I think you're right in many scenarios, but in the VC/startup world it def. seems to matter. I've been relentlessly reading people's stories and have been looking into how to get internships at various VC/tech companies and it always comes down to: which college you're going to.

Nuro for example had this open house that exclusively invited Harvard/MIT students (i snuck in) and I'm sure there's a lot of similar opportunities that are open to kids in these colleges.

In the long term, I'm sure it'll fade away, but starting out matters as to where you will end up (whether you go to X startup or get to work for X VC)

This is related to seniority. When your carreer proves your worth and your wits, people stop asking at what age you started speaking, at what age you stopped pooping your pants, when you learned to read and write, what your SAT scores are (or whatever the equivalent is at your country) and finally which college you went to. Then they stop asking (but are still impressed by) the places you worked at, the projects you worked at and they finally let you off the hook when there is nothing else to prove.

I get asked what university I attended, and when I tell them they always follow by asking where it is, as it's a foreign no-name university with no particular international standing. I'm always asked more as a curiosity than because they're judging me.

As far as undergraduate degrees go, most universities teach you the same thing, the only difference is that some universities are more selective in who can attend than others. I learned the same material at the University of Canterbury down at the bottom of the world in New Zealand as what undergrads learn at Stanford.

I guess it's a bit different if you live in a country where there's competitive university entry, in New Zealand most universities simply require that finished high school to enter, you pick you university for lifestyle reasons (usually either because it's close to home or because you want to escape home). I've discovered that here in Australia there's much more of a hierarchy of which university you attended, as admissions are much more competitive. I guess that's what happens when you have 6 universities in the same city.

Converse anecdote: people constantly ask me what college I attended and what I majored in, nearly 15 years into my career. Senior jobs now are also strongly looking for advanced degrees on top of that. My experience has been that in the U.S., outside of software the importance of college is very high for most professional jobs.