<p>Hey guys, I want to go to UW (washington) and major in hearing science... and I also want to pursue an AU.d. graduate major there. But I heard that some medical-strivers had a slimmer chance of getting into their medical school because they took their undergrad there. Is this true, and should I pursue another college if I want a better chance at the grad school @ UW?</p>
<p>I don’t know how it is for your particular major, but I know or my major, mathematics, many of the top graduate schools (especially top 10) try to avoid accepting their undergraduates into their own graduate program, as this is seen as “elitism” and could be viewed as unfair. However, there are exceptions. Say a student is an undergrad at UCLA wants to study a certain area of harmonic analysis that is only being studied intensively at UCLA. Assuming the student is in good standing (and likely to be admitted into similarly-ranked institutions) he may be admitted into the same grad program. I’ve seen this happen at UCLA and Rice, but it is very rare overall.</p>
<p>If UW is the only school that will help you prepare for hearing science as an undergrad, then go there. But if there are multiple schools with similar programs, it might be in your best interest to go somewhere else for undergrad.</p>
<p>It depends on the school/department. Some take extra, some take almost none.</p>
<p>This can be an issue. It’s not that a school’s graduate school will not take any of their graduates, it is that a grad school wants a diversity of educational backgrounds from their students. Many grad schools would like to take students who attended a number of different undergrad institutions, so there is kinda a limit in how many accepts there are at a grad school from the schools own undergrad. Usually there are many more applications to a grad school from its own undergrad. For example, UW med school may get more applications from UW undergrad than any other school in the nation. In UW’s case, this means that the UW undergrads aren’t really competing against the average in-state student who applied to Med school, they are competing with the many other UW students who applied to med school and there are a limited number of spots for UW undergrads.</p>
<p>It’s called “academic inbreeding” and it’s usually looked down upon by schools of higher caliber than UW. (No offence, it’s a great school.)
Academic inbreeding is rarely a factor in med school admissions or any other professional school admissions for that matter.</p>
<p>Go to the best undergrad institution that you can and plan grad school later. A lot of things might change. Good luck. :)</p>
<p>Much can change during college. Pick the undergrad program that fits you best now.</p>