Prestige, and what it does and does not buy

A well-known name does real things. It opens some first conversations. It carries weight where the reader knows nothing else about you. And it matters more in a few fields — parts of law, consulting and academia — than it does in most. Pretending otherwise would be dishonest.

What it does not do is survive contact with your own record. It fades quickly: by a second job the question is what you have done, not where you started. And it is often paid for twice — once in fees, and once in three years spent in a department that was not the strongest one available to you. Weigh the name. Do not let it stand in for the four comparisons.