<p>If I go to a state college (which I have full-ride scholarship) and excel in my classes, is it possible to get admitted to Ivy League or other highly-selective universities?</p>
<p>As a transfer? Sure. But be warned that most top schools have transfer acceptance rates lower than their already paltry freshman acceptance rates.</p>
<p>Do you mean transfer, or for graduate or professional degree study?</p>
<p>Many of the highly selective schools accept few transfer undergraduates. Princeton does not accept any.</p>
<p>Sorry, I should have worded it more clearly. I meant for graduation school.</p>
<p>Yes, although there are a lot of “it depends”.</p>
<p>That is field dependent. There’s more to grad school admissions than just a stellar GPA and GRE scores. Depending on the state school, it may or may not be able to provide you with the necessary resources.</p>
<p>You’re asking the wrong question. The correct question is not is it possible, the question should be is it likely. The first answer is yes, the second answer is no.</p>
<p>It depends. Which state-school? What are your high-school stats (SATs, GPA, Class Rank)? Quality is important when dealing with an Ivy. You can’t just look at whether it’s “possible”. It is, as mikemac said.</p>
<p>Being debt-free in undergrad could be hugely important, depending on your financial picture and your grad goals. You’re asking a very important question. Good for you. A lot of kids are such prestige junkies that they can’t even entertain the possibility that you could end up in a great place in life by going “State”.</p>
<p>This depends on field, the state school (UNC Chapel Hill vs. The University of Middle at Nowhere), and the type of graduate study.</p>
<p>For instance, a 4.0 and a perfect LSAT will almost guarantee you a spot at Harvard Law, regardless of field. A perfect GPA and perfect GRE from the University-of-our-SAT-scores-Indicate-Illiteracy at a Harvard PhD program.</p>
<p>Of course, I’m certain that as long as you have north of a 3.0, there’s some program at some Ivy League or other top school that will take you for an unfunded master’s degree that will require crushing debt.</p>
<p>Hm, looks like I have some work cut out for me :0</p>
<p>My older son did that. He took the NMF scholarship at our Flagship, and then went to an elite univ for grad school (math). He was accepted to every PhD program that he applied to.</p>
<p>The first answer is yes, the second answer is no.</p>
<p>that isn’t true. At the awards ceremony at my son’s school, where the students were going for their PhD’s was announced and many/most of them were going to elite schools. </p>
<p>If you have the grades, GRE scores, LORs, research, etc, you can get into top schools for grad schools.</p>
<p>BTW…it’s harder to get into med school then it is to get into grad school. And students from state schools get into US MD schools as well.</p>
<p>There are huge difference in resources between say, Southwestern Oklahoma State’s math department and the University of Alabama’s. Both are state schools, but one clearly offers more opportunities to its students.</p>
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Of course it is possible, but the question is too vague to give any type of detailed numbers. For example, the acceptance criteria for grad school in social work at Penn would be quite different from the acceptance criteria for Harvard Business School. For a more specific answer, we’d need to know the specific colleges and graduate program.</p>
<p>Highly selective colleges get a lot more of their class from students who attended state schools for undergrad than you may think. For example, among members of MDApplicants who were accepted to Stanford Medical School, undergrad colleges were represented by following as follows. Note that far more state schools appear on the list that ivies. I also listed the approximate median MCAT and GPA for each school. Stanford and Harvard were among the lowest median GPA among accepted med school applicants, even though they are both known for grade inflation and have a much higher mean GPA across the full class than most schools on this list, particularly state schools. This pattern also appears for analysis across all colleges, suggesting that for med school one needs to have a higher class rank at less selective undergrad colleges. </p>
<p>Stanford – 20 students (36 MCAT, 3.75 GPA)
Yale – 10 (37 MCAT, 3.8 GPA)
Berkeley – 9 (37 MCAT 3.85 GPA)
Penn – 8 (37 MCAT, 3.85 GPA)
Harvard – 7 (38 MCAT, 3.75 GPA)
UCLA – 7 (35 MCAT, 3.9 GPA)
UCSD – 6 (35 MCAT, 3.8 GPA)
John Hopkins – 5 (37 MCAT, 3.9 GPA)
UCI – 5 (37 MCAT, 3.9 GPA)
MIT – 4 (37 MCAT, 3.8 GPA)
Duke – 4 (35 MCAT, 3.9 GPA)
Alabama – 3 (37 MCAT, 3.85 GPA)
Amherst – 3 (36 MCAT, 3.7 GPA)
Brown – 3 (38 MCAT, 3.9 GPA)
CSU – 3 (37 MCAT, 3.9 GPA)
Emory – 3 (36 MCAT, 3.8 GPA)
UNC – 3 (37 MCAT, 3.9 GPA)</p>
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<p>This has to be one of the best paragraphs ever written for College Confidential.</p>
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<p>Agree. Competitive PhD programs accept applicants from all kinds of places. What matters is GPA and demonstrated ability to do research.</p>
<p>Also, schools are ranked much differently amongst PhD programs than here on CC. A lot of unfashionable publics rank way higher than you’d think, a lot of expensive privates way down at the bottom.</p>
<p>I think OP’s real question is, “I’m not going to go to a prestigious undergrad. But can I still get some prestige on my resume later on?” And the answer is of course. As one poster said, a 4.0/180 is practically a lock for Harvard Law School.</p>
<p>The OP’s question is too vague to answer more than “it depends”. All of the following matter:</p>
<p>PhD program, medical school, law school, or ???</p>
<p>What subject, if a PhD program?</p>
<p>What less-prestigious undergraduate school? General prestige may not match up with reputation in major.</p>
<p>I misunderstood the OPs question. I thought he was asking if you could start out a state college and then transfer as an undergrad. That is difficult. But as far as grad school goes, there is no barrier at all.</p>
<p>schools are ranked much differently amongst PhD programs than here on CC. A lot of unfashionable publics rank way higher than you’d think, a lot of expensive privates way down at the bottom.</p>
<p>this can be true. We were surprised to see some very good PhD programs at some rather lowish tier big state schools.</p>