Why School Prestige Is Important
I'm currently a banking analyst who is signed at a MF. People don't tell you this, but PE firms (especially MF) are way more prestige heavy than Investment banks are and can tell you first-hand that school is extremely important for getting a Megafund/UMM PE offer.
I'd still say bank matters a bit more than school, but school is still very important to PE headhunters. Non-target kids, even at GS will unfortunately have trouble getting looks at some of the more prestige heavy firms like KKR/Apollo/Silver Lake.
I work at a top 3 bank in a very strong group, and the kids who went to less reputable but still good schools (UNC for example) had worse exits/received less interview requests than top targets like Harvard and Princeton. It is not impossible to break into a MF as a non-target, just will be harder.
if you go to 4:20 of this video, the Peak Frameworks guy said even coming from Evercore M&A tech, he got way less interviews than Ivy League kids.
I can tell you firsthand that I was responsible for a joint venture between Citadel and Blackstone, and I currently work with ex CEOs of Goldman.
That type of person is very good at processing work. However, that same person is mostly useless as they get more senior, as they are mostly trapped within that prestige complex. They need the problem framed for them, because that is how they succeed in academia. I can tell you firsthand working with Harvard undergrad / Yale Law types they don't contribute very much...