Undergrad Prestige Question from a neophyte to PhD applications

[RadicalCinnamon]

Hello all this is my first post here so I'll give the TL;DR first. The post title is exactly as stated. Just how much does undergraduate prestige matter in PhD applications? 


For a bit more detail I currently attend a completely average US Midwest undergrad and will be graduating next fall. GPA of 3.9 and a peer-reviewed publication under my belt (co-author and I did a majority of the drafting of the pub) with ideally another one to come within the next few months. I'm currently studying Public Health and Chemistry and like to think I can articulate why I'd love to do a PhD in Sociology and what kind of research I want to do past the PhD. I also plan on doing 1-2 gap years just to get some more stuff under my name, ideally further publications.

I'm actually not completely decided on a PhD in Soc. VS. Medical school as of now but I'm trying to soak up as much info as possible about PhD admissions in Sociology as it is an enigma to me vs. Medical school applications which I'd like to think I have a solid idea of what makes a solid applicant. 

[passere]

Prestige can only help, but that alone won’t get you in anywhere. I went to a Midwestern tech school you’ve never heard of and have a BS in engineering. What’s much more important is demonstrated research ability—especially publications, although I didn’t even have that. I applied in the year after I graduated, so my work experience wasn’t much when I applied. There’s no one formula to what makes a good applicant. I’m 100% convinced I got in where I did because of the connection I made with faculty. 

[macska]

I had a colleague who did a Fulbright the same year that I did, and when she was rejected from all the PhD programs she applied to (in Art History), I remember her saying "What is the point of this prestigious Fulbright, if it can't even get me into grad school?" So that is to say that so much goes into an acceptance than a name of a prestigious fellowship or school. In my experience, the research experience and ability, (publications, ability to write grant proposals, etc), good letter of rec and statements of purpose are much more important than any single name on a resume. If anything, the most important thing for any PhD application is fit, both for your acceptance to a program and your success as a student

[lkaitlyn]

I think it's a bit exaggerated/not as big of a thing as people think. Then again, I'm at a school that cares a lot more about their diversity in that regard than others. We have people from Ivy League schools, and people who transferred from community college to random Cal State campuses or went to schools in random other countries.

I think the edge that applicants coming from these fancy schools get (at least, what I got as one of these applicants) is more application support. Most (all?) of the Ivy League-type schools have many emails and workshops encouraging students to apply to NSF-GRFP/Fulbright as undergrads. I knew my professors well and they had plenty of connections in the field (though in my case, that was gender studies specifically instead of sociology). We had a super active fellowship advising office that would help look over personal statements. We had student groups that ran GRE test prep sessions and professors who told us to contact potential advisors in advance, something one potential advisor from a program I got into said can be super important, but they've found that most schools don't tell their undergrads to do it. To be clear, I don't think my undergrad school was in any way superior to other schools just because it plays in a specific sports league (that's actually what the Ivy League means — it's a sports league). But a lot of these schools do have a lot of money to burn on resources for students applying to graduate school, and I'd be lying if I didn't say I had access to resources that some other applicants from other schools just didn't have.