Recruiters for the best jobs available for recent grads are brutally harsh about where you went to school, even if you went to MIT or Cornell, according to a new research study done by an assistant professor at Northwestern.

The report says elite law firms, investment banks, and consultancy firms are only looking for recruits from the "top 5," Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, and Wharton, according to her research.

And once you've got one of those schools on your resume, you have to prove you aren't "boring," a "tool," or a "bookworm," by climbing a mountain or being a nationally-ranked athlete.

Some of the study's findings you've heard before. For example, when the author of the report asked a manager from a top investment bank what happens to the resume of someone who went to Rutgers. They said, “I’m just being really honest, it pretty much goes into a black hole.”

Rutgers, ok. But not even MIT makes the cut!

A top consultant told her:

You will find it when you go to like career fairs or something and you know someone will show up and say, you know, “Hey, I didn’t go to HBS [Harvard Business School] but, you know, I am an engineer at M.I.T. and I heard about this fair and I wanted to come meet you in New York.” God bless him for the effort but, you know, it’s just not going to work.

Or Columbia!

From The Chronicle:

Columbia might be considered elite by some investment banks, but others describe it as ”second-tier” or “just okay.”

As crazy as it sounds, the incredible new research study confirms what we've been saying all along in our annual ranking of colleges. The main thing that matters is the pedigree (brand name) of the school you went to.

If you didn't go to one of the "top 5" listed above, the recruiters you'll probably need a connection, or to be really strong in the second category of things they're looking for, extracurriculars.

Recruiters want to make sure you aren't “boring,” a “tool,” or a ”bookworm" (their words) so they look for top athletes, and people who have summited an impressive peak, or traveled with a world-renowned orchestra, or built houses in Costa Rica.

But weirdly, being an excellent sportsman will only help you if it's the "right" sport. Crew is great; ping pong is not.

Anyone else getting that the message from all this is, start your own company?

Click here to see our guide to the best colleges in America >