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Also keep in mind that more prestigious universities will tend to have more well-known faculty (exceptions include undergraduate-focused schools like Brown and Dartmouth), and good recommendations from them will hold more weight.
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I don't think quality of the lab will help as much, although if you work for a Nobel laureate, you can get a recommendation from someone who is extremely famous in his field.
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<p>You know, I've been thinking about just how important it really is to get a rec from a truly famous prof from the field and/or to otherwise affiliate yourself with a highly prominent research department, particularly in the light of how successful graduates from the LAC's are in getting into and completing top doctoral programs. I have noticed how few if any of the LAC's have highly famous faculty nor do they have strong research departments, yet their students don't seem to have any problems with top doctoral admissions. </p>
<p>Case in point. Take the Caltech doctoral programs. This year, Caltech conferred 4 doctorates upon people who had previously done their undergrad at MIT. That's equal to the same number of people who had previously done their undergrads at Amherst, Williams, and Swarthmore (the "AWS" trifecta). Yet I believe that MIT graduates far more science/engineering undergrads than do AWS combined. After all, MIT has 4000 undergrads, the overwhelming majority who are studying science/engineering, whereas AWS have a combined 5000 undergrads, but many of them are studying humanities or social sciences (and would thus not be interested in going to Caltech for graduate school). Furthermore, of the AWS trilogy, the only one that offers engineering as a major is Swarthmore. Add in those who graduated from other LAC's like Bowdoin, Middlebury, and the like, and you quickly see that the LAC's are doing quite well for themselves. </p>
<p>Now obviously Illinois was quite well represented among the Caltech doctoral set also. However, what I find striking is how well represented the elite LAC's are, given their tiny size and their generally non-tech oriented focus, at least compared to Illinois and certainly against MIT. Hence, the elite LAC's seem to be punching far higher than their weight class. </p>
<p>Which leads me to question just how important it really is to get rec's from highly prominent researchers. After all, it's hard to find highly prominent researchers at the LAC's, yet they somehow manage to succeed in getting their students into top doctoral programs anyway.</p>