Tech companies rightly or wrongly (the article doesn't make that strong of a case against) are just outsourcing part of their recruiting to elite universities.
Figuring how much investment flows from tech companies (through the companies and the employees as alumni donators) to these elite universities, it may be a worthwhile investment.
It probably is one of the few reliable signals at scale. Sure, you can pluck out a few smart people from your local podunk uni who for various reasons really are that smart but, didn't get into an elite school but, if you need to hire 200 really smart, really capable engineers this year to feed your growth pipeline Stanford, Harvard, et al isn't that bad.
Additionally, it looks good for VCs to say that I have someone from Harvard or Stanford or etc on the team.
Figuring how much investment flows from tech companies (through the companies and the employees as alumni donators) to these elite universities, it may be a worthwhile investment.
It probably is one of the few reliable signals at scale. Sure, you can pluck out a few smart people from your local podunk uni who for various reasons really are that smart but, didn't get into an elite school but, if you need to hire 200 really smart, really capable engineers this year to feed your growth pipeline Stanford, Harvard, et al isn't that bad.
Additionally, it looks good for VCs to say that I have someone from Harvard or Stanford or etc on the team.