<p>I was talking to my Dad about this tonight. He went to KU for his undergrad. Not exactly a prestigious university. He passed most of his classes with a B, and graduated with a 3.0 GPA.</p>
<p>At this point in his life, he decided he wanted to go out for law school. He studied and studied for the LSAT, and was able to score on the 98th percentile. He got into USD, and his degree for being a lawyer. He passed the Bar, and wen't on to work for a lawfirm in San Diego.</p>
<p>He is now extremely succesful, and lives a very comfortable life. We are by no means "rich", but money has never been a problem for us. We vacation around the world regularly, and have a pretty high standard of living. Now don't take this the wrong way.I'm not trying to flaunt my wealth or anything. Hell, for me it doesn't even exist. I hold my own job, and have to pay for pretty much everything I have. The only thing my parents really pay for is my car insurance and car payments. Everything else is out of my own pocket.</p>
<p>So now here is the question. Really, how important is the school you go to for Undergrad? If you're gonig off to grad school, does it really matter or not If you get into Stanford for you're undergrad? To me, It seems like a persons success is MAINLY determined by their work ethic, and their ability. While an education from Stanford doesn't hurt, it doesn't seem like thats the only path to success. A strong work ethic and dedication to what you do seems so much more imprtant then where you got your degree. Thoughts?</p>
<p>Undergrad in law seems to be more important if you want to go to a top law school. Your dad has done well in life, but this is probably due to his work ethic and ability, as you've said. He may have been able to go to USD and do well afterwards, but you should only consider his scenario if you do not care about the prestige of your graduate school.</p>
<p>where you go to undergrad matters most if you decide you don't want to go to grad school (and most people don't go to grad school) because it helps u land that first job. However, the most important thing you can do is do well. i'd rather a 3.8 from felician college rather than a 1.8 gpa from harvard. no job wants someone who doesn't have a history of doing well at the last place they were at.</p>
<p>If you're going from undergrad to the work-force your school matters only slightly. What you did with your education, however, shines brighter. My sister is graduating from just an average state school. However, she has had 3 internships and 1 paying job and has learned life skills. She will land the job over a socially-lacking HYP grad anyday.</p>
<p>since you're going to give an example of your sister, i'll give an example of mine. she got a job out of college that people who went to rutgers, or university of vermont, or boise state, or even a boston college or a wake forest would never have even heard of - as they only recruite from about 9 schools.</p>
<p>now thats not saying you can't get a good job out of anywhere, but its much harder to coming out of a mediocre school - especially when going to that mediocre school prevents you from even knowing about the best straight out of school jobs.</p>