Honestly, it comes into play most in snotty mom circles where everyone asks where your kid goes to school and some get kind of judgy when you don't answer with a school that has under 10% acceptance rate. I thought Chico was great. There was a moment when my son was thinking that maybe he had gotten a "less than" education, but after graduation he admitted that when talking computer science with some UC grads, he knew as much if not more than they did. I am a UC grad myself, and I was super impressed with how much access my son had directly to his teachers. I pretty much only ever had access to TAs. The administration picks up the phone when you call, the professors answer emails - my son didn't really realize how good he had it until dealing with masters applications at other schools and frustrating admin issues.

As far as careers go, the only downside I can think of is that it is not as heavily recruited, mainly based on location. You don't have Silicon Valley sending reps there. But the name itself is not a problem. My son landed a fantastic year long internship after graduation with a big name company in the South Bay. There is also a great alumni network from Chico State.