Employers don’t use resumes to find all the applicant’s they want. They use them to find the applicants they don’t want.

As such, resumes are not used to get jobs, they are used to get interviews. When I was younger, having Stanford on my resume got me interviews. Many companies limit the number of schools they recruit. Unlikely they are going to a community college.

As you get older, however, your reputation takes precedence over most everything else, including the school you attended.

The other students at Stanford were exceptional people, for sure. Making friends with them was an unexpected benefit and – all things considered – a better benefit than the education. Difficult to quantify the dollar value of meeting them as opposed to some other group of people at a different graduate program.

Keep in mind – this is was for graduate school. I wouldn’t want to go there for under-grad, nor would I want my kids to. It is too intense, too competitive, too un-fun and too expensive for my taste.