<p>I'm a high school senior aiming to major in sustainable agriculture. Eventually I aim to pursue a career in food policy. I aim to get a Ph. D in nutrition science, and looking at higher learning institutions was curious as to how much it matters where I go for undergrad. I am looking at Cal, UC Davis, Wellesley, etc... but also recently discovered College of the Atlantic. It is TEENY and very progressive (right up my alley) and I really love it, but I was wondering if grades and internships can compensate for coming from a college that is relatively unheard of? Does it matter where I go, in essence? I aim to get into Tufts' Friedman School for my doctorate. </p>
Does Wellesley have a major even vaguely related to sustainable agriculture?</p>
<p>Beware of posters who make general claims about graduate school in general. Admission policies vary so much between fields and universities that there’s no blanket answer. In my own field (mathematics), the more selective graduate programs seem to care a lot about undergraduate college. For example, in my PhD program at Stanford, only 2 out of about 80 students did not get their Bachelor’s degree from a prestigious university. The two exceptions graduated from Bryn Mawr and Indiana University Bloomington. (Everyone else got their degree from Harvard, Princeton, MIT, Cal, etc.) I noticed the same trend at other selective math PhD programs.</p>
<p>However, that’s just for math PhDs. Other fields work differently. Every discipline seems to have its own idiosyncratic admissions process for graduate students.</p>
<p>Wellesley has an environmental studies major.</p>
<p>Yes, it matters…but in a different way than most on CC would assume. In general you need to go to an excellent, well-reputed undergrad to get into a top graduate program - because those colleges are more likely to have the resources that you need to get into grad school. However, the range of “excellent, well-reputed” colleges is much larger than prestige-obsessed HS students on CC assume. It’s not just the top 20 or 30 schools. College of the Atlantic definitely falls into that group, as do a lot of small lesser-known liberal arts colleges and private universities, many state flagships and a lot of great regional public universities.</p>
<p>You can go to either Wellesley or go to College of the Atlantic and get into a PhD. Especially at a place like College of the Atlantic, which is 1) a well-reputed college and 2) a college that focuses on environment and sustainability. Their sustainable food policy major is probably right up your alley, but you also get the very traditional arts and sciences there too.</p>