<p>I don’t know, ucb, schools say lots of things on their websites. The thinking is not uncommon in academia, it’s true, that students are better served by having different undergrad and graduate unis, but I was unaware of a school that states such a policy. But I guess if you’re UCB’s chemE department you’re not hurting for qualified PhD applicants. Usually where one sees this enforced is in hiring of faculty. Schools often will not hire faculty who have graduated from their PhD programs because of reproducing their department weaknesses in their progeny. Or they will only hire the truly exceptional homegrown PhD after he or she has written a book or two. We often won’t take grad students from our u/g pool, but I’ve never seen that written down. It’s a common law practice we’ve violated every once in a while to good effect for the dept and the student. Some students just belong in one’s department.</p>