<p>“But it may be a little bit of an “edge,” especially if the student did do extremely well (admittedly that’s a big “if”) at a highly regarded U, when another equally regarded U is looking at that student as a graduate candidate.”</p>
<p>I’ll grant that all other things being equal HYP may have an edge over State U., but not necessarily. In fact, when it comes to grad school, and you’re looking more at the individual departments, and not the overall university, State U may be the one with a better department than HYP, and in such a case, having gone to that State U could actually be an edge.</p>
<p>I think the point is that if you do well at most universities, and can back that up with substantive achievements in your field of study, and a good GRE, you’ll be fine.</p>