<p>How much does the college you go to for an undergrad degree affect where you can get into for grad school? If I go to a school that is not all that great (I have a scholarship), would that ruin where I can get into for grad school? I know I will have a much higher GPA at a less prestigious college, but I don't know if that will help me.</p>
<p>The opportunities and resources you will have available to you will determine how competitive you will be for graduate school. For example, many undergraduates who go on to graduate school take a few graduate classes in their undergraduate years. If you attend a school without a graduate department (and/or a limited number of advanced courses), that would obviously not be an option and might hurt your grad school application.</p>
<p>Colleges usually advertise the accomplishments of their most successful students. (For example, the graduation announcements might contain the plans of the valedictorians or students who graduated summa cum laude.) That will give you an idea of where you can go as a graduate of that school. If you know what you are going to major in, you can also ask the department what graduate schools students have been accepted to in the past.</p>
<p>For academia, just make sure your undergrad is a real school. Anything in the top 100 U.S. News is a real school. From there it’s your GPA, test scores, and research/letters of reference. Only the pudunk state 4th tier schools put you at a real disatvantage, simply because they don’t offer rigorous enough courses. Same goes for med school. </p>
<p>The top 5 law schools are pretty hard to get into if you don’t go to an elite undergrad, though. Well, they’re hard either way. But without an elite undergrad your chances are pretty grim.</p>
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Not really. GPA/LSAT is all that really counts, and after that they take rigor of major, undergrad, EC’s, and LOR’s into account. The reason many students in top Law schools are from top undergrad’s is simply because since they’re intelligent, they were accepted to and attended elite undergrads - but it’s not as though rigor of undergrad school is a big factor in admissions. Law school is basically a numbers game (As well it should be - no one cares that you have a cool personality or that you’re president of the knitting club). If an intelligent person who gets into elite undergrad’s goes to a 3rd tier school, chances are his GPA will be high and LSAT too, and thus he has a good chance of getting into a top law school.</p>