Graduate admissions does depend on a complex variety of factors but the new book “Inside Graduate Admissions” by Julie Posselt documented that elite school origination does make a difference in graduate admissions to top programs. Dr. Posselt observed the inner workings of graduate admissions committees. The two strongest predictors of admissions to elite graduate programs are attending a highly selective college or university and very high GRE scores.
I’m not encouraging any individual student to transfer. In addition, most graduate admissions committees do not put much emphasis on the name of the undergraduate school but this new book does say some top graduate programs are biased toward certain undergraduate schools.