Does undergrad prestige really matter for grad school?

Applying to College
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<p>Fwiw, the book [Harvard</a> Schmarvard](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/Harvard-Schmarvard-Getting-Beyond-College/dp/0761536957]Harvard”>http://www.amazon.com/Harvard-Schmarvard-Getting-Beyond-College/dp/0761536957) offers good insight.</p>

<p>Also, the [The</a> National Survey of Student Engagement 2007 Annual Report](<a href=“http://nsse.iub.edu/NSSE_2007_Annual_Report/index.cfm]The”>http://nsse.iub.edu/NSSE_2007_Annual_Report/index.cfm) is a good resource as well.</p>

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<p>I’ve heard that Cornell is notorious for grade inflation (not sure about other Ivy’s), and some publics for grade deflation.</p>

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<p>I’ve actually heard that it’s very difficult to get good grades at Cornell. Anecdotal evidence though.</p>

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<p>so which is it haha ?</p>

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<p>It’s notorious for grade deflation but in reality that is a myth. Cornell’s average GPA is around 3.35-3.4, in line w/ other top private schools. Outside of MIT and Cal Tech, grading differences between schools are negligible. Don’t let whiny students who spread such myths scare you from any one school.</p>

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<p>Median grades for each class at cornell back to 1997:
<a href=“http://registrar.sas.cornell.edu/Student/mediangradesA.html[/url]”>http://registrar.sas.cornell.edu/Student/mediangradesA.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Look at all those A’s!! Half the class got A’s or A+'s?! If that isn’t grade inflation, I don’t know what is. At my undergrad, probably 1/3 or 1/4 of the students got A’s, though this is just a guess.</p>

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<p>wow, I didn’t know it was harder to get high GPAs in UCLA/UCB than the ivies!</p>

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<p>^ Is that sarcasm? I sure hope so.</p>