<p>^ This is not such a new phenomenon. When I was an undergrad in philosophy at Michigan in the 1970s my professors all urged me to apply to other top grad schools in the field; they made it pretty clear they’d probably accept me if I applied at Michigan but that it would be better for my intellectual development if I went elsewhere. For essentially the same reasons, most top schools don’t like to hire their own Ph.D.s; fear of inbreeding. And cellardweller: I don’t think the fact that 10% of Harvard grad students in sciences & engineering were Harvard undergrads proves that it’s statistically more likely that you’ll be admitted to Harvard for grad school if you were a Harvard undergrad. I think you’d have to look at the size of the applicant pool, and the percentage of that pool who are Harvard grads. It could be that 10% (or more) of the applicants were Harvard undergrads. You can’t assume all the top graduating seniors apply to all the top schools. Probably more Harvard grads apply to Harvard than to Michigan and vice versa, possibly by a wide margin; same with all the other top schools.</p>