in my experience, the school you go to has a huge impact on what jobs you can apply/get recruited for - i definitely could see it having little impact on startup success...also doubt it has much impact on people who go into sales. both are sink or swim scenarios. but, the education you receive at harvard or mit might be no different from what you get at bunker hill cc, and if you go launch a company you may be no worse off coming out of bhcc, but if you are going into the mainstream workforce, the average MIT/Harvard/Stanford grad has a massively better shot at getting a job at NASA, Goldman, Citadel, Google, etc. Not because the students are necessarily better at those schools (although many would argue that they are) but simply because the alumni base is already embedded in those institutions. i think it is under emphasized for undergrad, but in large part matriculation choice is a decision of what alumni base you want to "buy into".