<p>Simply put, is it better to graduate at the top of your class (like top 3%) at a top 50, large public University such as the University of Maryland (or similar schools in the range of top 30-top 100 even). Or would it be better to graduate at a top 20 school lower down maybe only top 25% of your class?</p>
<p>What are your opinions on this? I already know what I think and I think that top top of your class at a school is better than not as high at a better school so long as youre comparing schools within the top 75ish. </p>
<p>It definitely depends...but in many cases, it's better to be a small fish in a big pond than a big fish in a small pond (picked that up from somebody else on the forum...I forget who)</p>
<p>Anyway, you have to think about it this way. Only the top 5% (rough estimate) of the students at any given large public university would even have a chance at making it into one of the top schools. Therefore, graduating at the top 5% of a large public is roughly average at a top university. They are therefore comparable, and it seems that--in many cases--prestige of large universities wins out.</p>
<p>This may be biased, as I plan to major in finance (completely prestige-driven)...but I would imagine that this is at least somewhat true in other majors as well.</p>
<p>Hubby is very involved in admission to a top 10 grad school science program. In his department they don't look at or ask for class rank. They want to know the overall GPA, the GRE score and relevant research. It is the combination of those three things that get students in. They don't really care what school you went to.</p>
<p>Definately. In fact, per capita, many good LAC's do a better job getting students into grad/prof schools than many of the large Brand-ID private universities. Would I turn down an Ivy - no. But beyond that there are many hidden gems that are well respected by post-undergrad programs. There are a lot of over-rated schools out there, as well as larger private and public univ. whose primary(unwritten) mission is to produce more publications than the others. This unstated goal is often negatively correlated with the attention given to undergrad education.</p>
<p>"They don't really care what school you went to."</p>
<p>ehh, i believe your husband, and i don't know anything about science grad school, but just looking at a HLS class composition chart shows that, at least law schools, care what school you went to</p>
<p>If you have top grades and a very high LSAT, it won't matter much where you did you undergrad. However, students who attend prestigious schools are stronger students overall, more likely to score higher on the LSAT and are, therefore, highly represented in top law school admissions.</p>
<p>yeah but even school administrators, i think it was someone from emory, will admit "ivy begets ivy" when it comes to grad school admissions and why other top programs, such as emory, are underrepresented in the class compositions</p>