Yes I honestly do believe the incremental differences matter, and so should anyone who has inclination towards wanting to work in the most elite institutions following undergraduate studies.
A lot of posters here seem have this air of wilful ignorance I can't understand. From what I can tell, your definition of top graduate scheme isn't mine, and I'm inclined to believe most posters on this forum will agree with me. For anyone reading this and selecting universities, please take this advice seriously:
Big 4 / FTSE100 Company / Middle Office / Accenture-esque Graduate schemesAny good Russell Group university will find land you a place here, as long as it is combined with a reasonable academic record and a few EC's
Class sizes can be 1000+
Average salary 25-30k GBP
Front Office Finance Graduate schemes (BB IB's, AM)Only the top-end RG universities will open the doors to these graduate schemes. Realistically these classes tend to be dominated by Oxbridge, LSE and UCL. (UCL due to placement rather than elite status as proven by my next point)
Class sizes are in the 100's
Average salary 45+ GBP
Elite Boutique IB / PE / HF / MBB Consulting Graduate schemesGood luck even getting a look in if you don't have Oxford, Cambridge or LSE on your CV for these (Imperial too, but less so). Let's say you are the top of your class at a good RG, have an awesome start-up, solid work experience at GS/JPM/MS, and play 1st team sports at University, you'll definitely also be in with a shot, but being just above average at either Oxbridge/LSE will also land you in the same assessment centre.
Class sizes range from the low single digits to, at most, low double digits
Average salary
GBP