<p>IAmBiophysics, your undergraduate <em>experience</em> plays a huge role in your application, but that doesn’t mean that where you go to undergrad matters in the sense that a degree from Harvard is objectively better than a degree from Georgia State. Some schools do get better reputations within the admissions process because of the faculty working there - i.e., Harvard is good not because it’s HARVARD but because X applicant worked with Dan Schacter, who is famous in my fiend. Some schools also have good reputations because of students they have already admitted - but that doesn’t necessarily go along with mainstream name recognition. For example, my college is a mid-tier liberal arts college but I’ve gotten comments on how well students from my college have done in the program. Not the most prestigious college in the world, but the adcom was <em>familiar</em> with it. So where you go to undergrad is important in 1) the resources that are available to you and 2) how familiar the school is to the admitting faculty.</p>
<p>Yes, it is academia, but in academia prestige works a little differently than in industry. For example, Wisconsin-Madison and Michigan have two of the best psychology departments in the country - even better regarded than the Ivy-League psychology department I’m in now. My adcom would welcome an application from there. Most of the students in my department went to smaller undergrads, and you can’t tell a difference in quality from the way they talk about research or what not who went to Harvard and who went to GSU. Academics know that many more factors go into shaping a researcher than a name.</p>
<p>I also would not agree that small prestigious schools are overrepresented. I go to an Ivy League university, and I know far more people who went to no-name/mid-tier/underrated undergrads or state universities than I know who went to other Ivies or top 20 schools.</p>
<p>I say go to the best school that you are admitted to and can afford. I think that undergrad is important but only to the extent that your undergrad has an influence on who you become and what you choose to do - what kinds of research opportunities, internships, and professors are there to shepherd you along the way. But it’s not the <em>name</em> that’s important, it’s the experience and environment that you’re in. And perhaps the experience that nurtures you to become a great researcher is a small liberal arts college in the Midwest and not Harvard.</p>