<p>My high school recently had an assembly with a professor from Harvard who said that the school you get your undergrad degree from doesn't matter, but a good grad school is whats important. I was wondering what everyone's opinion was on this.</p>
<p>You have to consider the fact that many people don’t go to grad school.</p>
<p>The less-in-demand of your major = more competition for jobs = undergraduate school matters more…</p>
<p>The more-in-demand of your major = less competition for jobs = undergraduate school matters less…</p>
<p>basic supply and demand concepts</p>
<p>ken285 makes a good point. If you are going to grad school (or at least pretty confident you are), undergrad does not matter except it might help a little in grad school admissions. If you aren’t going to grad school, undergrad will matter initially but not as much after you’re in the workforce.</p>
<p>But let’s not neglect the fact that undergrad can affect the quality of grad school you can attend, sometimes decisively. </p>
<p>As a leading example, the EECS MEng program at MIT, as a matter of policy, is open only to MIT’s own EECS undergrads. Furthermore, the program is available to a many - usually the majority - of those undergrads, which is why so many MIT EECS undergrads stay for an extra year to pick up that master’s. Yet if you’re an undergrad at any other school, you can’t even apply to that program.</p>