. I don’t know much about Princeton, but one of the advantages of Stanford over USC or Purdue is you have venture capitalists with offices just off campus, and lots of professors can introduce you to venture capitalists or angel investors. There’s a huge entrepreneurial vibe at Stanford. </p>
<p>Being familiar with both USC and Stanford, I’d say USC students expect to get very good jobs, while Stanford students expect to start companies. Assuming Purdue is like the Big 10 university I attended my freshman year, both USC and Stanford would offer you better career opportunities.</p>