<h1>If I go to my state's school for an undergraduate degree, can I attend a better school like MIT for my graduate studies or is this unheard of?</h1>
<p>No it is not unheard of. Do you think MIT grad students only come from MIT undergrad?</p>
<p>It is completely possible, but just like with undergrad admissions MIT will still be very selective so you can do everything right and still get rejected.</p>
<p>In most cases, it doesn’t matter where you went to school for undergrad. What matters is what you did with the opportunities presented: what’s your overall GPA? Your “major” GPA? Did you take “related” classes (i.e topics or subjects closely related to what you plan to study in grad school even though it’s not the exact subject)? Did you get into the Honors College? Did you work on research for a professor/present a paper/publish it? what internships did you get? how many advanced classes did you take in your major? what can your professors say about you? If you intend to go into the humanities or social sciences, do you know one foreign language and could you reach a level that allows you to read research in that language? If you intend to study a foreign language, did you study abroad (and for how long?)
This is a good example:
<a href=“http://www.thecollegesolution.com/where-harvard-law-students-come-from/[/url]”>http://www.thecollegesolution.com/where-harvard-law-students-come-from/</a></p>
<p>Thank you all. Also, I’ve been hearing that where you go for undergraduate school doesn’t really matter. Is this true?</p>
<p>Yes, where you go to graduate school is considered more important…</p>
<p>Honestly don’t understand where some of you got the notion that undergrad institution prestige is “not very important,” “not matter that much,” or anything of the sort for grad school apps and other things.</p>
<p>It matters, and it matters A LOT. Most definitely in engineering. But that’s not to say undergrads from lower ranked universities can’t get into big names for grad school.</p>
<p>A “lot” is subjective. The problem is the interpretation of the word “matters.” There are two different ways.</p>
<p>One is the notion that it “matters” in the sense that a name (and the attached prestige) is going to give you an advantage in admissions, or conversely, that the lack of prestige is going to put you at a disadvantage. In this case, I am going to say that this ISN’T very important. College professors are not impressed by the prestige of your undergrad institution. They don’t care. Every professors probably has at least one prestigious school that they don’t care for because the preparation from the department there doesn’t live up to its hallowed name.</p>
<p>The other definition/interpretation of “matters” is the idea that your undergrad institution “matters” in your preparation for graduate study. In that case, yes, it matters very much. Great programs get great reputations for a reason: they offer higher-level or rigorous prep; admissions committees may have experience with successful grad students from those undergrad colleges; they may offer extraordinary resources and opportunities like research seminars, exchange programs, state-of-the-art equipment or vast library holdings. The intellectual environment may be such that fosters a love of research and intellectual inquiry in students. It may be, in a sense, an environment that is just perfect for the production of a successful rising star of a grad student.</p>
<p>Other places may be just as good, or almost as good, but are more unknown because fewer students aspire to grad programs from there. There’s no reason that the local university’s, let’s say, sociology program can’t be just as inspiring as the #50 college’s - but maybe everyone from North Georgia just wants to stay home near family and very few students ever want a PhD. So the PhD programs don’t get to see what the North Georgia students can do.</p>
<p>On the other hand, the programs may NOT be as great an intellectual environment - I am certainly not suggesting that North Georgia’s resources in sociology are equivalent to Emory’s or Harvard’s. BUT it may be that a sufficiently driven and ambitious young sociologist did all the right things to make up for that - he or she did two REUs each summer, worked as an RA for a professor at North Georgia and submits a beautifully written writing sample - just evidences all around passion and competence for sociology.</p>
<p>My point is - no, undergrad prestige does not matter. Academics are not impressed by prestige of undergraduate institutions (at least not in the same way that non-academics are). What matters is <em>reputation</em>, and specifically a reputation for results, for producing fine scholars that can do the work necessary to do the research.</p>
<p>BUT, reputation is not the ONLY thing that matters. So while knowing that a specific school produces good scholars may be a point in one applicant’s favor, it doesn’t mean that students from unknown or less well-known places won’t be able to access top programs.</p>
<p>I guess a good way to say it is that it matters if you went to a top/well-reputed university/department for your field…but it doesn’t matter if you didn’t go to one. You are just going to have to use other criteria to prove your worth.</p>