<p>If you go to Harvard as an undergrad, are you at a disadvantage for grad school at Harvard? I've heard this before, but it could just be a rumor. </p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>I can’t see any reason why this is true. I remember reading somewhere on one of Harvard’s websites (possibly the HLS?) that many of their students were graduates of Harvard.</p>
<p>Not true. Aside from having to compete with other Harvard students for A’s when courses are (commonly) graded on a curve, Harvard College students have an advantage when applying to Harvard grad schools. I graduated from the college and the law school, and I recall reading that Harvard College grads make up a larger percentage of HLS students than any other college’s grads. This is probably true of all the Harvard grad schools.</p>
<p>This rumor is total BS.</p>
<p>Hanna, Harvard AB, Harvard JD.</p>
<p>Well I know that at Stanford it’s difficult to get in to stanford grad school after getting an undergrad degree there. I guess that doesn’t apply to Harvard though</p>
<p>my uncle, as well as my aunt went to Harvard for both grad and under grad so…but then again, that was the 80’s(maybe even 70’s…) .But then my cousin applied last year for graduate school and she was waitlisted so it probably has gotten more difficult</p>
<p>^^^ It’s nearly impossible to get into grad school at Harvard and Stanford no matter where you went for undergrad!</p>
<p>
law school =/= graduate school</p>
<p>Harvard graduates are indeed likely at a disadvantage when applying to Harvard grad. Most graduate programs refuse to take their own undergraduates, although the sciences are a bit more lenient.</p>
<p>Schools like you to experience other peoples ideas especially in the sciences. Harvard UG will get you into MIT/Cal Tech/Stanford/Princeton etc. Law and med schools might be outside this realm though.</p>
<p>The other thought is that after 4 yrs in one school it’s refreshing to go to a new place.</p>
<p>So go look up where grad students go.</p>
<p>“Law and med schools might be outside this realm though.”</p>
<p>They are. So are schools of divinity, business, education, public health, dentistry, government, and design. Harvard College graduates are a plurality of the student body at all of them.</p>
<p>These are all “grad schools.” If the OP was solely talking about GSAS PhD programs, they didn’t say so.</p>
<p>It is a plus if you do well and have faculty who want to work with you an a grad level. Faculty choose the grad students and that would also make the opposite true. I have seen a faculty member mentor an undergrad into the grad program but it does also limit your experience</p>
<p>
As you probably know, there is generally a distinction drawn between graduate school (MA/MPhil/PhD) and professional school (JD/MD/MBA/EdD/VMD/et al). A minor quibble in semantics, perhaps, but they’re fundamentally different. </p>
<p>Of course, many high school and even college posters don’t know and use the different terms correctly, so it is probably best to answer questions like this from both directions. From that viewpoint, I agree with you.</p>
<p>Just a point of information: All of the Harvard professional schools offer scholarly as well as professional degrees. If you’re doing a PhD in epidemiology at the school of public health, that’s “grad school” even by the narrowest definition. But there doesn’t seem to be any sense that you ought to go to a different institution for your PhD if you are enrolled at the professional school.</p>
<p>I meant professional schools then. Guess i just doesnt no da differrence between them both</p>
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<p>Correct. Which is why I always laugh when someone says “Forget Harvard for undergrad - you can always go there for grad school.” Getting into Harvard is a long, longshot for either undergrad or grad school. If you want to go to Harvard at some point and have and undergrad acceptance in hand, Take It! Lightning may not strike twice.</p>
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<p>I’ve heard that said, but I kind of wonder whether it’s actually true. Because I can think of many exceptions that I know personally or professionally. In my unscientific sampling it’s very common to find people who went to the same university for both undergrad and grad school.</p>
<p>^Speaking to this specific situation, Harvard is the second-largest feeder to my PhD program, which is the biomedical sciences program at HMS.</p>
<p>from the Harvard Admissions Website FAQ: “Our graduates enjoy an extraordinarily high rate of success receiving job offers and admission to graduate and professional schools. Resident tutors in each of the 12 Houses assist students applying to graduate schools and fellowship programs. In fact, Harvard is almost always the best-represented undergraduate institution at Harvard’s graduate schools.”</p>
<p>It’s B.S.</p>
<p>HBS is about 15% Harvard College, and I believe HLS and HMS are similar. Harvard is the most represented undergrad.</p>
<p>It’s almost complete BS. For GSAS, it really depends on the department, as PhD admissions process is a completely different ballgame than undergrad and professional school (degree) admissions. Some faculty members are reluctant to admit their undergrad students for fear of ‘academic incest’. It’s really not an issue at all with law school of b-school.</p>
<p>Somehow, something that is occasionally true for a narrow set of circumstances become the gospel truth for ALL cases. Ah, the beauty of rumors.</p>
<p>WindCloudUltra and Hanna are both right. For all Harvard grad schools other than GSAS (e.g., HLS, HBS, HMS, HSPS, KSG, Div, etc.), going to Harvard undergrad is a plus. For GSAS, it depends on the department, but some departments believe you’re better off getting exposure to another university - particularly if you were an undergrad major in the department and have already studied with the same professors you’d have as a Ph.D. candidate. But even there, Harvard undergrad is a plus when it comes to admission to another top Ph.D. program.</p>