Does brand recognition build legitimacy?

There was a comment on Employee Evolution about taking a job simply because of brand recognition of the company. I replied:

Do you think the search for colleges with big names and titles (ie instant recoginition) that we went through somehow parlayed into the initial job search? How many friends do you know that picked a school because it was A GREAT SCHOOL only to drop out, transfer, and end up much happier? I also wonder if part of the search for a GREAT SCHOOL with a big name somehows helps us legitimize ourselves when we’re working with older people. I had never thought of this before moving to Baltimore where my school (Northeastern) isn’t known at all (Oh, so you go to Northwestern in Chicago??) compared to here in Boston (WOW! they have an awesome co-op program). What do you think?