<p>People saying that it doesn't matter what university you attend as long as it has your major. Is that true? I want to get into a good grad school for engineering. I saw were an asu undergrad went to Harvard law. I don't want my undergrad to affect my graduate decisions. </p>
<p>It’s somewhat true. There’s some difference in what your opportunities will be right out of graduation from your college, to pretend there’s none and that all ABET schools will set you up exactly the same is disingenuous, but there’s less difference than most high schoolers tend to believe. </p>
<p>For grad school, you need research opportunities, and better schools will have more/better research opportunities. It’s not that you can’t go to a good grad school from a low ranked undergraduate school, but it’s a little harder to do so and you might have less preparation in your chosen topic because a lower ranked school may have fewer electives or whatnot.</p>
<p>People would usually only recommend a “worse” school if it was cheaper. And a “better” school is worth something over a “worse” school. If your cost to go to MIT is 1K a year more than Western Michigan, go to MIT. If it’s 40K a year more, that’s probably not worth it. There’s a balancing act. </p>
<p>That is truer for some majors and less for others. For engineering, its in the middle. School does matter, but not in the same way as it does for humanities major. You should look for a ABET accredited school, at the very least. That’s the highest accreditation a school and get and the standard, employers look for. </p>