<p>I don’t want to make it seem that my daughter just slid into PhD programs because of her school–she was very ambitious and got involved with research early and often. Pushed herself with her curriculum. I just wanted to point out that there are advantages. However, yes, if you don’t get in top schools, you can achieve your goals. And momwaitingfornew made some very important points about how to do that (as does Juillet above.)</p>