spacebike

Hi, first of all pardon me for anypresumptuous remarks. I am trying to understand the process for graduate school admission. Will an undergraduate student be in disadvantage with above-average/good (not extraordinary) credentials to get into Caltech, MIT, or Stanford for Grad school, if he/she completes Bachelor's from a school that's Top<10 in aerospace-ranking(usnews) for Undergraduate and Graduate, but a Top<=30 in overall-engineering graduate school ranking, and 110 in National College ranking by UsNews? I know that a high GPA, an internship/research experience here and there may look good, but the competition to get into these top graduate programs are so cutthroat on a global scale that I here students always say you need a bit of luck as well. How much does quality of peers where the student completed the bachelor's degree matter to the Aerospace department/academics that evaluate applications for their respective graduate schools in Caltech, Stanford, MIT? I see a lot of incoming grad students are from the Undergraduate student body of their (MIT, Stanford, Caltech) own. I assume a valedictorian with an national fellowship like Goldwater, Fullbright, or NSF from a unbeknownst engibeering program will have better shots at those programs at CMS(Caltech, MIT, and Stanford), but I want to know the average of that bell curve, not the exceptions. It would really hurt to see a mere chance of competing being mitigated from the get-go because of the ranking as it shows the quality of students academic credentials. Thank you for any advice and insights.