<p>So let's say I want to go to law school, but can't afford to go to a school like Penn for undergrad and then Georgetown for law. Would I be better off going to a state school (probably Pitt) for undergrad and then a school like Georgetown for law, or should I go to Georgetown for undergrad and then Pitt for law? Is it more important (read: more helpful for one's career) to go to an elite school for undergrad or an elite school for graduate school? Thanks in advance.</p>
<p>For actual experience, I'd say elite undergrad, but for future and career purposes, elite graduate school.</p>
<p>What do you mean by "actual experience"? Just being around the smarter minds at the elite school? Because if I went to Pitt I would probably be in the Honors College, which from what I've heard is one of the top in the country.</p>
<p>I mean academic experience. There are going to be smart kids everywhere, but elite universities tend to offer a better academic experience.</p>
<p>For a career in law, definitely an elite Law School.</p>
<p>Elite Grad School without a doubt, if you are certain that you want the grad school career or field of study. What you need to know is whether or not the undergrad school has a track record of getting students into elite grad schools.</p>
<p>I think for careers elite grad school is more important. But in social situations, when people ask where you went to school, they mean undergrad. My husband went undergrad to Cal, grad to Stanford, he always tells people he went to Cal. My dad went undergrad to Notre Dame, grad to USC, he will go to Notre Dame events, never USC. Most people I worked with had master's degrees, I know, I saw their resumes. But when you asked where they went to school, they always talked about their undergrad school.</p>
<p>This might be different for professional schools (Med school, Law school...). I'm talking about people with masters or PhDs.</p>
<p>I heard Elite Grad school is looked at more</p>
<p>Nobody cares if you went to Harvard Undergrad if you go to Podunk U for grad school.</p>
<p>On the other hand... going to Podunk U for undergrad and Harvard for Grad... now THAT will earn you quite a few looks</p>
<p>that kind of makes no sense to me...why?...well simply because Undergrad you spent 4 years...so spending 4 eyars at Harvard versus two years should get you looks.......unless 4 years of undergrad is equivalent to 2 years of grad.....i don't know, you tell me</p>
<p>Elite undergrad is more important, but only if it is HYP/Caltech/MIT/AWWWS/Dartmouth. Anywhere else is basically the equivalent of an honors program at any top state school. </p>
<p>Elite grad might be more important in a handful of professions, but only if you go to, say, Yale Law. For example, if you want to clerk for a Supreme Court Justice, your chances are 5x higher if you go to Yale Law than they are if you go to Harvard Law, and about 100 times higher than if you go to a random other top-10 law school (i.e., you can pretty much forget about clerking for the Supreme Court unless you go to Yale, Chicago, Yale, Yale, Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Yale, or Yale). Yale Law grads are also literally about 50 times more likely than Georgetown, Cornell, UCLA, Texas, UPenn grads to become law professors at any of the top 50 law schools. </p>
<p>So it also depends on what you mean by "important." But I think the networks of friends you will make at a top elite, like HYP undergrad, Yale Law or Harvard Business School, outweigh pretty much anything else. Keep in mind, though, that the very top grad programs like Yale Law and HBS are totally dominated by HYP/AWWWS graduates.</p>
<p>I think an elite undergrad school is more important since it can propel you into the best grad school/professional school, but both are important.</p>
<p>It is hard to go from Podunk UG to Harvard Grad. Elite undergrad schools can prepare you better for grad/professional school.</p>
<p>PhD programs are usually tuition-free. Med and law school will lead to high income. You can afford to take loans for Med and Law if you must. Put your money into undergrad.</p>
<p>Agree with collegehelp. Generally speaking you should go to the best undergrad program you can possibly get into. Without doing more extensive research yourself, the WSJ feeder schools ranking in general is a pretty good guide to what's best (as well as exactly how large the margin is between HYP and the other "top 20" programs), even though it is focused on admission to the top grad programs. </p>
<p>However, it's also important to go somewhere that is a good fit, since that's where you'll do your best -- which you can only determine based on visiting your potential choices for 2-3 days EACH, including a weekend day, sitting in on at least a half dozen courses and talking with as many students and professors as you can. Some schools may be relatively close to each other in terms of the WSJ ranking or whatever, yet one may have a totally awesome, vibrant campus social scene 24/7, friendly and outgoing faculty and students, good food, tons of prestigious grad schools to explore within a couple blocks of your dorm, and beautiful architecture, while the other might have a totally dead, lifeless and boring campus, awful dining halls, cliquey students, prestigious grad schools located miles or even hundreds of miles away from the central campus and remote undergrad dormitories.</p>
<p>Huh? PhD programs are tuition free?</p>
<p>Where?</p>
<p>I doubt they're free; I think your job pays your tuition.....especially a corporate job</p>
<p>Top PhD programs are free, and even give you a stipend (salary) that you can actually live off of (sometimes around $30k/year, but usually a bit less), plus free health care.</p>
<p>thats a good deal. This is why I love America; they make sure you get your education to its full potential</p>
<p>If, as the OP stated, you're planning to go to law school and then out into the job market, and your concern is about job prospects after graduation, this isn't remotely close--your job prospects (for your first opportunity--after that, it's performance on the job which counts) are vastly more impacted by where you went to law school than they are by where you went undergrad. I have practiced law for almost 28 years, and been directly involved in recruiting for much of that time, first at a very large firm, and more recently at a mid-sized one. I know of numerous people who went the route of "lesser" undergraduate school to elite law school (Loyola (Ill.) to Harvard, Pitt to Harvard, DePaul to Northwestern, DePaul to Michigan, to use just 4 examples), and many others who went the other route (Harvard to Indiana, Michigan to Loyola (Ill.), etc.). There's absolutely no comparison in terms of real world initial marketability. The former group dominates.</p>
<p>while i agree with what dadX3 says, bear in mind that graduating from an elite undergrad does give you better odds of enrolling into an elite grad school. take a quick look at the WSJ Feeder Ranking as an example.</p>
<p>so basically getting into grad school from undergrad is like getting into undergrad from high school......the same Darn <em>elite</em> school aura</p>