Is it okay to go to a non-top school?

College Search & Selection
1

I feel as if there is a stigma around non-elite schools and those who attend them. I am personally most likely going to apply to Johns Hopkins, Washington University in St. Louis, and University of Michigan, but I feel that if I don’t get into one of those, I will be considered a lesser person for going to one of my safeties.
Is there really this attitude among employers and graduate schools, or am I simply imagining it?
Honestly, I don’t feel like I would have a problem with going to one of my safeties (GATech, UofRochester, etc.) but I feel like I will be shamed when talking to others who went to perceived ‘better’ schools.

Anyone else share this conflict?

2

Also, I’d like to add that I am planning on going to medical school after undergrad and feel like I will be a less competitive applicant for attending a lower-ranked or less-known school.

3

@Rtr0213 GTech isn’t a safety even if u live in Georgia. Neither is U Rochester either really.

4

You need some better safeties. My reach was Stanford. My safety was Sac State.

5

You need different safeties. GA tech is just as good as UMich for STEM.

6

Most adults by definition don’t go to top schools. Only so many spots. Shoot for the moon but don’t tie your identity to your admissions in the process.

7

It is definitely ok to not go to a top school, but I would say Georgia Tech and University of Rochester are top schools in the grand scheme of things. Gtech will be especially difficult if you are oos. Select 1-2 guaranteed safeties.

8

S chose to go to a state college not a “top school”. He likes the environment better, loves the veterinary college, has early admission to the program, loves the honors college, and likes the faculty. He will be a veterinarian one way or another and is already interning with a graduate of that college that is a top equine specialist. You will do fine if you go to a state college and can be just as successful! It depends on what you put into it! Be happy with your choice.

9

Apply to the schools that meet your academic, social, academic, financial and other interests and needs. There are a handful of elite schools that compete for roughly the same group of students and admit only a small portion of there applicants. Lots and lots of students who submitted superb profiles were not admitted. So what happened to them?

Well, the got over their disappointment and are now enrolled in lots of wonderful schools. If they think and study and make use of their many gifts, they will become competent adults who are fully qualified to matriculation into excellent medical or law schools or pursue whatever fascinates them.

I have met and even been related to students who graduated from one of those tippy top schools. While it might be exciting to meet someone who graduated from one of those schools during the summer after graduation, most will be told that is nice by fall and asked what happening now. Much like some students never get over being a cheer leader or quarterback in high school, some students are just sad because they think their lives peaked before they really began. Now what is really satisfying to those of us who graduated from a lower school is beating the Sox off a braggy elite grad in a really and truly challenging graduate class or job assignment.

Go where your heart and head tells. St. Louis University in St Louis is also a great school academically and socially.

10

Agree, you need to seriously recalibrate your list – GA Tech and URochester are definitely not safety schools.

And any number of solid but not elite colleges would work just fine as a springboard for med school. What is most important for med school will be your GPA and MCAT.

11

Med schools do not care where you study. They don’t care what you major in either. They do care that you have a tippy-top GPA and excellent MCAT scores. They also care that you have met their job-shadowing/volunteering requirements.

If you are truly serious about med school, you want to study where you are more likely to end up with the GPA you need. The pre-med courses are pretty equally demanding wherever you study, but the rest of the classes you need to take just to graduate college might not be quite as tough to keep a high GPA in at a safety.

12

I attended a CUNY school and a local law school. One year out of law school, I was hired by a national company. During my first week there, one of my co-workers asked me in the lunchroom, filled with our colleagues, where I’d gone to school. I told him and he responded that he had gone to an Ivy undergrad and a top law school. I don’t know what possessed me but I looked at him and said: “Imagine that! and to think that we both work here together now!” 30 odd years later, he is one of my closest friends.

Your education is what you make of it.

13

Most of the best people that I have worked with over the years went to either a state university, or a university that I had never heard of. The best software engineer that I ever worked with went to a state school. One of the best bosses that I ever had went to seminary school (which was also one that I had never heard of). The worst software engineer that I ever worked with had graduated from Harvard (I will admit that the fact that he had graduated from Harvard might have slowed down his being fired).

The stigma around non-prestigious schools pretty much starts and stops with high school seniors, investment bankers, and maybe expensive management consultants. If you intend to be neither of these in your professional life, then you can go to any university which seems like a good match to you. If you intend to be an investment banker or management consultant where you get your Masters or PhD will matter, where you get your undergrad will not.

“I’d like to add that I am planning on going to medical school after undergrad”

Medical schools care about undergraduate GPA, and MCAT scores. If you go to MIT or U.Chicago, getting a great GPA is going to be more difficult, which will hurt your changes of medical school. Of course MIT and Chicago attract a lot of very strong students, and premed students from there do often get to medical school. However, if the same student who went to MIT to study premed had gone to UMass Amherst instead, she or he probably would have had a higher GPA and the same MCAT and done just as well or better in terms of getting into medical schools. He or she might have had less debt also, which would help considerably in the long run.

Also note that there are a LOT of very strong universities in the US. Any school in the top 200 is very good. No school is a good match for the majority of students, but every school at least in the top 200 (and probably in the top 2000 or more) is a very good match for some students.

GATech and UofRochester are very strong schools. As others have pointed out they might not be truly safeties, but they most certainly would not be considered anything other than a strong university if you were to graduate from either. The same could be said about hundreds of other universities.

“I feel like I will be shamed when talking to others”

I mentioned UMass above. Let’s suppose that you are from Massachusetts, have straight A’s (mostly A+'s), and go to UMass. Some kids in high school might bug you. As soon as you show up on the UMass campus you will be surrounded by other kids who also chose to be there. With straight A’s you will probably be in the honors college. You will get a great education. In four years you will graduate with a degree from a great school, and less debt that you would have had elsewhere, and employers will be interested in what you can do for them. If you go into management, in a few years you will probably have a few MIT and Harvard graduates working for you. They won’t care where you went to university.

14

GTech and URochester are top schools.

15

Money is the #1 reason to attend a school where you are slightly overqualified. Many schools below the top 25 entice students with scholarships. Anyone who can go to college paying little to nothing at one of the better schools is quite smart.

GT has not been a safety for almost a decade. It’s probably the most difficult school on your list because of the distinct lack of grade inflation. They have fixed a lot of the issues - getting closer to a 50/50 M/F ratio, sport teams are winning, selectivity is getting closer to your reaches. The Atlanta location is highly desirable and the campus is next to the Marta, which provides easy access to downtown or the airport.

16

It’s a myth that it’s easier to get good grades a less competitive admits. Some of the easiest schools to get good grades at are very tough admits. Brown is a classic example. More than 2/3 of the letter grades they give are As. A state school with fewer resources and little incentive for you to succeed might be challenging to get a high GPA even though it was easy to get into. Prepare to work hard no matter where you go. Don’t choose engineering, even BME. It’s too hard to get a top GPA and the programs don’t align with the prerequisites you’ll need. Lastly, look at a school’s placement of their students into medical school. Good luck.

17

“Prepare to work hard no matter where you go.”

That is definitely very true.

18

Just have to chime in here: GaTech is NOT a safety. A friend was accepted to WUSTL, UMich, and JHU and rejected from GaTech, even though she was a girl. Don’t count on them for admissions.

19

Your safety schools are not safeties. You need to add some.
And… U Rochester and GaTech ARE top schools.

20

You didn’t name any, however.

For statistical corroboration, you can compare your current choices to the over 1300 considered for this analysis:

http://www.businessinsider.com/the-610-smartest-colleges-in-america-2015-9