<p>My S is struggling with the issue of choosing between a good undergraduate engineering program (Santa Clara University) which is small, personal and he can finish in 4 years with perhaps a higher GPA versus a higher ranked school such as UC Davis, UCLA or Cal Poly SLO where it might be harder to finish in 4 years and the grade curve may result in a lower GPA. Does anyone have any thoughts or experience with how top Graduate Schools would consider someone who has done very well at a smaller school versus someone coming from a larger, nationally known university?</p>
<p>Though I’m not in grad school admissions myself, everything I’ve heard indicates that GPA and research are the most important factors in grad school admissions for those in science and math fields. The benefits of the smaller school are that his GPA will likely be higher, not because of grad inflation but because the personal attention will allow him to better understand the material than will a lecture hall (unless your kid is one of those students who likes to learn in a crowd), and that closer contact with professors could garner him cool summer research opportunities. On the other hand, the larger schools will have more research opportunities available on campus during the school year.</p>
<p>Ultimately, it boils down to the environment where your child can best succeed. This involves both getting a good GPA and research for grad school admissions, but also his happiness, which will come from a thorough understanding of challenging material. Perhaps the small school is stifling, or perhaps the large school will leave him drowning in the crowd. </p>
<p>You may be interested in checking out Cal Newport’s blog, Study Hacks. He’s a post-doc at MIT right now, and though he’s in computer programming, not engineering, he still has interesting insight into what exactly grad schools are looking for.</p>