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I have been on the hiring side, too. And the difference between a good enough college and an elite college is the density of really good students.

If you have a fraction:

    really good students
    --------------------
     all students in CS

Then this number tends to be much higher in elite colleges than good enough colleges.

This is my personal experience.

(Past) company did hire from non-elite colleges in case-by-case basis, but one time we wanted 4-5 freshers, we did go to the elite college.

All students of elite colleges aren't better than all students of good enough colleges, but the fraction is what is different.

In a a typical CS dept of 50 students, you can find 40-45 really good ones in elite colleges versus 3-8 in good-enough colleges.