Quality of Undergrad Program

cosmicfish
Tue, 23 Jun 2009 08:49:55 +0000

I think you should be okay.

In the first stage of admissions (the down-select) they are not usually looking too hard at school strength, just gpa, gre, and other resume bullet-points. You are fine there, although some schools may still cut you out based on some particular algorithm. If you were borderline (say 2.9-3.2 gpa, or 3.2-3.5 gpa for top schools) a strong school reputation might pull you over the bar, but you should not be concerned there.

In the second stage of admissions (the up-select) professors are looking at you as an individual. Doubtless they will more highly regard a 3.8 from Stanford or MIT, but at this point professors at good schools are looking much more at your LOR’s and SOP than anything else. Indeed, the rep of your LOR writers will matter more than your school - if a top guy in your speciality is extolling your virtues then you are golden. But at this point it is all a crap shoot anyway - you are competing blindly against other top students, and it is just a question of which qualified applicant they pick.