I'm currently attending the University of Illinois in CHampaign-Urbana, a top rated school in engineering and computer science. I know a person doing interviews for a highly technical company in the area. In the past three months they interviewed over 300 people - mostly BS or Masters in CS from the University of Illinois. They hired only 15, and all of them had ether internships or some sort of experience in the field.

True, without a degree they probably would not get an interview but even with a degree from a highly rated technical school most of these people were useless to this company.

The piece of paper is important, but not as important as experience.