Are there any undergrad schools that generally are looked upon more favorably in the graduate school admissions process? If so, what schools? If some are, I would assume them to be Reed, UChi, Cornell, Princeton, Wesleyan, Swarthmore, Grinnell, CalTech, MIT, CMU, and many others. Obviously I am missing some. Maybe BU, since many people say BU practices grade deflation?
Carleton, Harvey Mudd, Haverford, Wabash, Rice, Bryn Mawr, Oberlin, Pomona, Williams, Amherst, …
Yes there are, and you’ve identified several of them. But much of the reason why these schools are preferred can be traced to the fact that they provide undergraduates with one or more ways to gain early graduate-school-like experience. Participation in faculty research, independent research, senior thesis, professional laboratory experience, assistant teaching experience, etc.
A dedicated student can find and/or create some of those same opportunities at almost any college. Ultimately, it is the student, not the UG institution, that gets a student into graduate school.
“Ultimately, it is the student, not the UG institution, that gets a student into graduate school.”
Quite so, but UG institutions are not all alike; choosing one that matches your goals in curricula and culture maximizes your chance of success in achieving your goals.
Maybe.
I think the common perception is that the schools the average layperson can name as ‘elite schools’ are the same ones that graduate programs (and employers) identify as top/elite schools. But graduate admissions staff and professors are more deeply involved in the higher ed space, and have a better idea of what programs and schools are good for them. First of all, there are different types of graduate admissions processes - applying to a professional program like an MPP or MBA is different from applying to academic/research program like an MA or PhD. Secondly, different departments have different needs and different people.
For example, let’s say you’re applying to psychology programs. Maybe you’re more interested in neuroscience and cognition, and there are undergrad departments that have a heavier emphasis and more coursework in that area at the undergrad level. But other schools might have a bigger emphasis on social and developmental coursework. (And even that is getting more nuanced than an undergrad necessarily needs; in most fields, students need broad exposure at the undergrad level to lots of different areas and aren’t expected to specialize). A small school that few people have heard of might actually be an excellent place with professors from top programs who went to graduate school with, or did postdocs with, the top professors at elite programs in your field. Or many programs have recruiting relationships with schools to develop talent or try to increase representation in specific areas.
My advice in this space is for undergrads not to try to select an undergrad college on the basis of what they think will help them get into graduate school, because 1) you may not know what kind of graduate program you’ll eventually end up in, and 2) it’s hard to account for all of the idiosyncratic reasons why a specific undergrad school might bubble up for some faculty members, and 3) there are sooooooo many other factors for graduate admissions that are more important than where you went to college.