Can I find a list of LS that admitted people from my UG? Forum

[bernaldiaz]

No. The best public schools don't even crack the top 20 overall, probably not top 25ish if you count liberal arts schools too. If ND, Gtown, Hopkins et al don't get a boost, there's no way that lower ranked schools like Berkeley, UVa, William and Mary, UNC should get a boost.

I'm comfortable saying that maybe the top 10 (call it Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Princeton, MIT, Penn, Columbia, Amherst, Williams, Swarthmore, maybe a couple others) get a boost and no one else really does, but there's no way that only those schools, then also a couple random public schools that are way lower ranked also get a boost skipping over 10-15 or so schools that are harder to get into and higher ranked.

What gets missed is that there are only slight differences in quality between the schools that make up the top-60 or so schools. I would feel no better or worse about attending say UC-Davis undergrad versus schools like Emory, Vandy, WUSTL, or Notre Dame. I would be confident that I received as good of an education as anyone at those other schools. The top-20 list is tough to crack because there are so many damned great schools in the U.S. It's almost embarrassing.

If there are rankings, some schools have to fall in the middle or on the lower end, but that doesn't devalue the education you receive at the lower end schools, especially when you're talking top-60 schools. They're all absolutely outstanding schools, whether public or private.

That's exactly what I was trying to say. Top 10 might be better than the top 40, but after that there really is a fine line and it wouldn't make much sense for one school to get a bump over the other.

And MoneyBagsPHD, on the harder to get into part, I guess I don't speak authoritatively on that. The ones I applied to were Berkeley and Michigan (which tons of average people from my school got into), but I guess I don't know about UVa WM or UNC? I can't imagine they're harder than Hopkins Vandy etc. Didn't mean to sound like a tool. Or are you saying it's dumb to talk about how hard it is to get in to an UG? In which case I don't think you're right, because that's definitely a portion of the prestige.

[PDaddy]

No. The best public schools don't even crack the top 20 overall, probably not top 25ish if you count liberal arts schools too. If ND, Gtown, Hopkins et al don't get a boost, there's no way that lower ranked schools like Berkeley, UVa, William and Mary, UNC should get a boost.

I'm comfortable saying that maybe the top 10 (call it Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Princeton, MIT, Penn, Columbia, Amherst, Williams, Swarthmore, maybe a couple others) get a boost and no one else really does, but there's no way that only those schools, then also a couple random public schools that are way lower ranked also get a boost skipping over 10-15 or so schools that are harder to get into and higher ranked.

This is reeking horse shit. US News Rankings are a lot less authoritative for UG programs than they are for law schools (because enormous public schools can't spend as much per student as small liberal arts schools charging twice as much for tuition).
"Harder to get into"? I loled pretty hard... You look like a tool.

I am in Seattle right now, and I have read recently that U-Washington is rejecting people with 3.8/4.0 GPAs and significant AP work. There are UW freshmen who could be candidates at the ivy league schools (esp. Brown and Cornell) and in fact get into those schools - as well as other supposedly superior schools - but choose not to attend because of money.

[bernaldiaz]

No. The best public schools don't even crack the top 20 overall, probably not top 25ish if you count liberal arts schools too. If ND, Gtown, Hopkins et al don't get a boost, there's no way that lower ranked schools like Berkeley, UVa, William and Mary, UNC should get a boost.

I'm comfortable saying that maybe the top 10 (call it Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Princeton, MIT, Penn, Columbia, Amherst, Williams, Swarthmore, maybe a couple others) get a boost and no one else really does, but there's no way that only those schools, then also a couple random public schools that are way lower ranked also get a boost skipping over 10-15 or so schools that are harder to get into and higher ranked.

This is reeking horse shit. US News Rankings are a lot less authoritative for UG programs than they are for law schools (because enormous public schools can't spend as much per student as small liberal arts schools charging twice as much for tuition).
"Harder to get into"? I loled pretty hard... You look like a tool.

I know, right? I am in Seattle right now, and I have read recently that U-Washington is rejecting people with 3.8 GPAs and significant AP work. There are UW freshmen who could be candidates at the ivy league schools (esp. Brown and Cornell) and in fact get into those schools - as well as other supposedly superior schools - but choose not to attend because of money.

Ah ok sorry guess I was misinformed.

[moneybagsphd]

Ah ok sorry guess I was misinformed.

