"Ask someone who works at Google if there was ever a time when in the company's history when a Stanford or Berkeley degree wasn't a major advantage in the hiring process."
All my info is based on what they said (and hence somewhat unreliable), but the factors cited in my case were my startup experience, the interview feedback, and the fact that my skillset happened to fit what they're looking for at this point in time. I also have an Amherst degree, so I can't rule it out as a factor, but nobody once mentioned it. And my GPA sucked, so it certainly couldn't have been all academic.
All my info is based on what they said (and hence somewhat unreliable), but the factors cited in my case were my startup experience, the interview feedback, and the fact that my skillset happened to fit what they're looking for at this point in time. I also have an Amherst degree, so I can't rule it out as a factor, but nobody once mentioned it. And my GPA sucked, so it certainly couldn't have been all academic.