<p>Anyone have any thoughts about how top schools assess candidates from smaller (but strong) undegraduate programs (for example Santa Clara University) where the student has earned a high GPA versus a candidate from a higher ranking nationally recognized school, such as UCLA, UC Davis or Cal Poly SLO with a lower GPA? Any advice or experience you can share would be appreciated. My S trying to choose which undegrad school to choose.</p>
<p>How about instead of trying to game the system, your S goes wherever he feels he will learn and grow the most?</p>
<p>First of all what makes you think that you will get a low GPA at one school as opposed to the other. A high ranking does not automatically give you a lower GPA. </p>
<p>Secondly, why is someone who is not even a freshmen thinking about grad school?</p>
<p>Some of us have limited resources and getting our kids through quickly with the best chance of getting into a good grad school or getting a good job are of great importance. Learning and growing are important but ultimately, for our family anyway, the ability to earn a living is critical.</p>
<p>He is thinking about grad school because he has been advised that a bachelor’s degree is pretty basic and he (at least now) thinks it is likely that he will want to go to grad school. He has several good choices for undergrad some more costly than others. He is considering the future to decide how much debt to get in at this point and how his choice of undergrad will impact his chances of grad school.</p>
<p>If he’s planning on doing a PhD, research at the undergrad level is crucial. Generally, higher ranked schools tend to have more and better research available, so that may be to his favor.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t necessarily assume he’d get a lower GPA at a higher ranked school.</p>