<p>Graduate school admission is different from undergraduate admission. Where you apply to grad school will depend on the specific branch of economics (or whatever your field of study is) that you are interested in, and where the professors/research teams that you want to work with are. Dr. Expert-in-what-I-want-to-learn may very well be at Never-heard-of-it-U. Which means that if you want to work with that person, you will apply to that university. What will matter when you complete the Ph.D. is that you worked with Dr. Expert-in-what-I-want-to-learn, not the name of the place where he/she is working. Everyone in the field will know that Dr. Expert-in-what-I-want-to-learn is the expert in that sub-field and that you were very fortunate to be able to study under him/her. And, getting into Dr. Expert-in-what-I-want-to-learn’s department at Never-heard-of-it-U may be even harder than getting into Dr. Not-nearly-as-expert’s department at Famous-name-U. Don’t worry just yet about where you are going to do your grad work.</p>