>>11626482Just for the record, I'm the first anon who replied to you. German anon might have something different to say than what I'll say.
>i feel like maybe part of it might be just >the piece of paper from X is seen as better by other people / employers than piece of paper from YAs long as you don't go to a BAD university (that is, a shameless diploma mill), that's almost it. An engineer graduated with a bachelor's degree from Cambridge isn't really different from an engineer graduated with a bachelor's degree from Queen Mary. There is, however, a different social perception about both degrees. The less one knows about academia, more one is impressed by degrees from prestigious schools. If you tell some random normie who didn't even make it into college that you graduated from Harvard, they'll probably think that you are very, very intelligent. If you tell a researcher the same thing, you'll get something like "nice", or "that's cool, I graduated from there too!".
Regarding employers, it depends. Some employers care more, others care less, but it's nothing too determinant to whether you'll get the job or not. Graduating from a prestigious uni can, at best, be a nice touch to your resume. Employers might think: "Oh, he graduated from Yale? Cool." or "So, he's from Texas A&M, huh? That's good to know, I have 2 employees who graduated from there who are quite good. I might pay attention to this guy", but that's it.
If you're an undergrad, the only real advantage of going to a more prestigious university might be the experience. You might have more interesting clubs and activities to take part on, and you get to have slightly smarter peers on average. You also get to do some networking, and you'll have more opportunities to befriend smart or privileged people, which might be interesting, but that's it.
Your institution matter when it comes to grad school, however, since some universities are better for research in certain topics than others.
