<p>Hey everyone,
I am a student who is transferring from a local community college to a school next fall of 2012, not sure where. I am applying too the University of Michigan, UNC Chapel Hill, College of Charleston, and Michigan State University. If I were too have my way I would love to go to U of M, with UNC in close second. BUT my question is, is it better to just go to a less prestigious college/university for my undergraduate degree, and then shoot for the stars for the much better schools like U of M and UNC for my masters ?
Thanks for your time and any posts helping me out !</p>
<p>To go to a top ranked graduate school you need to go to a top ranked undergraduate school. I told my son, who is currently a freshman at UMich, “you can down but you cannot go up” when he asked the same question as you.</p>
<p>Ya i know i know, school has always been tough for me … i have dyslexia. So its something i need to take into consideration when thinking about myself busting my chops to make only marginal grades. Going to a school thats still good and getting better grades is something that i have thought about, instead of getting worse grades at a tough school (for me). 
Do you know anyone who goes to C of C ?</p>
<p>I met 2 guys who came here for undergrad and are going to MIT for grad and another guy going to UIUC. I’ve also met grad students here who went to no-name schools for undergrad, so you can go up. And it certainly is possible to go up for masters since they’re big cash cows for universities. If it weren’t possible there’d be no international students here. In short, ignore PeterW. He’s wrong. </p>
<p>Finances prohibiting, you should go to the best school you can for undergrad. Going to an “easy” school because it’s easy is not something that people who are bound for something better do. If you think you’re going to be unable to handle undergrad here then you should just give up and aim for less in life.</p>
<p>I am guessing you live in Michigan since you mentioned both umich and mich state. If that is the case and you have the grades, aim for umich and make sure you have an ADULT neuropsych performed (has to be after age of 18). First off, it’s substantiaLly cheaper for the value of the degree; secondly, they have a preferential agreement with Michigan ccs that improves your chances. lastly, while it’s hard, they do have an LD dept with accommodations in place for students with dyslexia. With the recent neuropsych (have to have hard proof) you will be entitled to assistive technology, accommodations, and even staff coaching if you need help staying ahead of the curve. But you’ve got to be willing to do the work.
For note taking and essay writing, have you looked into or used
Macwrite or dragon? The technology has come a long way in a few short years! Don’t let yourself be limited, or you may always be limited, if you know what I mean. In the work world you will need to find strategies to be competitive and work around your LD – no better place to train for that than a rigorous university!
Best wishes in your applications.</p>
<p>Vladenschlutte</p>
<p>My reference to “cannot” was probably too strong and obviously not always true for every student. I have been in the post-graduate academic environment for long time. I still maintain that it is not an easy task to be accepted into a PhD program (Master’s is a different story) at top rated schools such as MIT, UIUC, or UMich with an undergraduate degree from a 2nd or 3rd tier college/university.</p>
<p>Mingtoi22, please shoot as high as you can — good luck</p>
<p>PeterW</p>
<p>Thanks for the responses everyone, this is why i love this site.
Kmcmom13, thats correct, i do live in Michigan. </p>
<p>Vladenschlutte, im taking it you go to UMich ? I have just herd so many stories of crazy projects, hw, ect, and im just getting nervous when it comes to my dyslexia i guess.</p>
<p>Ming, for what it’s worth I hardly ever have any major reading (IOE major - taken as many EECS and Math classes also). If your goal is to major in History or English lit or something with a lot of reading (which would be a bad choice if you have dyslexia) then you’re going to have a hard time. If you do engineering the English required for Engr100 is very minimal. Not sure about the further TCHNCLCM classes but they probably aren’t too hard, I haven’t heard of them being grade killers or anything. </p>
<p>But again, if you respond to your worries about the difficulty by deciding to go to an easier school, you shouldn’t expect that you’re the type of person who will go to a good graduate school, even just for a Masters. I imagine most schools would frown upon people taking the easy route.</p>
<p>Vladenschlutte,
Right i understand, im majoring in Kinesiology and childrens therapy, and U of M has that exact double major that im looking for. Going there will have the major payoff in life itself and for future plans like my masters. Math and english are not exactly my strengths, though bio,chem, etc are.</p>
<p>Kmcmom13,
What is the, “For note taking and essay writing, have you looked into or used
Macwrite or dragon?” that you speak of ?</p>
<p>Ming, those are dictation style programs that can be used to help kids with lds such as dyslexia and processing speed issues write/dictate notes and essays faster. With varied success, they can also sometimes be used in the classroom to help take notes from recorded voices, but since it need to “be trained” to understand diction, it’s not as reliable as a human note-taker, which is one of the accommodation you might receive from Umich’s learning disability office, depending on the specifics of your adult Neuropsych assessment.
