So I’m in community college, about to transfer into university, and I am torn between two schools. One of them has a great reputation overall, however, the other, while average overall, is better in terms of the specific program that I am looking for. Normally I would not be concerned about this, but I am interested in some competitive graduate programs, and I do not know how much weight this decision is going to carry into the future.
“Graduate admissions” is a huge category. Ph.D.? MD? JD?
On an extremely general level, though, the school is less important than your performance both in and beyond the school. You’d need excellent grades (3.7+) and then something distinguishing yourself beyond the grades (research, work in the field, etc.). That and great GRE/ MCAT/ LSAT/ GMAT score (and by great I mean in the high 90th percentile for a competitive grad program).
Law schools tend to accept more by numbers than other things.
I hear on this forum that med schools are similar: numbers first (grades and test scores) and some clinical experience
Ph.D. programs each will have their own criteria and often individual professors will accept you, or not. Each of their sets of criteria will differ.
Get great grades. Do good research. Fr Ph.D. research programs, if you are forming ideas, scholarly ideas, so much the better. If you can publish even better. Do good practical work in your field. Practice the entrance exams until you could teach the entrance exam to others. Then you should be a good candidate.
I’d go for the specific program assuming that (1) there’s a significant difference in quality between the two departments and (2) you’re positive you want to pursue graduate studies in that field.
Department quality can make a difference in PhD admissions. Letters of recommendation are key, and a glowing letter from someone who’s well-known in his/her field goes a long way.
That said, overall quality can make a difference as well. Many of the most prestigious schools have more funding available for student research, which is important for getting into a PhD program.
@Dustyfeathers Sorry I was not specific enough! I would like to pursue a master’s degree in my field, and I do plan to do a research project in the honors program, I am interning in my field already, and I’ve already started GRE prep because I want to make it good and I know I’m going to struggle with the quantitative portion of the test. So specific program it is then!
Not to be too jaundiced, but if you were my child I would strongly suggest approaching master’s degrees with caution.
Some schools – even very prestigious ones, even some at Ivy schools – use the master’s programs as cash cows. I would ask yourself whether the program you have in mind 1) is necessary for you to continue in your field; 2) will improve your income level such that the price of the extra education is worth it.
Also: if Ph.D. is your objective, does this master’s program lead to a Ph.D. track? Or is the master’s program HUGE and the number of Ph.D. positions available much smaller?
You do not want to be stuck with lots of debt and the same income level as before. Be super clear-eyed about what it is you are getting from the program for the cost.
Best of luck to you.
“better in terms of the specific program that I am looking for”
If you are confident that you will stay in this major, and if finances are the same either way, then I would go with the stronger specific program. Graduate schools will be aware of the strength of other programs in the same major at other schools.
Also, I agree with @Dustyfeathers that how and what you do is going to matter more than the school that you came from. My experience at a highly ranked graduate school is that the other students there came from a huge range of other universities. What they had in common was that they had all done very well wherever they had gone.
@Dustyfeathers I hear you! Believe me, I have thought it through very well, and I would not go through additional schooling that was not worth it in the long run (because it is so expensive!). Thanks for the advice though! I appreciate it.
Depends very much on the field, and the competitiveness of the graduate admissions process at the particular program being applied to.
Here is a quote from the PhD admissions FAQ at a program consistently rated #1 in the world in it’s field with an acceptance rate of around 3%:
“Coming from a lesser-known school is not much of a handicap, if other parts of the application are strong.”
“Not much of a handicap” is still a handicap when acceptance rates are in the single digits.