Get into non prestiguos graduate program from a non prestiguos undergrad?

mathboy98
Sat, 28 Jul 2012 11:30:06 +0000

Going to a school with a strong reputation in your field helps a lot, partly because your letter-writers are well-known and will have often already recommended many successful candidates to the program. For instance, it’s no wonder that it is very common to see people from UCB computer science heading to the most competitive programs for PhD. In subjects like mathematics where performance in courses becomes even more essential in graduate admissions, I’d even wager that coming from a school whose standards of rigor are high will make the admissions people a lot less nervous reaching a positive admissions decision. In a field outside mathematics that involves labs, the best graduates of a school like MIT, just from hearing some of its alumni, seem to get a lot better access to opportunities to be part of cutting edge research, even if not as the leaders necessarily.

One should be on the lookout, though. There are definitely some very strong schools more willing to accept students from less well-known programs.