It definitely did to me. There was this one person who I have even thanked for it as he (unintentionally) defined my life in a way.
Someone posted about a BBC program called "Where the Jobs Are" (or similar) where I learnt about Russell Group universities. I applied to Nottingham, Surrey, Warwick, UCL, and another. I was rejected by UCL, so I was gonna go for Surrey as it was near London until I heard about Russell Group and it's importance, did some research and chose Nottingham as my firm instead.