For people with dyslexia, it obviously takes longer to research, write and proof essays, as well as to complete exams. To succeed at a rigorous college, a student with learning disabilities but high intelligence can often keep up through assistive software plus accommodations and making use of places like the sweet land writing center.</p>
<p>If you’re presently doing well enough at college to transfer without accommodations but are legitimately worried about the workload, I wanted you to know about things that could assist you.
So google about “dragon naturally speaking and students with lds” and or macwrite and students with lds to see what approach might suit you, then give the software a try. It takes some getting used to, but would be well worth the time for you wherever you go.
But also be certain to get that full assessment, because you absolutely will not receive accommodations at umich without one. I know they’re expensive, but consider it an investment in your future career.</p>
<p>Thats Great and i will for sure look into that ! thank you</p>
<p>Just so you know, OP, the College of Charleston is a wonderful school. I went there for undergrad, and I’m now doing graduate work at McGill. My girlfriend moved from the College of Charleston to Cornell. PeterW clearly has no idea what he’s talking about.</p>
<p>It’s definitely possible to go “up” if you do well, and the College of Charleston can really prepare you for that if you challenge yourself. You should go to the school where you’ll get the best education, and where you think you’ll do the best work.</p>
<p>Great, i wanted someone who is at, or, went too C of C. Thank you so much !!</p>
<p>
Blatantly false information… err, no not information… someone’s uninformed opinion.</p>
<p>Quite a few people have said that, it just seems easier for someone to “go up” if your at a more prestigious university yo know.</p>
<p>I still maintain that it is not an easy task to be accepted into a PhD program (Master’s is a different story) at top rated schools such as MIT, Harvard, Stanford, or UMich with an undergraduate degree from a 2nd or 3rd tier college/university. Acceptance into a Master’s program may be a different story than PhD programs because to get an MS degree a student is usually on their own dime. The university has nothing to lose – more revenue to them.</p>
<p>PhD students for the most part are accepted into PhD programs that are funded both by the university but to a greater degree on money provided by grants (NSF, NIH, DOD and other govt agencies, big Pharma, industry (GM) and private donors) awarded to university faculty members. PhD students (at least in hard scientific areas, chemistry, biology, physics, pharmacology, engineering, etc) usually don’t spend anything or very little for their 5-7 years slavery to obtain their degree. Estimated costs for a PhD — $300,000-400,000 (tuition to university, GSI support assistance, research supply monies, indirect costs to the university,etc) which is not paid by the student. I may be “uninformed” but this is how I have seen the process work for the last 40 years. University professors in PhD programs think very hard about accepting prospective PhD students into their programs. How does this work – undergraduate grades are extremely important but 9 times out of 10 recommendations students get into PhD programs based on recommendations from undergraduate faculty members whom the prospective PhD applicant had done independent research as an undergraduate student.</p>
<p>I am probably way of base for what happens in the liberal arts fields (language, history, business, art) but in “hard science” it tough going from an undergraduate BS degree from Podunk U to Harvard PHD chemistry</p>
<p>You said: “To go to a top ranked graduate school you need to go to a top ranked undergraduate school.”</p>
<p>That’s not true. </p>
<p>PhD admissions for most fields are a crap shoot (plenty of qualified high GPA, high GRE score students). I don’t see faculty committees seeing that he went to the University of North Dakota and throw out his application even though he received a 3.9 GPA, research experience, and identical GRE scores to a student who went to a higher ranked school. If anything, the North Dakota student running into the professor at a conference would make wayy more of a difference than his undergraduate school.</p>
<p>Now if the student doesn’t make corresponding top marks or his school doesn’t offer research experiences, that’s a different story.</p>