<p>Let's say you go to Harvard undergrad, do you have a better chance at getting into their business or law school since you went to Harvard? (provided that you did very well)</p>
<p>Traditionally, you don't go to the same graduate school as the place where you did your undergrad. However, an English teacher at my school has both his undergrad and graduate degree from Wake Forest. As to whether it helps or not, I have no idea.</p>
<p>I would say, no, not necessarily. Reason being, colleges, especially like Harvard, are looking to maximize the number of people who can donate large sums of money. If they really gave an edge to individuals who have attended as undergrads, their "potential donation pool" becomes too limited as a result of incestuous admissions policies.</p>
<p>Incestious admissions policies! I like! :D</p>
<p>Then how do you explain the fact that at HLS, Harvard College grads outnumber (by almost twice over) graduates from any other college?</p>
<p>On a whole, I think that grad schools actually prefer applicants that did not attend the same school for undergrad, but it varies depending on the school.</p>
<p>It might help if the undergrad developed relationships with the profs that he/she would be working with in grad school. That's probably a bigger factor in scientific fields vs. professional schools.</p>
<p>There is absolutely no generalization that can be made here. Berkeley's law school appears to set the bar higher for Berkeley undergrads than for those of other schools in terms of LSATs and grades, apparently. Regarding the other law schools in the top 10, I'll bet it's all over the map. I had a friend who wanted to go to Harvard for grad school (K-school), worked for a famous professor there, didn't get in round 1 of applications anywhere she applied including Harvard and the next year got in to the K-school. Familiarity did seem to help, but not be an automatic deal clincher.</p>
<p>Some schools have policies that seemingly favor admissions of its own and others have policies hostile to this.</p>
<p>Otherwise, what Roger Dooley just said is absolutely true about scientific vs. professional fields.</p>
<p>The answer is yes. In the case of Harvard professional schools admissions, they do give a bit of slack to the students who were Harvard undergrads. Over a quarter (over 200) of the entire student body at HLS are students from Harvard undergrad. Additionally, HLS enrolls over 100 students from Yale undergrad, about 80 from Stanford, and this number goes down after this. HLS doesn't usually enrol more than 3 or 4 students from each 'normal' state schools, like IU or Arizona State. Besides your personal qualifications such as gpa, lsat, etc., your diploma from HYP will give you an edge in law school admissions. Also, I read somewhere that half of the student body at Haravrd Medical School are like from 4 schools: Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Stanford.</p>
<p>man, i really hope i get into any one of HYP, i honestly dont care which, i love them all!</p>
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The answer is yes.
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<p>The question, though, you are answering is not the one the OP asked. Should it really be a surprise that top schools tend to admit other students from top schools? The question is whether there is favoritism extended to a school's own graduates, even above graduates of other top schools. And that depends on the school, the field, and would need to be answered on a case-by-case basis. It wouldn't surprise me, though, if a certain number of top schools do have an attitude that because they are the best, they will prefer their own graduates.</p>
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And that depends on the school, the field, and would need to be answered on a case-by-case basis
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<p>OP mentioned Harvard and seemed especially interested in how Harvard Professional School admission works. Although I don't have hard stats for other schools, my brother told me that at his MBA class (which is top 10 but not H), Harvard, Yale, and Stanford are some of the most represented undergrad schools, as well. Not sure if this favoritism exists for ph.d. admissions or something like that, but, for MBA, Law, and Medical (not sure of this one) schools, HYP diploma helps.</p>
<p>I believe I have heard that some colleges have certain fields where they do not allow their undergrads to apply to grad school there. I am thinking this was like MIT physics, or maybe some other schools physics programs.</p>
<p>Most science PhD programs discourage academic inbreeding, but don't disallow it, usually. </p>
<p>In some fields, like engineering, there's often a significant "home field advantage" -- the most common graduate school destination for MIT undergraduates is MIT itself.</p>
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business or law school
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<p>Business schools and law schools are not graduate schools, but rather professional schools. </p>
<p>It can be very easy to get into the same university's law school as the university where you did your undergraduate degree (as I did). It can sometimes be very hard, at the most selective schools, to go to the same university for an undergraduate degree and a graduate degree (that is, a Ph.D.) in the same subject. Departments usually like students to move on to new departments for their next degrees to avoid "inbreeding" and expose the students to the latest different ideas in their field.</p>
<p>i plan on doing an east asian studies major (Chinese) and then going to law or business school afterwards, so i tihnk there would be minimal if any inbreeding</p>
<p>Ive heard at admission meetings things that grad schools do prefer applicants from their undergrads college.</p>