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Old 12-13-2012, 01:12 AM
 
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There is some varying opinions I've read here whether your undergrad school matters when applying to grad school or professional school (law, medical).

Many people here seem to think it doesn't matter one bit.

I think it DEFINITELY holds weight, BUT maybe not as much as it should. Here's an example...

Say you have 2 students. One went to William Paterson University*, a school local to me. According to recent stats, 36% of the students were in the bottom half of their high school class. The other went to UCSD, where 100% of the students were in the top 10% of their class.

So, do both students with say a 3.7 GPA and an equal GRE/LSAT/MCAT have an equal chance to get into grad school? If they do, is that fair?

*No offense to anybody here who went to Willie P. I have friends that went there, just using an example.
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Old 12-13-2012, 01:33 AM
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jobaba View Post
There is some varying opinions I've read here whether your undergrad school matters when applying to grad school or professional school (law, medical).

Many people here seem to think it doesn't matter one bit.

I think it DEFINITELY holds weight, BUT maybe not as much as it should. Here's an example...

Say you have 2 students. One went to William Paterson University*, a school local to me. According to recent stats, 36% of the students were in the bottom half of their high school class. The other went to UCSD, where 100% of the students were in the top 10% of their class.

So, do both students with say a 3.7 GPA and an equal GRE/LSAT/MCAT have an equal chance to get into grad school? If they do, is that fair?

*No offense to anybody here who went to Willie P. I have friends that went there, just using an example.
Of course it matters. Don't forget you need letters of recommendation too, and professors from top universities have much more credibility as well.
The professors who write the letter for you will also need to indicate your rank in class (eg. top 10%). Some schools use terms like "exceptionally excellent, very good, above average, average, etc."

That being said, if you have a lot of Cs and Ds, that really hurts even if you attend Harvard. Very low GPA means you basically gave up, for whatever reason.
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Old 12-13-2012, 01:38 AM
 
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I think it most certainly matters for a couple of reasons:

1. Undergraduate is preparing you for graduate level education. You want a solid foundation. Better schools attract better faculty than can give you that solid foundation.

2. We learn from the people around us. You want to have the opportunity to learn from a group of higher quality students.

3. If you're going to graduate school for an academic degree, you want to start out at a school that has a lot of interesting research projects going on. This gives you an opportunity to explore different areas so you get an idea of what is out there. William Patt doesn't have as much going on as UCSD.

There's other criteria that comes into play. That's just touching some of it.
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Old 12-13-2012, 09:30 AM
 
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Originally Posted by Bettafish View Post
Of course it matters. Don't forget you need letters of recommendation too, and professors from top universities have much more credibility as well.
The professors who write the letter for you will also need to indicate your rank in class (eg. top 10%). Some schools use terms like "exceptionally excellent, very good, above average, average, etc."

That being said, if you have a lot of Cs and Ds, that really hurts even if you attend Harvard. Very low GPA means you basically gave up, for whatever reason.
It's difficult to gauge how much it should matter. Somebody who is on an admissions committee should definitely recognize that it's probably harder at a better school because you're competing against better students.

At the same time, not every class is curved.

Then again, the classes are usually structured so maybe a third of the students will get an A. So they structure the class to FIT the quality of the students.
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Old 12-14-2012, 01:07 AM
 
Location: Viña del Mar, Chile
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I think it holds more weight when you're looking for a job with your degree than if you apply to professional schools. When you apply to professional/graduate programs.. they don't care about you, no matter how much they say they do. The only thing they care about is publicity. They want NUMBERS, they want to boast higher gpas and test scores. They want to accept a couple "interesting stories" so they can brag about what they have.
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Old 12-15-2012, 06:41 AM
 
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A William Paterson grad applying to graduate school at Rutgers for example has just as good a chance as someone applying from Princeton if their gpa/grades are equal or higher. Of course the balance swings the other direction with say NYU for example. The more prestige-oriented programs such as MBA, Law and Medicine tend to be more stuck on grads from the "name schools". Most academic programs otherwise tend to give more weight to body of overall work, particularly those that aren't part of the clique of aforementioned "name schools".
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Old 12-15-2012, 08:58 AM
 
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When it's all equal, they'll probably tilt to the name school, unless their extracurricular and "special" case makes them stand out from the two candidates.

I know that, if it's an eastern school with a prestigious program, they often like picking up some UCLA, Berkeley, USC, and UW to round out their pie chart of geographic representation. I could sense from eastern schools that they wanted western representation.
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Old 12-15-2012, 09:24 AM
 
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Originally Posted by kyle19125 View Post
A William Paterson grad applying to graduate school at Rutgers for example has just as good a chance as someone applying from Princeton if their gpa/grades are equal or higher. Of course the balance swings the other direction with say NYU for example. The more prestige-oriented programs such as MBA, Law and Medicine tend to be more stuck on grads from the "name schools". Most academic programs otherwise tend to give more weight to body of overall work, particularly those that aren't part of the clique of aforementioned "name schools".
If that were true though, is that fair?

The level of competition between Princeton and William Paterson is such a disparity to be almost ridiculous. I'm not being elitist. I'd say thing about Princeton and my own alma mater. And Princeton is known for grade deflation too. And two people with 3.5s from either school are on equal footing for grad school, or have a SLIGHT edge for professional school?

If that is the case, then why even go to a good school? Just go to school where everybody is mediocre, wipe the floor with them, and then you'd have better opportunities to go to grad and professional school.
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Old 12-15-2012, 09:25 AM
 
12,098 posts, read 16,981,808 times
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Originally Posted by robertpolyglot View Post
When it's all equal, they'll probably tilt to the name school, unless their extracurricular and "special" case makes them stand out from the two candidates.

I know that, if it's an eastern school with a prestigious program, they often like picking up some UCLA, Berkeley, USC, and UW to round out their pie chart of geographic representation. I could sense from eastern schools that they wanted western representation.
That's what I'm saying though. It's rarely all equal. It's hard for me to believe that admissions committees don't recognize that. They must be intelligent people.
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Old 12-15-2012, 12:14 PM
 
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I don't think a blanket statement does the question justice. It depends on student, circumstances, motivation of the student, etc. I went to a top tier school and now I'm at a state school. As I apply to graduate school, I am 100% confident I will be given many more opportunities now than if I stayed at the top tier university.
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