Insane Perks of Attending a Top CS School - My Experience

In this sub, I've been seeing debates regarding how impactful it is to attend a top school for CS. Based on my (limited) experience as a CS student at UC Berkeley, I would say definitely yes.

First of all, the name of a top CS school brings clout. I'm a freshman undergraduate, and I just completed my first semester here. I didn't start coding until entering college, never touched Leetcode, and the only real CS experience I have is the introductory coding course I took last semester. However, I have achieved multiple internship offers (as a freshman with no experience), including one at a F100 company, as well as another offer (which I have accepted) that is paying me $20k base for the summer. Granted, these successes are not only due to going to UC Berkeley, as I have other achievements (though they are not directly CS). However, my recruiters have mentioned my school as a large plus.

Also, our career fairs are insane. In addition to our career fairs that have recruiters from all FAANG companies, we also have networking events and tech talks with recruiters from prestigious companies at least every week. Last semester, I shared meals with recruiters from NVIDIA, Apple, Jane Street, and more.

Our school has opportunities everywhere. We have a startup accelerator SkyDeck, and these startups recruit heavily from our school. Great way to get your foot in the door and intern during the school year or the summer, they accept virtually all Cal students. Also, our clubs source paid projects directly from the industry. Granted, clubs are difficult to get into, but the opportunity is still there.

Lastly, the alumni and student network is incredibly valuable. The average CS student at Berkeley has multiple prestigious internships under their belt, and (at least from my experience) virtually everybody is eager to help each other out.

Yes, CS is slowly imploding, but there are still jobs out there. Especially for those who have some sort of advantage, whether it be school, networking, etc.

Edit:

This is not to say that school name is the biggest or only factor (it definitely isn't)! The opportunities I've listed exist, but it took a LOT of ambition on my end to distinguish them and put myself in a position to take advantage of them. A ton of networking, cold emails, research, etc. Again, this is not to say that the only thing on my resume is Berkeley; it is not. My background comes from an adjacent STEM field that is not CS, and part of my ability to access these opportunities definitely comes from my own merit and ambition. But I do think that luck in opportunities is propelled by opportunities being there in the first place.

Also, the point of this post was not to bring others down, and I apologize that it came across that way. I just wanted to add my perspective on the topic of the importance of school name. When I was debating which college to attend (just last year!), this was a huge factor towards my decision and I saw all the differing viewpoints. Just wanted to contribute to this sub by adding my experience as one of many, many data points!