<p>I don’t know if I would name them “feeder schools” so much as programs that are highly regarded by admissions officers. A “feeder school” implies a school or program that routinely sends a lot of people to the next level - like a middle school that feeds into a high school, or even an elite private high school that’s considered a “feeder” for Yale or Harvard.</p>
<p>I don’t know if I think that colleges really work like “feeders”, but like others have commented on other pages, certain departments really are held in high esteem. Like my undergraduate alma mater is known for it’s pre-med program, so medical schools perk their ears when they see that they’ve come from our pre-med programs. Or like I think it’s Swarthmore that has a great classics department, so classics graduate programs may perk their ears more when they see that you have a classics degree from Swarthmore. That’s how name brand works in graduate admissions - it’s not just “ooh he went to Harvard,” but “wow he went to Harvard and Harvard has a really great anthropology department, I think Dr. Bigname is over there, and he worked with Dr. Bigname’s lab…he probably has really great anthro training.”</p>
<p>So yeah, it matters, but not in the way that it matters to management consulting firms or Wall Street hedge funds.</p>