You absolutely do not have to go to an elite school to be an elite pro. In fact, most of the elite pros I know went to “ordinary” schools. Heck, even the technically elite MIT guys are all brilliant but frankly none of them I work with are likely going to climb high because they lack polish in presentation. That is, they tend to have a “isn’t this cool, check out this data” presentation style that confounds managers and customers. Hard and soft skills together make the leader, and schools may teach one or the other but most don’t teach both.
I agree with you 100%. Regarding presentations, ya gotta know your audience. I learned the hard skills in school. The soft skills were learned once out and along the way. In a presentation we’re not just communicating, we’re convincing. Bottom line, we’re selling.