Two quick thoughts on that (haven't read the book or the link) - if you looked at the resumes of the people who have risen to the top of the field I'm in over the years, you'd find a spectrum of educational backgrounds - people with degrees from the universities that are considered top-in-the-field and people who went to what I would have considered (when I was applying to college) very easy-to-get-into universities with not the most highly regarded programs. (Note - the people I'm talking about are all roughly the same age as I am, so we're not talking about changes in higher ed over time.)
I went to a university that was considered to be at the top of my field, and it did help - it helped when interviewing for that first job out of school - all the top-paying companies came to campus and placed a bit of a premium on students from our school. For me personally, it made a difference because we were really well-educated and really well-prepared starting off in the work force - we learned things at our school that young people starting out from other schools had to learn on the job. We did get paid slightly higher salaries coming into the work force. Through the years, if mention of where I went to school came up in conversation I did get "name recognition" and it sometimes impressed people.
BUT - at the end of the day - it didn't factor into where you landed long-term in your career. The things that mattered were the effort you put into your career, the intelligence you had in making decisions about upward career moves, networking, selling yourself, staying on top of what was happening in the field, etc. And a little bit of luck in terms of good fortune too.
polarbear
