UCLA v. Cornell

mikemac
Tue, 16 Mar 2010 23:26:31 +0000

Does the name of your undergraduate college/university really matter? I mean, UCLA and Cornell are both very good schools but as long as I get a good GPA, does it matter to graduate schools where I graduate from?

Both are good schools, and a strong applicant from either school is going to be attractive to grad schools. What they look at is more than GPA and test scores – they’ll also look at letters of rec and (depending on what grad degree you’re pursuing) relevant experience and your interview.

However you are making one significant assumption: that you’ll be the same regardless of which school you attend. I can’t prove it, but I suspect differences in advising systems, class size, classes taught by full-time faculty, what you learn from other students, access to internships and summer positions, and the like can all lead to different outcomes for similar entering students.