<p>I've a friend who's deciding where he should go for undergrad, question stated in the thread title.</p>
<p>I would imagine that it doesnt matter a lot, not nearly as much as GRE and the other stuffs.</p>
<p>Also while on this topic, does grad schools look for the same things undergrad look for? Things like extracurriculars, acheivements, recs and such.</p>
<p>I went to a graduate school workshop (engineering field) and was surprised to learn that non-science extracurricular is not important at all. Also, I remember the lady saying that it does not matter where you come from as long as you have an excellent GPA and letter of recommendations from well known faculty. </p>
<p>Personally, I would try to have 1-2 significant extracurricular activities to show that you're a well rounded person; it may distinguish yourself from the other applicants. For example, the admission committee might remember your application: "How about that applicant who teaches salsa? She/he also had similar GPA/GRE/research project!"</p>
<p>Extracurriculars don't matter at all...unless you're referring to research. Research is the single most important activity one can do to facilitate getting into grad school. GRE is not that important. At least not in the sense where a perfect score will get you in. Doing poorly can hurt you though. Undergraduate university does matter in the sense that a 4.0 from Unknown U may not be weighted as much a 3.5 from Chicago. Also, better universities tend to have more recognized professors, more research opportunities, etc.</p>
<p>VastlyOverrated is right: the grad school application process is totally different from the undergrad one, and where you got your bachelor's does make a big difference. You want to go to a place where you can take lots of significant classes in your major, and where adcoms will have confidence that the classes were substantial (i.e. taught to high standards by recognized faculty). You are also going to need letters of rec, and for those it absolutely does matter who the recommender is. You want to go to a school where you'll have access to respected profs who are recognized in your chosen field.</p>
<p>Nobody cares about extracurriculars--all they care about is whether you'll survive and reflect positively on their program.</p>
<p>...And by reflect positively on their program, TB largely means complete the program and then have a productive research career.</p>
<p>Realize, though, that specifics depend entirely upon one's field and there is A LOT of generalizing that occurs here. We're all guilty of it, but assuming things about one discipline and applying to others is not a good idea. I would argue that your institution matters somewhat but it has often been said that the cream will rise to the top regardless and I believe that saying is true here as well. If you're talented, you'll present yourself that way and even HYP can't make a mediocre student outstanding.</p>
<p>what about international students
i went to biggest engineering institute of my nation(IOE))
but i bet you guys probably never heard about it
can int students suffer from anoynimity</p>
<p>All of the OP's questions are definitively answered in the first few pages of the Grad School 101 thread.</p>
<p>As a chemical engineering student from a little known school. I can tell you this, yes, it does hurt the chance, but not because of the "fame". </p>
<p>In some minor school, such as mine:
1. Some science or even major classes are crap, requirements are low, professors are bad. I had none applied math class, and my math classes except 3 honor calculus classes are absolutely worthless. </p>
<ol>
<li><p>Little research opportunities provided by the department. Make it even worse, you don't even know where to look for other research opportunities. </p></li>
<li><p>Very few well-known professors can provide good recommendation letters to compete with applicants from big name schools. </p></li>
<li><p>no resource. No one but yourself can help you to prepare for the graduate school. I went to career service, the woman talked about the requirement for obtaining an internship/co-op for the whole time, and had no freaking clue about how to prepare for the graduate school. </p></li>
<li><p>Pressure and influence. I have 30+ classmates, not a single one of them wants to go to graduate school. Industry recruiters are all over the place and tell you: "you have a high GPA, come to our company, and I will guarantee you this, this and this..."</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Thank you guys for all your helpful advises!</p>
<p>Though I would like to know what you guys would say about satrianic's question.</p>
<p>From what I've read (mostly a lot of literature about CS graduate programs), if the faculty evaluating an application are familiar with the program that the applicant is coming from, they tend to focus more on grades than on GREs... especially if it's a rigorous program. If not, they can't put much faith in grades as an indicator of competence, so they give more weight to GREs.</p>
<p>Of course, for top grad schools in most of the sciences, research tends to trump both.</p>
<p>If faculty from international schools still publish in well-respected schools, adcoms will know of it.</p>
<p>Before reading behavioral journals, I would not have known anything about U of Auckland and U of Canterbury in NZ, but apparently they're extremely productive researchers.</p>
<p>All of this talk about grad school-- I imagine we’re referring to doctoral programs? Is research as important for terminal master’s programs? Are GRE’s and extracurricular’s not counted, and am I doomed if I went to no name liberal arts college with no graduate school, and professors no one ever heard of (and might not have published since their PhDs…LOL???</p>