Importance of Undergrad Prestige?

College Search & Selection
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<p>blah blah blah blah</p>

<p>what is funny is that some posters thought USC was the more prestigious and others thought that Michigan was the more presitgious.</p>

<p>the fact is that the two universities that are **considered within reach of being peers **are the ones being compared, so there really isn’t much of a difference in getting into top grad schools between doing the undergraduate years at Michigan or USC.</p>

<p>now, regarding this post:</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>why don’t you replace Michigan with MIT, so that the question is a 3.7 PSU compared to a 3.4 MIT for graduate school in the sciences or economics. What would be the answer here?..not as easy eh?</p>

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<p>^Same answer. The value in MIT is in its research opportunities and not its name. </p>

<p>If you’ve truly only racked up the same number of comparable quality opportunities as a PSU student (which is unlikely but happens), you’ve wasted your time at MIT.</p>

<p>LACs, such as Reed, are some of the top PhD colleges because they motivate their students to go out and conduct research and not because of their names.</p>

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<p>pontiac,</p>

<p>In engineering, no I don’t think it will make a significant difference. </p>

<p>But that’s not the case in other fields. For example, in the humanities prestige matters more, IMHO. Grad schools will look differently at the English grad from Harvard or Yale or Berkeley than at someone from say, Ohio State. (No disrespect to Ohio State.) </p>

<p>In engineering, sure MIT will look great on that application/CV. But a degree from, say, Cal State Pomona will also get you a good job, or into a good grad school with good scores/letters. Engineering is a bit of a safe bet that way: nice to be wanted, huh?</p>

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<p>

</p>

<p>and what is the probability that you are going to be able to get the best quality opportunities with the **best professors in the world **in the sciences and economics - as a student at MIT or at Penn State? Also, in comparing GPA’s, MIT’s curriculum is tougher than Penn State’s. The Science and Economics graduate schools will know this and equalize the 3.4 at MIT with the 3.7 at Penn State.</p>

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<p>

Or because they tend to attract and select students interested in pursuing graduate school…</p>

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<p>^^^^excellent point</p>

<p>student to counselor: hey counse, I really really really want to go to graduate school eventually</p>

<p>counselor to student: ok…well, there is this school in the Northwest known for sending a big portion of its students to graduate school. Its called Reed, great school. You should look into that…</p>

<p>student: wow, great school, sounds great…</p>

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<p>“Grad schools will look differently at the English grad from Harvard or Yale or Berkeley than at someone from say, Ohio State. (No disrespect to Ohio State.)”</p>

<p>For whatever is worth, TOSU English Dept. is ranked at #25 via USNWR way ahead of schools such as Vanderbilt, WUSTL, CMU, Rice, USC, Brandeis…,etc.</p>

<p>Furthermore, we have some of the BEST facilities in the nation (Main library, RPAC, Ohio Union,…, etc.)</p>

<p>The Ohio State University - William Oxley Thompson Library
Grand Reading Room (Panorama)</p>

<p>Link: <a href=“The Ohio State University - #MyOhioState”>The Ohio State University - #MyOhioState;

<p>Ohio State research:</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.osu.edu/research/[/url]”>Research | The Ohio State University;

<p>Ohio State Undergrad Research Office</p>

<p><a href=“http://undergraduateresearch.osu.edu/[/url]”>http://undergraduateresearch.osu.edu/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>^I agree with the above post. It matters how good your level of work is.
Most Grad Schools look at your Standardized test scores and GPA, as well as research Experience.</p>

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<p>USNWR - Best Social Sciences and Humanities Schools 2012</p>

<p>“Specialty Rankings”</p>

<p>(Sociology)
Ohio State #17 tied with Cornell, ahead of Yale #20.</p>

<p>(Psychology)
Ohio State #17 tied with Columbia, Cornell and Northwestern.</p>

<p>(Political Science)
Ohio State #17 ahead of Cornell, Northwestern and UVA.</p>

<p>(History)
Ohio State #24 ahead of Vanderbilt, Emory, MIT, Rice…,etc.</p>

<p>(English)
Ohio State #25 ahead of Vanderbilt, WUSTL, CMU, Rice, Brandeis…,etc.</p>

<p>(Economics)
Ohio State #28 tied with UVA and WUSTL, ahead of Georgetown, Emory, Rice, ND…,etc.</p>

<p>Source: [Top</a> Social Sciences and Humanities Schools (usnews.com)](<a href=“http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-humanities-schools]Top”>http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-humanities-schools)</p>

<p>*It is my personal belief that the overall strength of Social Sciences and Humanities graduate programs at TOSU must have reflected upon its undergraduate related majors to a certain extend if not represent. </p>

<p>In short, Ohio State University as a whole (both undergrad/grad) is on the rise academically, voted by over 2000+ academics across the nation “3 years in-a-row” as one of the top “Up-and-coming” institutions in America.</p>

<p>P.S. (Criminology)
The graduate concentration in Criminology is offered as part of Sociology degree program in which Ohio State is ranked at #17 (see above).</p>

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<p>As others have stated prestige doesn’t matter. What matters is what you do there with the time you’re given.</p>

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<p>Sparkeye, thanks for the Ohio State ranking info. I am impressed. I had now idea they were that highly ranked in those areas…</p>

<p>you should really stress this more often on CC…</p>

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<p>^^^You mean like every post instead of every other one? lol</p>

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<p>@japanoko,</p>

<p>“Sparkeye, thanks for the Ohio State ranking info. I am impressed. I had now idea they were that highly ranked in those areas…”</p>

<p>Thanks!! I appreicated it!! :)</p>

<p>TOSU is one of the few strong public higher learning institutions where most of its majors are highly ranked (Top-25). Roughly a decade ago when I was there, most of the departments werer ranked at around 25 to 30ish. Well, time has changed, TOSU has advanced tremendously especially in the last 5 years or so, in terms of tougher admission std, renown faculties & top administration recruits (ie. Gordon Gee of ex-Brown, Vanderbilt U. President), in addition to investing in numerous facility improvements totaled in $billions which had all resulted in raising school’s overall academic reputation as of late. TOSU’s goal as outlined is to have most of its majors ranked in the top-20 if not top-15 by 2020 as its Fisher College of Business had achieved in the last 2 years (currently ranked at #14 via USNWR). It’s certainly a tall order, but I think it is very doable. Thanks to the ongoing multi-billion $ fundraising champaign and one-of-a-kind Campus Master Plan by Sasaki Asso. </p>

<p>Source: [Sasaki</a> | Portfolio | Ohio State University Framework Plan](<a href=“http://www.sasaki.com/what/portfolio.cgi?fid=533]Sasaki”>http://www.sasaki.com/what/portfolio.cgi?fid=533)</p>

<p>“you should really stress this more often on CC…”</p>

<p>Nah, then I would be turning into Michigan CCers… ;p</p>

<p>@rjkofnovi,</p>

<p>“You mean like every post instead of every other one? lol”</p>

<p>That is so true; however, I do also talk about my beloved Spartan from time to time, no? ;-)</p>

<p>p.s. Sorry to have hijacked this thread inadvertently. I will now return to silence… zz.Zz.zz.</p>