<p>My question is, which is more important in the long run.</p>
<p>A prestigious undergraduate or graduate school?</p>
<p>Does the choice of undergraduate school determine the chances of getting into a very good graduate school?</p>
<p>grad.</p>
<p>no, it doesn't. what matters is your intelligence level and quality of your hard work.</p>
<p>Lets just say, if you are good to begin with, you would have automatically settled for the best school of your choice (assuming finances are in shapei guess).</p>
<p>If your thinking, should I go to a top school knowing that I might be out competed by my peers. Is it worth it. Yes it is, because it builds you strong, and you have good networking.</p>
<p>Change is defined by the need to grow or to aleve tension or unwanted stress. Your best bet for life change is to be around ppl who are as smart or as strong as you are. You learn to develop and you learn from them as you learn from each other.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Does the choice of undergraduate school determine the chances of getting into a very good graduate school?
[/quote]
No. But it does help to go to a very good undergraduate school, in terms of the resources available to help you get into a very good graduate school.</p>
<p>A more prestigious graduate school is much more important.</p>
<p>well in honesty, i think people should jsut study what they want to study in undergrad. I don't think schools will matter that much because graduate studies really help you along and job recruiters will see your degrees. Not sure if that was what you were looking for. hope it helped at least a little lol</p>
<p>IMO, grad school. </p>
<p>May not be relevant to your question, but I put my money where my mouth is -- our kids are going to public universities, and will graduate debt-free. They have good ECs. The one that is currently applying to grad school built a great resume for grad school apps while in college, knowing that he intended to apply to law school. He has met other students who have already borrowed so much money for college that they are seriously questioning whether they can afford grad school tuition.</p>
<p>There have been many longstanding debates over whether a prestigious undergrad institution is weighted more heavily by prestigious grad programs in the application process. I don't think it's conclusive, although I've been persuaded that it might give an edge between two candidates whose GPA, MCAT/PCAT/GRE and ECs were equivalent. I haven't been persuaded that the GPA from a prestigious school is weighted more heavily in the application process over the GPA of most of other schools - perhaps weighted more heavily over a CC or 4T school. In the debates, many argued that a 3.5 from a prestigious school isn't going to bump a 4.0 from a less prestigious school. I'd concede that a 4.0 from a prestigious school wins.</p>
<p>So, if I am home-college'd, I can get into Sloan?</p>
<p>As long as you stay in a profession related to your graduate degree, your graduate school is more important. If you decide to switch professions such that your graduate degree becomes irrelevant, your undergraduate is more important. </p>
<p>The University I went to for both graduate and undergraduate reaches me with many networking opportunities, and I graduated decades ago. It's not just what you put on your resume -- the network attached to the degree helps professionally and socially.</p>
<p>Most of the graduate schools in the nation really don't care where you did your undergraduate work as long as you've got a solid undergrad resume along with recommendations and test scores to back it up. And without those, coming from a prestigious college won't get you in.</p>
<p>And most employers care very little about where you got your graduate degree compared to how well you would fit into their corporate culture.</p>
<p>Pedigrees are most important within academia, but not so much in the real world.</p>
<p>Go to the school that will cost the least out of pocket and save your money for grad school!</p>
<p>What is a 4T school?</p>
<p>I'm guessing fourth tier.</p>
<p>Yes - 4th Tier. 4T might be more commonly referenced when referring to US News' rankings of law schools than on CC's undergrad sites. CC tends to focus on the LACs and Universities ranked higher than 4T anyway.</p>
<p>For some, I think would be a mistake to select their undergrad school based on which is most likely to enhance their chances of admission to a top tier grad school. Many 18 year-olds have not yet figured out what they want to do--for good reason. One of the real values in undergrad, IMO, is the exposure to an intellectual, social, and cultural environment that is new to them. New in the sense that they have not been similarly exposed while they were making their own decisions. It is not the only time of life when that kind of exposure can happen, but the unique combination of cultural diversty, intellectual exercise, youth, and inexperience makes those years special in terms of personal exploration and growth. </p>
<p>While those personal growth factors do not show up in GPA or admissions testing, I believe they increase the chance that a student will choose the grad program(or job in lieu of) that is best for him or her. It will also make that student a better lawyer/doctor/engineer/teacher in the long run. </p>
<p>Some 18 year-olds know exactly what they want out of school. For them, perhaps, the undergrad choice should be geared more toward enhancing their grad school options (less debt, better GPA). But for many others, even those who will probably choose grad school eventually, I think they should choose an undergraduate experience that will challenge and stimulate them the most, without regard to probable cummulative grade point average.</p>
<p>BOTH: Undergraduate is important to prepare you for life in general, growing UP (not down), prepare you to enter the job market and for SOME kids, the precurser to graduate school.</p>
<p>Graduate school is ALL important for a professional job and to focus your studies in one area on concentration. And to get that professional job.</p>
<p>They are interrelated. For a professional job, graduate school is what matters for the "credentials." But you wont even get there if your undergraduate grades are poor.</p>
<p>I would say that a prestigious undergrad is more important. </p>
<p>I mean, a PhD is a PhD where ever you get it (and no matter where you try to get it, it's still going to be hard as hell to complete the requirements). An MBA is an MBA, etc, etc.</p>
<p>Your undergrad becomes a part of who you are, and plays a large role in your life. And there's a big difference between going to a state school and being with millions of people and a prestigious private school with only the most passionate and intelligent individuals.</p>
<p>My dad went to Yale undergrade and Wharton graduate. And while he's absolutely in love with yale (aka wears the shirts, describes himself as a yale guy) he holds little to no allegiance to Wharton. He runs his own business now and he said he rarely, if ever, even tells people he went to Wharton.</p>
<p>I'm not even thinking about going to graduate school, but if I were I would definitely be more focused on getting into a good undergrad rather than wasting my time for four years in the hopes of <em>maybe</em> getting accepted to a top graduate school. Advanced degrees in and of themself are prestigious, it doesn't matter where you get them.</p>
<p>In the professional world & academia, grad school is more impt.</p>
<p>There is a reason why there is a T14 for law schools, why many Wall Streeters/top execs have MBAs from Wharton, Harvard, Kellogg, MIT, Stanford, UM, etc, why many professors have PHDs from the top universities, etc.</p>
<p>Even in medicine, where one gets his/her MD is critical in getting residencies and jobs in academia.</p>
<p>If one has a JD from Yale or an MD from JHU, the fact that one did his/her undergrad work at Montana St. is of little consequence.</p>
<p>Yeah, but isn't it harder to get into, for example, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine if you came from like University of Florida rather than if you did your undergrad in MIT (which has a really challenging and rewarding pre-med program)?</p>
<p>
[quote]
Advanced degrees in and of themself are prestigious, it doesn't matter where you get them.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>While it's true it doesn't matter so much where you get them from, it does matter a ton who you worked for and what sort of work you did in graduate school.</p>
<p>As a current grad student, I feel a lot more allegiance to my undergrad school since, well, I was a lot more involved in the school itself. Here in grad school I'm an employee. The school doesn't do a whole lot for me as a grad student (other than providing parties with drinks once a month) while the undergrads have tons of traditions and activities they get to partake in constantly. My time here is much more important to my career than what I did in undergrad, though.</p>