<p>That's it, very simple. I realize some programs may better prepare one but as far as getting in, are Ivy Leaguers at any true advantage?</p>
<p>Many highly ranked colleges, Ivy and otherwise, will often provide an application benefit to their own undergraduates (although I doubt that this is ever explicitly claimed). For examples, look at the enrollments of some top law schools and you will quickly see that undergraduates from the same institutions often make up a meaningful percentage of the class. </p>
<p>The secondary effect of applying to a top grad school from another elite undergraduate institution is a lot less clear. Far more important will be the strength of the academic transcript, the strength of the relevant standardized test score and, perhaps most important for some graduate areas like business, post-undergraduate work experience will be the defining factor and far more important than the undergraduate institution.</p>
<p>Not the Ivy League itself, but grad admissions (thinking MA, MS, PhD, etc here, not MBA, law, med, etc), according to what I have read, do take the strength and difficulty of your undergrad program into account. People from top or notoriously difficult schools get more leeway with their GPA. Not an infinite amount, but some.</p>
<p>Getting recommendations from professors who are well known in your field and would be known/respected by the people on graduate admissions committees at other schools helps a lot.</p>
<p>Indirectly, it definitely helps. Top schools have smaller classes, more famous professors, more research opportunities, a better academic environment, grade inflation (a few exceptions of course), etc. These will make it easier to assemble a good professional/grad school application. Of course, this doesn't mean you're screwed if you go to a state school. But, it does mean you will have to be more proactive than your Ivy League peers.</p>
<p>Based on name alone, you might get a slight boost. Let's say you didn't particularly take advantage of the options you were given at your Ivy League school and ended up with an average med school or law school app, I still think you will get the nod over a state schooler with similar qualifications (and considering the number of students applying to med and law school these days, you may very well end up in a tie with many other applicants). But, I think the most important advantages are listed in my first paragraph.</p>
<p>There are lots of benefits: usually Ivies et al provide excellent advising for grad school, with lots of application help, etc. Not to mention there are plenty of opportunities to shine, like internships and research and such. I think the name of the school may have some influence, but not too much.</p>
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Getting recommendations from professors who are well known in your field and would be known/respected by the people on graduate admissions committees at other schools helps a lot.
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<p>This is a very important point.</p>
<p>Not just on name, no. But obviously, the extent to which you received a quality undergrad experience and can reflect strong ability will favor you. As others have said, grad school admissions understands differences between various schools as well as the strengths and weaknesses of specific programs. They are not impressed by names the way the general public tends to be.</p>
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Getting recommendations from professors who are well known in your field and would be known/respected by the people on graduate admissions committees at other schools helps a lot.<br>
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This is a very important point.
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This is a very important common fallacy. There are people who got recommendations from premiere professors at Berkeley and those did not help. You ask why? Here's why. They do not care or have time to write a great letter for you. I know people who got letters from just assistant professors got into better school than their peers with star professors writing recs. Anecdotal evidence does not make statistic, but it provides contrary to popular belief.</p>
<p>It is extremely helpful if the professor writing your letter of recommendation has a positive personal relationship with the professor that you want to work with in grad school. For example, they know and respect each others' professional work after having been in grad school together, working on research projects together, etc. etc. Sometimes the best recommendation you can get is if you want to go work with one of your current professor's PhD committee members.</p>
<p>Given the difficulty of finding long-term academic positions, there are Ivy league PhDs working all over the place. Your old English comp professor from that not-remotely-famous community college may be a Harvard PhD.</p>
<p>That's why you don't get recommendation letters from professors who clearly don't care/don't have time. You probably also shouldn't get recommendations from them if you haven't done that much to really stand out to them. You just have to do it intelligently. The anecdotal evidence I have says that strong recommendation letters from well-known faculty members helps people get into Chicago, Princeton, Harvard, MIT, etc. I'm sure graduate schools get lots of applications from people who may have been at the top of their class at a lesser school, or really impressed a younger professor who hasn't been around academia that long, and it doesn't really tell them that much. If you can get impress and get the support of well-known people who have been around the block before, that will tell them something.</p>
<p>if you manage to impress the dinosaurs in the field, chances are, you don't need their recs to get into top schools. Any recs will do.
my impression of OP's question is if getting a rec from a well known prof helps, and my answer is not really. You need to bring something else to the table as well.</p>
<p>I think it depends. In most cases (for example, if you're applying to med school), it is better to have a more personal letter from a less accomplished professor than a lukewarm letter from a well-known professor. However, there are situations (when the professor is a REALLY big-shot or when you are applying for certain positions in academia) where simply having a known professor sign off on the letter is a huge bonus. Academics can be rather snobby, trusting what/who they know above all else. That's why reputation (whether you are talking about a university's or a letter writer's) plays a huge role in academia.</p>
<p>hmmmmm, not what I was hoping for but certainly what I asked for. I have heard conflicting ideas on this subject and wanted to hear from people on here. Basically I'm deciding between Columbia and Hunter College. I really want to go for Columbia but all my friends who are somewhat older say that unless someone is paying for Columbia, the smartest choice is clearly Hunter. I'm obviously worried about the difference in quality of education (for which my friends friend's retort "education is what you make it", which is very true) but also worried about getting into grad school from a place like Hunter, which I've heard very mixed things about. This is what I was getting at. Ideally I could find a place like Reed college in the Northeast that provides a great education, gives good financial aid but isn't so competitive to get into due to prestige. I appreciate all your feedback, thank you all very much.</p>
<p>if you do really well in college, you can get into practically anywhere. My cousin who went to harvard is currently a second year med student at Baylor College of Medicine. My cousin got nearly straight As at harvard. One of his friends at baylor went to UT-Austin for undergrad, maintained straight As, and got into Baylor College of Medicine.</p>
<p>Oh and the reason I'm choosing between those schools has mostly to do with money, as in, I'd really love to go to Columbia but simply cannot afford it. I don't want to be 50k in debt going into grad school. Hunter is crazy cheap.</p>
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They do not care or have time to write a great letter for you.
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<p>They do if they think you are a star. Contrary to common belief, most professors, even famous ones, don't hate their students. However, the more famous you are, the more your opinion matters, and you are going to save your best recommendation for the best students. A letter of reference isn't enough, it has to be a good one.</p>
<p>^^^ that's why it's a problem. I don't think anyone before enrolling in a college think they will be a star in an elite school. Most likely, you'll be somewhere in the middle of the pack. Hence, even with the biggest name writing your recs, it will not help because you aren't what they think you are. They've seen enough impressive people to see you as what you think you're not.<br>
OP is asking if getting a big name to write letters of rec will help and the responses without factoring in the intermediate steps is very misleading and shortsighted.</p>
<p>^^Yes, but no matter how much of star you are at a middling school, the letters of rec won't count for much, because the professors are unknown.</p>
<p>All of this depends a lot on the major in question, some are much more competitive than others. It also depends on how high you are aiming for grad school.</p>
<p>I get the impression that certain programs, such as MD, J.D., masters, Ph.D. programs at certain schools give benefits to applicants from very top schools such as HYPSM. Harvard Law, for example, has its student body comprised of Harvard undergraduates making up about 20-25% of entire Harvard law class. Similar is true for some other very selective programs. But, I think that many of these prestigious schools don't necessarily give applicants from other lesser top schools that much of extra benefits compared to other decent schools.</p>