MiddleburyDad, I did not say that Texas and UIUC were world beaters in every single way. I said they are elite universities. To suggest that they are merely “so-so” is just not true.
“But, as I said elsewhere, if you want to be recruited by Goldman, JPM, or one of the consulting firms, then perceptions matter, and prestige and selectivity matter.”
It is not that straight forward. Schools like Brown, Chicago and Yale are e prestigious and extremely selective, yet not exactly known to be heavy weights in terms of Wall Street placement. When it comes to Wall Street placement, McCombs is solid. Not on par with Wharton, but still well recruited. UIUC is not well recruited by Wall Street firms, but that does not make it any less elite.
http://poetsandquantsforundergrads.com/2015/02/04/the-top-feeder-schools-to-wall-street/2/
The link above is not necessarily 100% accurate, but it nevertheless relatively telling.