<p>I haven’t read all these posts, but can provide one more data point. I was engineering undergrad at a second, or third, tier school known mostly for engineering. I got into all the grad schools I applied to
for engineering programs (MIT, Princeton, Harvard, Cornell). My undergrad grades were about 3.7 and my GRE scores in the math and logic sections were high 700s but verbal was only high 500s (I think, its been a long time!). I ended up changing into science/math and basic research, but I felt that my undergrad education was not a problem for getting into schools, or succeeding once there.</p>