<p>“I probably won’t go to a bad, (safety) schools.”</p>
<p>One thing you may want to consider is that just because some schools have higher acceptance rates, doesn’t mean that they are bad schools. It just means there is more space. If you have time, check out any websites where students can rate their own college and see what they are saying. Watch out for ■■■■■■, however, who are just out to make a particular school look bad.</p>
<p>“I’ll try to befriend the professors in that major as soon as i can, sharing my interests.”</p>
<p>Definitely get involved in any research that your professors may be conducting, if it interests you. However, your professors are your professors – not your friends, and be prepared for some real work…</p>
<p>Hey, dude, I’d hardly call our undergraduate school “second-tier”, though I know what you mean.</p>
<p>Just make sure you go to a school that provides the necessary resources to help you conduct research (grants/labs/materials, tradition of undergraduate research, funding, etc.), and you’ll be fine.</p>
<p>julliet, I can see you are studying psychology. I was speaking more to the life/biomedical sciences. At every interview I had, most applicants were from top 20 schools and most current graduate students had also attended top 20 schools.</p>
<p>I would like to throw something out there- my undergrad department was rated amongst the top three in its discipline, though the university at large probably wouldn’t raise that many eyebrows. This probably didn’t mean a whole heckuva lot when I applied for graduate school. However, after undergrad I worked for a few years in industry where the reputation of my former department held quite a bit of weight; I got one job pretty much on the strength of my undergraduate preparation. It was through the professional research experience that I gained my competitive edge for graduate school.</p>
<p>I guess I am trying to make two points
-the department matters quite a bit more than the university in general
-a good undergraduate education will be pivotal in your education and career, whether or not it is used as a stepping stone to a Phd program</p>
<p>“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.”</p>
<p>“my undergrad department was rated amongst the top three in its discipline, though the university at large probably wouldn’t raise that many eyebrows. This probably didn’t mean a whole heckuva lot when I applied for graduate school. However, after undergrad I worked for a few years in industry where the reputation of my former department held quite a bit of weight; I got one job pretty much on the strength of my undergraduate preparation. It was through the professional research experience that I gained my competitive edge for graduate school.”</p>
<p>I think that’s also a little bit of selection bias. Like I said, I’m not saying that admissions committees <em>ignore</em> where you went to undergrad. But the most driven, motivated, and ambitious students (the ones most likely to go to grad school) are also more likely to go to top institutions. I’m fairly certain that someone from a second- or third-tier school could get into a top PhD program in the vast majority of fields, given that they have the credentials. (But a school that they have never heard of may give them a little pause.)</p>
That has been my experience in the humanities as well, which are generally far more selective than any other field. As was noted earlier, however, this speaks MUCH more to the quality of faculty and the level of research support available than any sort of nebulous prestige factor associated with a college’s name.</p>
<p>In my PhD program, over the last five years, one-quarter (24%; 56/238) of students have come from one of MIT, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, or Stanford, with other top private schools adding about another 15%. </p>
<p>I would be very surprised if a quarter of the highly intelligent, motivated biology majors in this country were actually concentrated at HYPMS.</p>
<p>I have a question, if I do my master’s at a top 20 program… Would it obliterate my chances at a top 5 program for PhD (assuming same/similar field)?</p>
<p>First, for ivictor’s question, don’t worry too much about the rankings. If you do your Masters in a top 20 school, and you like it enough to see no reason to move, then you might as well stay there for a Ph.D. By the time you get into the top 50, rankings don’t mean much more than name-branding.</p>
<p>Now for DHS’s question. Apply for the Ph.D. program. Although I cannot speak for Psychology, Mechanical Engineering Ph.D. candidates apply as Ph.D. students, and they pick up a Masters degree along the way.</p>
<p>hesdjjim,
My dream is to attend stanford or berkeley. I believe I can do to it however my profile lacks research and I think that is why I was rejected. Getting in to that master’s program will help me get good recs from fairly well known professors along with giving me research experience. The alternative is to go back to my home country and look for research opportunities. The question is, if I chose to do my master’s at a top 20 school would it decrease my chances at getting into stanford or berkeley? I have heard that they overly prefer their own master’s students or people coming directly from bachelor’s</p>
<p>Which top 20 school are you looking at, and what is your field of study? Also, have you already been accepted, and are they offering you financial assistance in the form of research or teaching assistantships? If so, take them. No question. If no funding is available, go to the cheapest school that still has a decent program in your field.</p>
<p>Most employers will not care about the name of the school you went to, especially after you have worked for them for a few years. They’ll be more concerned about how productive you are on the job. Anyone who tells you that you HAVE to have an education at a TOP 5 school in order to have any shot at being successful is just spoon-feeding you the college cool-aid. If you aspire to go to Berkeley or Stanford, that’s great, but PLEASE don’t throw in the towel on grad school if you did not get accepted.</p>
<p>By all means, take it! Unless you have visited the campus and really do NOT see yourself going there, I would take it. I don’t know anything about their CS department, but as for the school itself, Yale is nothing to look down upon. Better pack some thermals, though, as I hear it gets COLD!!!</p>
<p>By the way, congratulations on your acceptance to Yale!</p>
<p>Congratulations on Yale, Victor. It’s definitely not a program that will be looked down upon for your M.S.</p>
<p>As hesdjjim mentioned, if you can bare the cold, I say take the opportunity and enjoy it! As a SoCal-boy, I’m going to be preparing the same when I move out to Chicago for the fall :X</p>