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Old 04-26-2008, 10:55 AM   #18
molliebatmit
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Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: Cambridge, MA
Posts: 6,024
I don't mean to nitpick what is otherwise a great post, but I do have one comment:
Quote:
Finally, although this is a very long term consideration - some of my friends who are seniors and want to go to grad school feel that they "should" go somewhere else rather than stay at MIT, even though MIT may be the best place for grad school (as it is in many fields, including physics). So from that point of view, it might be better to go to Princeton, hoping you will then go to MIT for grad school. Both the math and physics are phenomenal at Princeton - and at MIT!
I don't think the specific choice of graduate school should ever be a consideration when choosing an undergrad school. Plans change, and the high school senior who is gung-ho about getting a PhD in physics at MIT may decide after grad school applications that another school or advisor is better for his/her specific research interests, not to mention that interests change and that same high school senior may be interested in chemistry or aerospace engineering four years down the road.

I think students should always go to the undergraduate school where they feel happiest and most at home, because it's not a good idea to hang your hat on graduate school plans four years in the future.

This perhaps applies less to a student who chooses Princeton for undergrad (who will almost certainly be able to get into an MIT PhD program in four years) than to a student who chooses a school that won't give him or her the opportunities to shine that will allow him or her to be admitted to a top grad school program. Still, I think it's wrong-headed to choose an undergraduate institution based on where you think you might like to be for graduate school in four years, considering that most high school students know almost nothing about what graduate school actually entails.
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