How does your undergraduate school affect the chances of entering your graduate school?

[Trackmaster]

To start off, I’m currently only a senior in high school, but I’m concerned about this issue. I hope to earn my bachelors in mechanical engineering and go on to earn a masters/PhD in aerospace. This is where I encounter my problem. I would love to attend a more prestigious graduate school for the aerospace degree, but I’m worried that the college I attend to get my mechanical will affect my chances of getting into such a school. Some of the colleges I have in mind right now are Louisiana Tech and Mississippi State, but they’re probably around the 100s in national rankings of engineering schools. Am I less likely to be accepted to a college such as Standford or Purdue if I go to one of these?

[AuraObscura]

No. The name of your school doesn’t matter all that much. What’s important for graduate school are your GPA and research experience, mainly.

[boneh3ad]

@AuraObscura

No. The name of your school doesn’t matter all that much.

I mean, the name of the school does help some in engineering. If you have like a 3.8 GPA and research experience, then it probably won’t matter, but if you are dropping down to where you are maybe just above 3.0, then going to a name brand school can help you because admissions committees are going to be more familiar with it and more confident that you would be well-prepared.

@Trackmaster

I hope to earn my bachelors in mechanical engineering and go on to earn a masters/PhD in aerospace.

You’ve got to walk before you run. It’s too early to set your sights fully on going to graduate school. You can certainly keep that in the back of your mind and make sure that you don’t do anything to ruin your chances, but there is really no way you’ll know for sure if it is for you until much later in your studies, likely junior or senior year.

[juillet]

This question is asked here a lot.

How much does my undergraduate school matter for graduate admissions?

This is a tricky question to answer, and opinions are going to vary a bit. The general consensus seems to be “Some, maybe a lot, but what you do in undergrad is way more important than where you go.”

Let’s be honest - professors, like most people, can be swayed by prestige. But it’s not the sparkliness of the name; it’s the familiarity with the department, the faculty, and the work and rigor that go into that program. If your field has excellent departments at Wisconsin and Duke and Michigan and Stanford, then if you come out of one of those universities the professors at your graduate schools know that you had good training at the department. They know the faculty members there - maybe they went to grad school together, or collaborated on past projects, or were postdocs together - and they trust their word in letters of recommendation. They know that the cutting-edge research is coming out of so-and-so’s lab, which just happens to be where you did your RA job. So when your application crosses their desk, a lot of the things you discuss are known quantities.

However, this does not mean that if you go to East Carolina University, Cal State Northridge, UNC-Wilmington or Loyola Marymount that you have worse choices of getting into graduate school. This also does not mean that “a 3.3 at Stanford is the same/better than a 3.7 at CSUN.” This also doesn’t mean that you should go deep into debt to attend a more prestigious school, or transfer away from your current undergrad. It’s simply a data point - one that’s taken into consideration. There are lots and lots of people who go to excellent graduate schools from these schools and other smaller regional publics and lesser-known privates. What’s more important is what you do. So get involved in research (yes, there is research going on at places like these), form relationships with professors (yes, they still count even if they don’t know Professor Fancypants at Harvard), try to do a summer research internship at a different university, and take the most rigorous courseload you can (consider taking graduate courses if you are able).

People go from schools like Mississippi State and Louisiana Tech to top PhD programs all the time. I agree that it’s far too early to think about this - the best PhD program for your research interests may not be at Stanford or Purdue in 4-5 years. But if you know that you’re interested in a research career, start doing research early and seek out opportunities to do the sorts of things that build a good CV for program admission.

[Trackmaster]

Thank you all for these answers; I greatly appreciate it!

[ExtremistEnigma]

Some anecdotal evidence: I go to one of the schools you mentioned and I got into one of the schools you mentioned for a master’s degree in a highly sought after field. So there you go!

[boneh3ad]

@Ankit Vyas123

Yes marks in undergraduate school affect the chances of entering your graduate school.

Well, that is a true statement but it has nothing to do with the question that was asked.