Graduate School, What do they think of Lawrence?

[marshallmeyer12]

<p>Okay so my dad went to Lawrence and he LOVED it, and now he has a masters, etc, unimportant.
Anyway, he said I should pick Lawrence as a "safe school" just in case something goes wrong and I don't have any other colleges. But the more and more I look at it, it may be becoming my first choice.
His mother (my grandmother) and him are both huge advocates of the school. But what my dad said was "Lawrence is an amazing school-- but after you finish your 4 years, and want to apply for graduate school in some prestigious college, they won't even know who lawrence is."</p>

<p>Then, my grandmother said "If you go to Lawrence, you will get a phenomenal education, and on top of that every graduate school in the country will recognize you." </p>

<p>So who is right?</p>

[watchthis]

<p>Both are wrong. Many, but not all, prestigious graduate schools know Lawrence well. A student's success at getting into an excellent graduate program is largely determined by the student's own work. Excellent students have excellent chances, and so on. Of course, if you are an excellent Lawrence student competing against an excellent Princeton student for admission to a graduate program at Stanford, it's likely that if there is just one slot open, you will not get in. (This is an unlikely scenario.) Still, for the most part, Lawrence is good enough, and well-known enough that what students do after Lawrence, is largely determined by how well they do while at Lawrence.</p>

[LoveCollege4]

Your grandmother is right! Lawrence has a very high rate of students being accepted into the best grad schools. The biggest reason for this is that Lawrence students get a very individualized education because the class sizes are so small and they often get to work one on one with faculty. Also, because there are no grad students at Lawrence, undergrads don’t have to compete with graduate students for the best research projects, parts in the play, etc. There are many opportunities for undergrads to get hands on experience in their field and THAT is what the grad schools love to see.

[intparent]

A little in between – they will all know Lawrence, and if you do phenomenonally well as an undergrad there, you will have great grad school choices. But a good but not great student at Lawrence will not have as many choices as a good but not great student at a higher ranked school.

[TytoAlba]

i say so what. Really. Go to the school at which you fit best and do exceedingly well there. The rest will work itself out.