If you're not from a state with a "public ivy," I totally understand. In CA, Berkeley and (to a lesser extent) UCLA are considered extremely prestigious, not altogether that different from Stanford. Berkeley's admissions are a little unpredictable because the class size is huge (generally you need good numbers, but really great softs can compensate). But 4.3/>2300 kids are a dime a dozen and you will be competing with them on a brutal, "you are just a number to us" public school curve.

[Gail]

You guys actually tried in high school?

I knew nothing about this type of stuff and always thought I'd go to the school 20 miles from home. Not until now did I realize that was a mistake.

[bernaldiaz]

You guys actually tried in high school?

I knew nothing about this type of stuff and always thought I'd go to the school 20 miles from home. Not until now did I realize that was a mistake.

No, not at all. I took the SAT once without studying (which I was thinking about today. I can't for the life of me figure out why I was so against studying for the SAT) and did about 0 minutes of homework a night as a mode. I would only do the work for papers and projects that were actually collected. I wish I took high school a tenth as serious as I took college. I feel pretty fortunate to have ended up where I did, but I felt like I sold myself short. Definitely part of getting rejected from some school for UG gave me a motivation to try to pick where I went to law school, as opposed to for UG where the UG institutions were the ones picking me.

[Gail]

I skipped class a lot in HS. I fell asleep during the ACT and didn't bother retaking it (yeah...). My GPA was like 3.00. Constant trouble maker.

I went to college with the intetion of either graduating or not. Didn't really care until about junior year. I'm sure that my teenage crimes will catch up to me and I'll be shut out from the job market for it, no matter what career path I take.

[BuckinghamB]

I skipped class a lot in HS. I fell asleep during the ACT and didn't bother retaking it (yeah...). My GPA was like 3.00. Constant trouble maker.

I went to college with the intetion of either graduating or not. Didn't really care until about junior year. I'm sure that my teenage crimes will catch up to me and I'll be shut out from the job market for it, no matter what career path I take.

How exactly does one fall asleep during a test? I mean, I get falling asleep in a lecture, but I feel like you would have to be on sleeping pills or something to fall asleep during the ACT haha

[akronite08]

IMO, high school is a time where grades shouldn't take up all your time. If you can get the 4.0 and top-10 nods while leaving time to, you know, grow as a person and have fun, that's great. Otherwise, I think having fun, playing sports or band and getting into a little mischief pays bigger dividends when your interviewer actually realizes you're a well-adjusted person.

Like others have said on here, a great record at a decent undergrad institution won't hold you back at all.

[senhorquick]

It seems like top liberal arts colleges always get overlooked in this conversation.

"Public Ivies" also tend to get overlooked.

No. The best public schools don't even crack the top 20 overall, probably not top 25ish if you count liberal arts schools too. If ND, Gtown, Hopkins et al don't get a boost, there's no way that lower ranked schools like Berkeley, UVa, William and Mary, UNC should get a boost.

I'm comfortable saying that maybe the top 10 (call it Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Princeton, MIT, Penn, Columbia, Amherst, Williams, Swarthmore, maybe a couple others) get a boost and no one else really does, but there's no way that only those schools, then also a couple random public schools that are way lower ranked also get a boost skipping over 10-15 or so schools that are harder to get into and higher ranked.

Yeah. This is reeking of pretentiousness. I got into Georgetown and only didn't go because it was too expensive. I had no choice but to go to my in-state public institution. Furthermore, I studied abroad with people from Yale, Harvard, Columbia, Claremont McKenna, Smith, Williams, and other flagship public schools and some of the kids in my program from the top schools were just privileged and stupid rich kids (the dumbest girl went to Penn) and others from schools like UW and Macalester (I have no idea where it even is) were among the smartest. Yes, my undergrad is easier to get into than Notre Dame. The difference in education--as far as I can tell--is negligible. I could've got in if I wanted to though (Boulder is already a miserable enough place for a young homo, I would kill myself in fucking South Bend). Undergrad School Prestige =/= academic ability otherwise your school would give a discernible bump in LS admissions process. Empirical evidence suggests that most schools don't care.

Rant over. That all said, it is pretty obvious from the data available that there is no tangible bump from the prestige of your undergrad institution or the rigor of your program. However, "wealthier" schools tend to give their students privileges and opportunities not available to people at other schools and these could have positive benefits in the app process.

[094320]

..