<p>Obviously, people attending Ivies usually have a leg up, I'm guessing when applying to grad school simply because of the prestige surrounding them.</p>
<p>But I guess what I'm really wondering is the extent to which all those lists about grad school feeders are really true? </p>
<p>I always thought that if I attended a decent school, maybe not Ivy level, but still respected, and left with a good GPA, I could still attend an excellent grad school. Lately, I've been feeling more doubtful when I keep reading thread with all these links to articles about which colleges are the best for getting into grad schools (and the two colleges I LOVE that I'm currently choosing between are on none of them). I know that people who attend all sorts of colleges can gain admissions to good grad schools--but does it mean that they have to work extra hard just to counteract their undergrad school's reputation?</p>
<p>Just feeling a little confused and anxious...if anyone cares to share their opinion on the subject, please let me know.</p>
<p>Maybe it depends on your field, but I don’t think your undergrad will have a huge impact. Hubby is heavily involved in grad admissions at a top 10 program in hard science. The accept between 250 grad students a year and get about a 25% yield. Of the students accepted, about half come from large universities, the other half from LACs. About 35-30% of admits are from foreign countries. For American students they initially look at 3 main things - GPA, GREs, and research done at the undergrad level. They look for GPA to be around 3.5. He says that lower GPAs will get a bit of a boost of 1-2 tenths if they attend a school known for grade deflation. Also, high GREs can make up a bit for lower GPA and vice versa. </p>
<p>Undergrad research is a biggie. This year they had a big increase in applications. Basically, if students didn’t have any undergrad research they were not even considered unless they had something compelling. He says that school attended is not much of an issue. He also admits that even though the program is ranked in the top 10, they rarely get ivy applicants. Most of the ivy students apply to top 5 programs and don’t consider lower ranked programs.</p>
<p>I may just be uneducated about the process, but I can’t bring myself to believe undergraduate institution has NO bearing on grad school acceptance. If there was one spot left at a prestigious grad school, and two remaining candidates were identical in terms of GPA, research, recs, and GRE’s/LSAT/MCAT, except one was from Stanford and one from University of Maine (no offense to UMaine, first school I thought of), which would they pick? If I was an admissions officers, I’d even pick someone with a significantly lower GPA from a better school if only for the simple fact that it’s far more difficult to acheive a high GPA.
If anyone can shed more light on this, thank you.</p>
<p>Lots of discussion on this topic over on the grad school board too. You may want to take your specific “from College A undergrad program in X to College B grad program in Z?” questions to the folks there.</p>
<p>You can reach the Grad School Forum by clicking on “Discussion Home” in the upper left of this screen and then scrolling down.</p>
<p>I think that there are two sides to this. Of course, a larger percentage of the class from ivies, etc. are going to be admitted to the better grad schools just because the top students there are the top students in the World.</p>
<p>However, the same person might be accepted to their state school and to an ivy. Depending on their choice, they might go be in the top of the class at the state school or go to an ivy to get a great education but graduaate in the middle of their class</p>
<p>Replace Maine with Maryland, Texas or UMass, and I would say it’s not as clear cut. Consider the Stanford graduate who did no research and the UMass graduate who has worked closely with a well known professor and has a record of accomplishment. I’d give the edge to the UMass graduate. I’ve had professors call me to talk personally about candidates who have worked for me. They really care who they spend their hard earned research money on. At least in engineering, if you did your undergraduate at a top research university and had a professor who would back you with his reputation, it would be much better than going to a top school without that experience. Unlike undergraduate admissions officers, graduate school is all about merit and unlike undergraduate admissions officers, the professors who decide graduate school admissions have real skin in the game.</p>
<p>Remember, I said that the candidates were the same except for a lower GPA. Of course, if a student does all he can possibly do at a state school/3rd tier school, etc., he/she definitely deserves to get in to any grad school. But if someone was slightly worse in stats, but goes to a difficult school, shouldn’t the grad school know that and be a bit more lenient?</p>
<p>The problem with the situation you are proposing is that two candidates will never “be the same except for gpa”. They will have different research records, different strengths of recommendations from different professors with different professional contacts, different course selections on their transcripts, a different set of research interests which will fit/not fit into the research program at the target graduate school.</p>
<p>Something overlooked by many undergraduates is that an assistant professor (i.e., tenure-track but not yet tenured) at a tippy top school may very well be less connected (significantly so) than a tenured and well-published professor at a less highly ranked institution. A recommendation from the professor with years of accumulated contacts will be more likely to carry weight in many cases.</p>
<p>I’ve seen too many examples of undergraduates from medium-ranked publics gaining entrance to top programs, including Ivys, to think that prestige of undergraduate school alone is very important. Of course, those lesser-ranked schools must have real research options and must have some well-respected and connected faculty willing to work with undergraduates.</p>
<p>The problem with the situation you are proposing is that two candidates will never “be the same except for gpa”. </p>
<p>That’s a good point-never really thought of it. But one more thing that would be beneficial about attending a prestigious school is: not everyone who plans to go on to grad school actually does. For example, there may be far more opportunities at the “better” universities to get jobs, eliminating a true need for grad school. Also, for those people who simply become sick of school, attending a prestigious school would be better.</p>
<p>In any case, I think one should pick a college based on fit rather than ability to send to grad school. Studies have shown that a more comfortable college=better grades, which would probably get you into most grad schools anyway.</p>