Which Are The Top Colleges For Getting Into Grad School?

College Search & Selection
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<p>I saw a really useful report (a PDF file, I think) on this a while back, but I can't seem to find it.</p>

<p>How do I find out which these are again?</p>

<p>Thanks! :)</p>

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<p>Oberlin. 10char</p>

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<p>You might be thinking of the Baccalaureate Origins study.</p>

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<p>I forgot exactly what it looked like (sorry), but it listed the top 10-20 (somewhere in that region) colleges. I remember it had one of the US Naval Academies on it or something.</p>

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<p>1) [REED</a> COLLEGE PHD PRODUCTIVITY](<a href=“http://www.reed.edu/ir/phd.html]REED”>Doctoral Degree Productivity - Institutional Research - Reed College)</p>

<p>2) [url=<a href=“http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/infbrief/nsf08311/?govDel=USNSF_178%20-%20tab2]nsf.gov”>http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/infbrief/nsf08311/?govDel=USNSF_178%20-%20tab2]nsf.gov</a> - SRS Baccalaureate Origins of S&E Doctorate Recipients - US National Science Foundation (NSF)<a href=“see%20table%202”>/url</a></p>

<p>3) Search for threads about “PhD Production” by interesteddad.</p>

<p>I find this sort of list completely useless. What’s important is the success rate of applicants, and the baccalaureate origins study measures this only obliquely. A useful list would have a list of applicants, where they applied, and where they were admitted.</p>

<p>I’m more impressed by University X that only had 2 biology applicants but got them both into Harvard than LAC Y that had 3 biology applicants admitted at Mississippi State – although the BOS would rank LAC Y much higher.</p>

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<p>It depends an awful lot on the field of graduate study and the grad school itself.</p>

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<p>^^Sorry, those weren’t quite it. I remember the list only stated the top grad schools - I think it had Yale Law, Stanford Business, etc.</p>

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<p>

Those are professional schools, not graduate schools. No wonder everyone was confused. :rolleyes:</p>

<p>You’re referring to the WSJ feeder study.</p>

<p><a href=“WSJ in Higher Education | Trusted News & Real-World Insights”>WSJ in Higher Education | Trusted News & Real-World Insights;
<a href=“WSJ in Higher Education | Trusted News & Real-World Insights”>WSJ in Higher Education | Trusted News & Real-World Insights;

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<p>THANK YOU!</p>

<p>Ok, sorry for the capitals, but thanks. That was exactly what I was looking for.</p>

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<p>Wow, I’m surprised that UGA wasn’t in the top 30 for the public schools.</p>

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<p>

My complaint above about the PhD production surveys applies equally well to the WSJ feeder list. Note that UMD-Eastern Shores (3800 undergrads) produced only 1 admitted student; Concord (3000 undergrads) produced only 2. </p>

<p>The study notes that many universities with “a dozen or more kids” sent to those professional schools were excluded from the list simply because of their large size. I’m willing to bet that applicants from UGA are usually more successful than applicants from some of those top 30 feeder schools.</p>

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<p>That list is pretty old, just a sidenote.</p>

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<p>William & Mary has the highest med/law school acceptance rate in VA.</p>

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<p>IBclass-
Where’d you find that article/link? It looks to be rather old. It quotes one of the college presidents who hasnt been president of that school in at least 5 years.</p>

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<p>It doesn’t matter how old that list is.</p>

<p>The point has been made that those schools are homes to superior students who enroll at top graduate schools en masse.</p>

<p>The usual suspects, HYP, Amherst, Williams, Dartmouth, Columbia, Brown, etc.</p>

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<p>It matters because it doesnt take into consideration things that may have changed in the past 5+ years, and what schools might now make it on that list, as Hilary mentioned.</p>

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<p>That list would not have changed much, besides the institutions at its very bottom.</p>

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<p>Heres a very interesting discussion on CC from 2005. According to the early posts in that thread, it (the WSJ study) was dated even then, and was apparently a pretty flawed study. I havent read the entire thread, but it stirred up alot of discussion on that and other threads at the time <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/85416-wall-street-journal-feeder-ranking.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/85416-wall-street-journal-feeder-ranking.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>The WSJ study is deeply flawed because of the tiny N of top law, business, and medical schools it considered (N=15, 5 in each field), and because the schools it selected were heavily skewed towards the Northeast in general and Ivies in particular, giving a huge leg up to undergraduate institutions in that region (insofar as many people prefer to stay in the same general region for grad school).</p>

<p>Nonetheless, I have to say I’ve always been a little partial to this study because my undergraduate alma mater, the University of Michigan, acquits itself quite well as the top public and #30 overall among both research universities and LACs combined, in roughly the same ballpark as Vassar, Caltech, Bryn Mawr, Wesleyan, Cornell, John Hopkins, Middlebury, Claremont McKenna, Northwestern et al. Nice company.</p>

<p>But it’s still a flawed study, no matter how much I like it.</p>

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<p>^ Oh, and by the way, my alma mater Michigan came is as the #18 research university on that list, right behind Caltech, Cornell, Johns Hopkins, and Northwestern, and ahead of such highly touted “feeders” as UVA, Notre Dame, Emory, Brandeis, UC Berkeley, Tufts, and WUSTL. Several US News “top 25” research universities didn’t make the WSJ top 50, including Vanderbilt, CMU, and UCLA. Some highly touted LACs not making the WSJ cut: Carleton, Davidson, Harvey Mudd, Colgate, Smith, Hamilton, Oberlin. Love it.</p>

<p>But it’s still a flawed study.</p>