[a_gentle_autist]

Here's what I've noticed.

There's no correlation.

It doesn't mean anything. It's a position taken out of fear.

At this point, if you've graduated from top ten universities I will ignore your resume, because you won't have the hunger I want from an employee, nor where you have great creative thinking.

[api]

That's been my suspicion for some time too.

"Nobody ever got fired for hiring someone from Stanford."

[jacquesm]

I've hired a fair number of people, college educated (UK top schools), 1 from a top tier US university and a whole scala of other levels of education, all the way to none.

My experience (which is very limited) was that the people that were less educated had more drive because they were given a chance but the people that had a degree of education that was generally perceived as higher were more productive even without that level of drive and the quality of their output was generally higher.

This is probably not surprising but with very few exceptions that seemed to be the rule (and those exceptions were totally off the scale).

[api]

So you'd say that the median performance is higher from the top schools, but that the difference appears less pronounced at the extreme ends of the curve?

Basically this would mean that an average person from Stanford would probably be better than an average person from University of Nowheresville, but that an exceptional person from the latter might be as good as an exceptional person from the former...?

If true this would account for a tendency to try to recruit from top schools, since the odds of getting a better candidate might overall be higher. But it doesn't change the overall social implications much.

[jacquesm]

No, an exceptional person without any formal education can blow a person with a formal education clear out of the water both in drive and in productivity and quality.

But that's 'exceptional' for you, it is an exception, I've only encountered one such person to date.

[pimlottc]

> I've hired a fair number of people, college educated (UK top schools), 1 from a top tier US university and a whole scala of other levels of education, all the way to none.

Did you mean to say "scale" here?

[jacquesm]

No, I meant scala. It's not just a programming language :)

scala(Noun)

Ladder; sequence.

http://www.definitions.net/definition/scala

[dabockster]

However, the unfortunate truth is that no one is willing to risk getting fired over not hiring the very best. And often, this means that only the top tier schools have a chance.

[jacquesm]

The laws of limited supply are your friend here. They may want to hire only from the top tier schools but since these are typically only available in certain numbers and usually already gainfully employed this becomes less of a problem because they probably can't.