I too have worked at Merrill (hired through grad program and then SAC), I have most of my friends working in similar capacities and agrees with this. You seem to pick one example and trying to disprove what I just said. I am not giving theorem here but statistics.
For somebody who has worked at Merrill and SAC, I find it funny that you have to resort to applying to a 2nd rate school like GT. With Steven Cohen as a reference, couldn't you attend an online masters from the University of Phoenix and still get job offers from GS, MS, JPM, etc?