<p>[“Among mid-sized and larger universities, many discussion sections, intro math classes, labs and writing classes are taught by grad students. Among these colleges, it is much better as an undergrad to attend a university with high quality grad students.”]</p>
<p>Not necessarily. For one thing, the variability of TFs/TAs can very more widely due to massive differences in teaching/education experience ranging from someone who has been a seasoned grad student/TA for a few years and some prior teaching experience to your green fresh-out-of-college first year grad student who may not be that much further in the field than the undergrads he/she is charged with. </p>
<p>Worse, the lack of teaching experience…especially among those with little teaching experience could result in horrific educational outcomes as was the case with many students in a couple of other sections of a Stats course at an Ivy when the TFs ended up going way too fast/had problems explaining course material well for their recitation sections. I was fortunate to have had the most experienced TA who covered the material well in a reasonable pace. </p>
<p>["With a high quality university, many of these grad students who are teaching you will be one step away from becoming professors themselves, as opposed to just people who didn’t have anything else to do except stay at college. "]</p>
<p>Didn’t have anything else to do except stay at college…what does this even mean?? Are you saying faculty at non “high quality universities” are exclusively made up of their fresh graduates???</p>
Regarding getting into a good graduate school program in your field, read tk21769’s post above. What you DID as an undergrad matters more than where you went.</p>
PhD production is interesting as a trivial measure of the “intellectual” nature of the student body, but it does little to measure graduate school application success, as it does not factor in the quality of graduate programs. I suppose it’s useful if you just want a PhD, period, but most people aim far higher than that; good jobs will always go to graduates from top programs.</p>
<p>It is far more impressive for a school to have 4 of 5 applicants getting into history PhD programs at Harvard and Yale than for a school to have 10 admits at Podunk State U.</p>
<p>Some schools run on an admissions committee format. So you get admitted based on the general consensus of several professors as opposed to just one. Yes, one professor could ccreate a clear case for your acceptance but in general the department determines who comes in. </p>
<p>Your undergraduate matters to some extent. I am 100% sure having discussed with several professors in admission committees. Obviously you have to be accomplished. But in a tie in Ivy league+MIT/Caltech+Stanford+Chicago+Duke trumps decent privates+Berkeley+Michigan+podunk state u.</p>
<p>[Your undergraduate matters to some extent. I am 100% sure having discussed with several professors in admission committees. Obviously you have to be accomplished. But in a tie in Ivy league+MIT/Caltech+Stanford+Chicago+Duke trumps decent privates+Berkeley+Michigan+podunk state u.]</p>
<p>I had similar discussions with admissions committees at some Ivy graduate admissions and they agreed with what you said with a few minor exceptions:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Berkeley and Michigan are often regarded on the same level as the Ivy league and similarly respected schools.</p></li>
<li><p>Elite SLACs are also included…and sometimes their graduates are regarded as being better prepared for grad school than their research 1 undergrad counterparts…including undergraduate students from their own institutions.</p></li>
</ol>