Does Where You Went To School Matter?

At one or more times throughout your life, you may have heard a guidance counselor or even a human resources worker say something such as:
"After your first job, no one will care where you went to school."
If you manage to become a professional athlete, then the above statement may perhaps be correct.
However, for most office workers, where they went to college or university will be important not only for their first professional jobs, but also for:

While the rest of this web page will try to address how important the prestige of any school that you graduated from is, my message is NOT that if you cannot get accepted into an Ivy League university you should not even try elsewhere.
When my time allows, I plan to create a web page and companion video on the college admissions process, tentatively subtitled:
Don't hate the player, hate the game
Until then, let's focus on the current topic and the sections below:

Confirmation Bias

To help us begin to appreciate the theme of this web page, we need to understand confirmation bias.
To help you understand confirmation bias, I will address outcomes below in which tasks have been assigned to Person A and Person B.
Person A has a prestigious university degree and Person B does not.

Outcome 1

Management's Interpretation

In the eyes of management, the above outcome was to be expected.
Person A succeeded because he or she has a prestigious degree.
Person B failed because he or she does not have a prestigious degree.

Outcome 2

Management's Interpretation

Person A succeeded because he or she has a prestigious degree.
Person B succeeded because even though Person B does not have a prestigious degree, management so perfectly assigned the task that Person B was still able to succeed.

Outcome 3

Management's Interpretation

If Person A did not succeed with his or her task, the only way that management can interpret the result is that the task was so difficult, that Person B would have had no chance.
The fact that Person A was not successful does not reflect on Person A.
As with the 2008 financial crisis, outcome 3 is deemed a market failure.
Person B succeeded because even though Person B did not have a prestigious degree, management assigned the task so perfectly.
Once again, management congratulates itself.

Confirmation Bias Summary

With respect to this web page, confirmation bias means that managers will interpret information to support their existing belief that it is wise to focus on advancing the careers of people from either a specific school, or a specific set of schools.
Now imagine that the results of Outcome 3 are repeated 10 times in a row.
Person B notes that to his or her manager.
His or her manager will likely say something such as:
"We need to focus on our upcoming work, not rehash old news."

Matriculated Student

Where does "where did you go to school" mean?
If we were living in the 1990's dot-com bubble, employer's appetite for all many of computer related jobs was so great, that "where you went to school" might be so broad as apply to an open-enrollment certificate program.
However, in today's world, the reality is that for the purpose of hiring and promotions,

In some cases, someone who was a matriculated student at a prestigious university, attended for one or more semesters, then dropped out may experience easier outcomes than someone who outright graduated from a less prestigious university.
However, please do not interpret the above statement to mean that you should consider dropping out of college without absolutely extraordinary consideration.

Dating, Online And Otherwise

Especially if you are a man, if you are communicating with someone regarding a potential romantic relationship, you may be asked "where did you go to school?"
The question could possibly be low-stakes small talk, however it could lead to a go/no-go decision.
If the prestige of the institution that you graduated from is below some threshold that the questioner has in mind, that may be foreclose the chance of any romantic relationship.
How such a foreclosure is executed can vary widely.
I have listed some of the possibilities below:

Many men believe that it is plausible to convert a foodie call into a romantic relationship.
Such delusions make it easy for women to line up foodie calls at will.
I would argue that abruptly cutting off communication is far more considerate than to allow a man to believe that a foodie call can lead to a romantic relationship.

Conclusion

Regardless of where you went to school, what schools you attended as a matriculated student will impact whether you are hired and promoted.
If you do not have a prestigious degree, you might find yourself on a team consisting of:

For the people in the list above, who is the success or failure of a given project most important for?
The answer should be obvious.
The success or failure of the project is most important for the person who either has no degree at all, or who has a degree that is not prestigious.
For the above person, the project succeeding may not mean a promotion, but it could possibly mean continued employment.
For the other people in the list, the stakes are less high.
Even if the project fails, worst case:

Understanding that "where you went to school" will significantly impact hiring and promotion decisions is not defeatism, it is realism.