<p>I'm currently a freshman in college, but I've recently started pondering this question.</p>
<p>Before going to college, I had always thought going to grad school was a natural thing to do since both of my parents have graduate degrees. I had asked them about the GREs, grad school admissions, and so on before and both my parents (who went to a top 10 grad school in their respective fields) told me that it's not hard to get in. </p>
<p>Now in college, I get the feeling that getting into graduate school, a top 10 grad school especially, is a very hard feat, which is completely different from what my parents have always told me.</p>
<p>I want to get a more wholistic view on this matter so can I please hear your opinions? Thanks!</p>
<p>First of all, this concept of school ranking or even department ranking is misleading at best as it is the specific lab that you work in that determines how prestigious or well connected you are. You can ignore the juvenile "top 10" stuff and leave that to Letterman.</p>
<p>Second, I wouldn't describe getting accepted to graduate school as a natural or easy thing to do after college. In some cases it may be the path of least resistance eg. not having to apply for jobs, work your way up a corporate ladder etc, but it is not without its own set of challenges.</p>
<p>Very few college graduates go on to get graduate degrees and it isn't that big of a career boost in many fields so think hard about whether it is the right fit for you and certainly don't plan on graduate school as some sort of way to avoid the real world for a few more years.</p>