<i>&gt;Getting admitted isn&#x27;t as valuable a signal as getting a degree.</i><p>It depends.  In the limited world of software startup hiring, a compsci student that got admitted to MIT&#x2F;Stanford but drops out after his freshman year conveys a more valuable signal than graduating from the University of Alabama (a much lower ranked school) after 4 years of study.<p>If it&#x27;s an older institution doing the hiring such as IBM or Goldman Sachs, they&#x27;ll want that official piece of paper showing you graduated regardless of the school&#x27;s low ranking.