<p>Undergraduate research and honors program at an okay (middle of the US News rankings) engineering program.</p>
<p>V.S.</p>
<p>Regular degree from a higher-ranked undergraduate program with focus on work experience and volunteering. Research is a possibility but not guaranteed.</p>
<p>Any comments would be appreciated.</p>
<p>there is no easy answer on that... </p>
<p>i assume you mean PhD prgrams in engineering, so that's how i'll answer...</p>
<p>Note that the three most important factors in graduate admissions are: grades in a challenging curriculum, research experience, and letters of recommendation from professors who know you well... test scores are not as important... they cannot help you, but if you do poorly, they can hurt you.</p>
<p>being in an honors program (which I assume is small and selective) will ideally allow you to get to know some professors well... and the opportunity to do research is significant... I think the honors program can make up for the fact that perhaps overall the school isn't a highly ranked.</p>
<p>volunteering, and work experience outside of engineering is irrelevant to PhD programs...</p>
<p>it the higher-ranked institution isn't much higher, then i would go for the honors program... but if the more prestigious program is much, much higher ranked, then it becomes really difficult to say...
many other factors come into play in determining what is the best fit... other factors may sway you to go for the higher-ranked institution...</p>
<p>Thanks for your help, jab93. Well right now I'm in undergraduate so I'm only considering masters as my next step. Is it better to do a masters before Ph.D?</p>
<p>I just finished my first year at a 4-year univerity and have the option of continuing here and applying for the honors/research program -OR- transferring out to another university that is ranked higher. My GPA is pretty good relative to other students here so I think that I have a chance.</p>
<p>Ideally I'd like to have both options open (honors or transfer) but each has different course requirements. I don't know what the chances for research are for transfer students.</p>
<p>Regarding MS vs. PhD, it depends on what your ultimate goals are...
Many of the top PhD programs accept students with only a BA/BS...
you DO NOT need to first get a MA/MS first...</p>
<p>on the other hand, MA/MS programs are much easier to get into... even at the top places... but warning: there is almost no financial aid for MA/MS programs other than loans... most top programs save their resources for PhD students.</p>
<p>Ahh, I see. Thanks for the clarification.</p>
<p>There's not a clear answer to your question, but I'd generally advise students to EXCEL at a smaller school than be middle of the road at a bigger, higher ranked one. Many grad schools have a minimum GPA they will accept that does not look at how good a school you went to. For many schools this is a 3.5 GPA, though some will take a 3.25 and others will even take a 3.00.</p>