The absolute best software engineers that I've ever worked with most typically have music degrees, by a wide margin. Next most typically they went to Waterloo and then MIT, RIT or CMU. Next group are the self taught ones and then everywhere else.

> Waterloo

The fact that Waterloo maintains a monopoly on its internship/coop model blows my mind every year we do recruiting.

It's the key to their success and other schools are crazy not to do it. But also I think their program is just straight up better.

OTOH, after successfully recruiting from Waterloo for over a decade, my company's recruiters suddenly decided to stop because it was more work for them even though it has consistently given great results.

It's a decision we've been fighting but our recruiting org won't budge.

As someone who’s familiar with both state and Ivy, as both a student and an employer, the variance is most pronounced in the lower quarter than it is in the top quarter. Even the bottom 25% at Harvard are (mostly) competent. With the bottom quarter at a state school, you’ll find some who would have been better off if they had chosen a different path in life. Your job as the employer is to be able to reliably identify that bottom quarter, which isn’t difficult with experience.

I found little practical difference in the top ten percent between an Ivy and a decent state school. In fact, once someone is in the top half, other factors such as organization, drive, and the ability to get along others will dominate. As such, I save money and no longer hire from Ivy’s.

One of my top students at our state school got $400k+ to start as a dev.

When you're good, you're good.