<p>Does grad school take into consideration the school you went to for undergrad, or do they look more at the GPA?</p>
<p>Say for example Guy #1 graduated from UC Berkeley and got a decent GPA. Not great, but decent. And Guy #2 graduated from UC San Diego and got a higher GPA. Both majored in the same thing, whatever that may be.
Which would have a better shot at getting into the better grad school?</p>
<p>LOL, this question keeps popping up every week- its beginning to look hilarious</p>
<p>This question gets asked over and over again and has already been [url=<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/graduate-school/892147-importance-undergrad-school-name.html]answered[/url”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/graduate-school/892147-importance-undergrad-school-name.html]answered[/url</a>] multiple times. Do a forum search.</p>
<p>Per your example, in the sciences, the person who did the most research applicable to his/her intended field of study will get into the ‘better’ grad school.</p>
<p>Mods: can we sticky one of the longest threads for that, cause this is annoying. It is also irritating that people can’t simply search… you’d think with a generic question like that, you’d want to see what people said before, no? It is like the kids in class who can’t just go to the back of the book, look through the index, find the keyword that would help them get the answer and go to that page, and read a paragraph or two… no, instead they raise their hand in class and ask a question that is clearly answered had the person done their readings/done some work on their own.</p>
<p>Guy #1 can get in anywhere he wants to go. But Guy #2 won’t even get into a top 100 program, and if he does it won’t be with a dime of financial support. Undergrad school makes all the difference. If you’re Guy #2 you might as well not even bother applying to grad school.</p>
<p>LOL at above reply</p>
<p>@ jr1038
UCSD have great biomedical engineer program so I don’t know what you talking about… You can get into top biomedical engineer graduate school program with UCSD undergraduate degree in biomedical so least know about the school before you start insulting on a particular school.</p>
<p>@ BearTriton
The cut for most graduate school is 3.0 and it’s bare minimum. Graduate school look for student with good study habit and whether he can take in the harder/advance portion of the material you have studied in undergraduate. GPA is good example to measure your performance in graduate school whether you will continue to work hard like you have done in your undergraduate. People can procrastinate all about how hard is my school compare to others but if you really tried hard and start studying 3 days before and stay up all night to learn material before test day… I don’t see how you can end up below 3.0 in any school regardless of how hard that school may have been.</p>
<p>I know top schools gives out test average of 60 and use gaussian distribution to give out upper potion A and middle potion C and etc. It’s like your peers are your enemy and how much you know more than other students determine whether you get higher grade but that’s how it is in life. You will be competing with everyone in your daily life and it’s just something you got to deal with for the rest of your life. </p>
<p>I believe that graduate admission knows the difficulty of top school program and give more consideration to higher ranking undergraduate program. However, below 3.0 means you didn’t try hard enough in school and doesn’t show promise that you will be fit for graduate school.</p>
<p>Lol, gtgblows, jr1038 was being sarcastic</p>
<p>*I know top schools gives out test average of 60 and use gaussian distribution to give out upper potion A and middle potion C and etc. It’s like your peers are your enemy and how much you know more than other students determine whether you get higher grade but that’s how it is in life. You will be competing with everyone in your daily life and it’s just something you got to deal with for the rest of your life. *</p>
<p>That’s not universally true - a lot of top schools don’t grade on a curve.</p>
<p>Professors of graduate programs don’t put stock in the U.S. News ratings like high school seniors, their parents, and the general public do, so it’s rather simplistic to say they give “more consideration to higher ranking undergraduate programs.” In general, as the seemingly thousands of threads on this issues have stated, the prestige of your undergraduate program can be a strike in your favor, but lack thereof is rarely a strike against you. And it’s less about rankings and more about the graduate program’s experience with successful past and current grad students from that particular undergraduate school.</p>
<p>If grad program A in underwater basketweaving has had 10 successful graduates from UC-San Diego, especially from San Diego’s undergraduate underwater basketweaving program, they are going to look favorably upon any future applicants in UB from San Diego because they know that the students come well prepared.</p>
<p>Similarly, if grad program B in engineering knows that Dr. Top Scholar, Dr. Super Awesome and Dr. So Magnificent in engineering are at Podunk U, they may look favorably upon applications that come from Podunk especially if those students have worked with those professors and gotten warm, personal recommendations from them.</p>
<p>On their own, does a student from Harvard necessarily have a better chance than a student from Georgia State? No. Will a student from Harvard with 6 months of research experience and a 3.4 get in over a Georgia State student with 2 years and a 3.6? Probably not, all other things being equal. If Harvard has a top-notch classics program with rigorous preparation and Georgia State is known to have a below-average program, and two students with equal stats show up, will the one from Harvard get in over the one from GSU? Probably, but the same would be true if it were the other way around - if GSU’s classics department were a powerhouse and Harvard’s was so-so. It’s all relative, and professors don’t waste their time trying to quantify the relative rankings.</p>
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<p>Forgot these tags on my post, sorry.</p>
<p><internet sarcasm=“”> </internet></p>
<p>Thanks guys. And I may very well go to Cal for undergrad. I hope a 3.0 is doable there if I try.</p>
<p>@ julliet
Your example is really bad. Please don’t even compare ivy league to a tier3 or 4 college like Georgia State. Even if student’s recommendation letter is outstanding than other, it really won’t help them if he/she is from a tier3 or 4 school where you can just attend class and study 1 hour for test.</p>
<p>Also about top university with class average being around 40~70 only applies to weed out classes.</p>
<p>You’re looking at the wrong parameter for graduate school admissions. GPA is not as important as research experience, although I can only speak for the sciences (probably the same with social sciences, but not sure).</p>
<p>If you really want to go to grad school, think about which school offers better opportunities for undergraduate research. There are plenty of students in top graduate programs who come from non-top-tier undergrads and represent a wide range of GPAs. They are there because of the strength of their research experience, their relationships with faculty (who wrote their letters of rec), and their ability to identify and articulate their research interests (which I think is a natural consequence of being involved in a supportive research environment or lab).</p>
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<p>I fail to see how her example is bad. She seemed to be making the point that, at least in the sciences, research experience will outweigh GPA and academic pedigree. Having gone to a tier 3 school (and starting my Ph.D. at the University of Michigan this coming summer) I also take offense at the notion that just because a school isn’t extremely high-ranked it automatically means that someone coming out of it has an inferior academic preparation and/or rigor.</p>
<p>As for the OP, I agree with 5600bp. My GPA wasn’t spectacular, I only had about a year of research experience, but I think what really helped me was getting to know my professors and being able to articulate what I wanted to do. At least from what I’ve gathered from this site, the numerical stats (GRE and GPA) seem to be used as more of an unofficial cutoff for students, while what really helps get you in are the points 5600bp mentioned.</p>