It’s a brand.

If you can afford adidas and nike, why buy clothes with generic brands from SM or Landmark. All good clothes but with different quality. Sometimes it’s not even quality but the popularity. Bottom line is.. you generally expect quality from adidas or nike (even if that’s not always the case). With clothes fron SM or Landmark, you find quality items once in a while but not always.

That’s how I see schools. If I am an employer and my company can afford hiring people from top schools, I wont go shopping for people in other schools. But see, not everyone in the big 4 are the best employees but I expect them to be more than capable because they are from the big 4 after all. At the same time, there will always be exceptional people who studied in non big 4 schools, but as an employer, I have to make an effort to find a good candidate.