<p>I know that this topic has likely been beaten to death and then some on this forum, but I wasn't able to find an answer on the forum specific enough to my current situation to get all of my questions answered.</p>
<p>I would like to get an undergraduate degree in International Relations, and then move on to get a graduate degree in the same field. However, the school I will be attending is the University of Wyoming. Not the most prestigious school, especially for International Relations. But it isn't a terrible school either. The problem is, it's the only school I've been admitted to that I can honestly afford. If I want to go anywhere else, (My other main choice is the University of Denver, which has a more well known school for International Relations.) I would have to accumulate quite a bit of debt (Somewhere in the range of $80,000-$120,000) and could not afford to attend Graduate school at all. Wyoming is essentially free. Colorado ranks 50th for funding higher education and tuition rises every year, so the Public Universities here aren't an option either. Suggesting that I go to a top 25 or top 100 school and everything will be fine won't help, because I simply cannot afford to.</p>
<p>I don't need to attend an Ivy league school for Undergrad or even Graduate school. I'd just like to be successful by my own definition, I don't need to be the ambassador to Obscureistan or be the American representative at the United Nations. I want to go to work into the IR field, either with the government or with an NGO, and live comfortably. In a perfect world, I'd like to attend the University of Denver for a Master's degree, which I could probably afford if I go ahead and get my entire degree at UW.</p>
<p>The examples given by people for "Less Prestigious" on this forum have ranged from Arizona State to UCLA, both of which are more known than UW, which is a tier 3 school. So I wanted some opinions on how much attending a tier 3, not a top 100 school, would affect my chances of admission into a decent IR grad program.</p>
<p>How much does school prestige and program renown affect my chances of admission as far as graduate school for International Relations? Would my going to a tier 3 school be a huge detriment, or is it a hurdle I can overcome? Would I be better getting my cores out of the way at Wyoming and transferring to Denver or CU Boulder for the remainder of my undergrad degree?</p>
<p>Apologies for the long post.</p>
<p>The reason that this topic is beaten to death is because people look at the past questions, then decide that even though the question has been answered multiple times, their situation is too unique or special for the answer to be attributed to them so they have to ask again. Usually - including in this situation - that’s not the case. We’ve had people ask about going from tier 3 schools to top graduate programs before.</p>
<p>So here’s the bottom line - in general, your undergraduate school’s prestige does NOT matter in admissions, in the sense that the name only will get you in or keep you out. The way that prestige matters in undergrad is if your department is well-known for that field, it can count as a point in your favor - i.e., “Suzie Applicant went to State; State has a really good program in classics, so her training was top-notch.” Or “Suzie Applicant worked with Professor Bigwig at State; Bigwig is a genius in the field, so her training was top-notch.” However, that alone is not going to get you in, as you need to be a successful student. Suzie Applicant won’t necessarily get in from State if she’s got a 2.7 GPA.</p>
<p>Likewise, if your program is relatively untested, that doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll get kept out - you just need to work hard and prove yourself a worthy student. In IR that will mean getting top grades and doing some internship work over your summers that looks impressive (probably some other things, but I’m not in IR). People get accepted from all kinds of schools and programs - for example, one of my friends goes to Columbia’s SIPA and she says quite a few people went to undergraduate institutions she’d never heard of. (She herself went to Penn State, which is a great school but not an Ivy or anything.) What’s far more important is what you do there and how you prove yourself. So find out what it is top IR applicants do to get into grad school, and do that.</p>
<p>Agree wholeheartedly with juillet here.</p>
<p>PS If you choose to go to DU for a master’s (as I did) their admissions are pretty fricking low relative to their supposed prestige. So Wyoming shouldn’t be a problem there.</p>
<p>flyers, if you could do it over again, where would you have tried to go to?</p>
<p>Akathist–didn’t mean to come off as bitter or anything. I actually think Denver has a great set of programs and I’m also a bit jealous that I’m missing diplomatic rockstar Chris Hill coming in as dean (one of the few people who could fill outgoing dean Tom Farer’s shoes, no doubt about it). That said, I personally wouldn’t have paid the price tag I did on a graduate program if I could do it again. Given I’m pretty much restricted to trying to snag a government job to start with, where you went to school means next to nothing. If you want some more info on the school though, feel free to let me know.</p>