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Erm, wait badman, are you deciding on an undergrad school with the hope that you'll be going to grad school after college? Or are you trying to decide on a grad school? It's not clear to me...</p>
<p>If you're heading to undergrad, I don't know about philosophy, but at least in a lot of sciences/math (bio, physics, chem, math), a lot of the top schools will NOT take their undergrads back for grad school because "academic incest"--staying in the same place for multiple programs/positions--is generally frowned upon. People prefer to see that you've gone somewhere else, branched out, been exposed to a different school's way of thinking, etc. If you're thinking about undergrad, that's something you might want to consider if you're certain you'll be applying to grad school.
I'm deciding on an undergrad school with the hope that I'll be going to grad school after college. Academic incest? Again, I'm just trying to decide on an undergrad school. When I'm applying to grad school four years down the line, I'll probably pick a different university from my undergrad.</p>
<p>@jmleadpipe and dcircle:
The difference in ranking, from what I've gathered, is quite insignificant here. Both philosophy departments are nearly equal (ranked 16 and 20 by philosophical gourmet)</p>
<p>Anyway, when I'm applying to grad school, is it that important that I went to an undergrad school with a strong philosophy department? I didn't think it would be so important.</p>
<p>My question was actually more general - When grad schools are evaluating a student - would they give more weight to a UChicago or a Brown degree, all other factors being equal.</p>