Dealing with a massive prestige boost from undergrad-grad

[MastersHoping]

I'm not saying "no difference," but I am saying, "not a huge difference." Maybe a huge difference to the man on the street, but when we're talking graduate school, then no. Ohio State and Michigan State I would see as having similar prestige also; I am aware there's a lot of stratification at the top, but  those are ranked in the top 75 out of the 2,000+ bachelor's granting institutions in this country. I am just trying to say, I could see somebody looking down on someone who went to some true no-name school, even though they don't look down at Michigan State/Ohio State. And also that the different people may have a different perspective on prestige of institutions.

Okay, jeez, replace the names Ohio State/Michigan State with a mid-tier, regional college if it makes you happy - I was just using those as examples! Sheesh. 

There were people who also went to even less prestigious, regional colleges that I can't remember. The point being, no one seemed to look down on anyone for going to a lesser-known place and no one exalted anyone else for going to Harvard or Cornell or something. I'm not saying that MSU/OSU/whatever aren't good schools, I'm just saying that people weren't judged either way for going to a top undergrad or not. 

[ExponentialDecay]

 can get into the labs of the top researchers in the field

 

which, surprisingly, also take only the one-two best undergraduates. i guess you could argue that if you go to a rigorous undergrad, you can realize early that your strengths aren't competitive enough to make it in academia.

[Vene]

which, surprisingly, also take only the one-two best undergraduates. i guess you could argue that if you go to a rigorous undergrad, you can realize early that your strengths aren't competitive enough to make it in academia.

Sure, I expect them to only take a handful as well. But, I do imagine that there's a lot more professors to potentially work with whereas at my undergrad I had a single professor I could work under. Even then it was because it was offered as a class, the funding for the work was my tuition payment and that was practically it.

I'm not trying to sound bitter or upset with where I'm going. I'm not, I am quite happy with how things are progressing. But, I really don't understand how somebody can say that getting a degree at a internationally recognized school gives you no advantage compared to a degree from a school that's a complete unknown in the adjacent state.

Edited March 28, 2014 by Vene

[bsharpe269]

I'm not saying "no difference," but I am saying, "not a huge difference." Maybe a huge difference to the man on the street, but when we're talking graduate school, then no. Ohio State and Michigan State I would see as having similar prestige also; I am aware there's a lot of stratification at the top, but  those are ranked in the top 75 out of the 2,000+ bachelor's granting institutions in this country. I am just trying to say, I could see somebody looking down on someone who went to some true no-name school, even though they don't look down at Michigan State/Ohio State. And also that the different people may have a different perspective on prestige of institutions.

 

I agree with this even though everyone seems to be disagreeing. Obviously Harvard is better ranked then OSU/MSU/etc but those are all great schools so no one would think "oh OSU and not harvard means poor prep for grad school". I think everyone views all of those state schools as nearly as good/equally as good of prep for a top 20 grad school as the ivy leauge. When we are talking undergrad classes from good schools (like all of those above) then linear algebra from harvard vs linear algebra from OSU is the exact same class.

 

I wouldnt worry about being judged. Whether you are at a no name school, large state school, or whatever, keep in mind that you admitted above many ivy league applciants who were regected.Your education and experience are just as good as everyone elses in the program. Honestly, I wouldnt be conscious of a difference at all. If an ivy league undergrad student wants to judge you for your school name then you probably dont really care to get to know this person well anyway!

[MastersHoping]

I agree with this even though everyone seems to be disagreeing. Obviously Harvard is better ranked then OSU/MSU/etc but those are all great schools so no one would think "oh OSU and not harvard means poor prep for grad school". I think everyone views all of those state schools as nearly as good/equally as good of prep for a top 20 grad school as the ivy leauge. When we are talking undergrad classes from good schools (like all of those above) then linear algebra from harvard vs linear algebra from OSU is the exact same class.

 

I wouldnt worry about being judged. Whether you are at a no name school, large state school, or whatever, keep in mind that you admitted above many ivy league applciants who were regected.Your education and experience are just as good as everyone elses in the program. Honestly, I wouldnt be conscious of a difference at all. If an ivy league undergrad student wants to judge you for your school name then you probably dont really care to get to know this person well anyway!

 

Your second paragraph was exactly my point. My original post in this thread was just asking whether the person actually experienced some sort of judgment or if he/she was simply imagining it due to being self conscious. When you're in grad school, you're in. Basically, wherever you went for undergrad, "we're all here now!" 

The person who first responded to my original post belabored a side point (whether or not MSU could compare to Harvard), and had I known it would turn into a debate, I would have said another, no-name place instead. 

[uzbit]

You'll accidentally make an ass of yourself one or two times, and then you'll adjust and be much happier being around people who challenge you.

 

I say the first portion as an absolute because you're either cocky (and may not even realize it) and someone will end up making you look like an idiot within the first day if you are OR you aren't but will start to feel inadequate around people who seem to be good at everything--eventually this will probably cause you to say something stupid or sound arrogant even if you aren't to keep up. 

 

I say this because both these situations happened to me. Perhaps you're way more socially adjusted and it won't be a problem, but I'd guess a lot of people go through this at some point. 

[uzbit]

Oh and one additional thing: people at Harvard/MIT/Stanford/Princeton/Oxford/Cambridge WILL have judgment for going to a second tier school (e.g. JHU, Duke, UCLA, NYU). Most will be very nice and this won't impact anything socially--but don't be naive (to above comments). They do think they're an elite club and it will bleed through (especially for MIT kids). If they went to those schools for undergrad the elitism is beaten in pretty severely. If you had a state school college experience you won't have been brainwashed in the same way. In the UK it's even more intense. If you didn't go to Oxbridge for undergrad the entire system works against you slightly. That said, grad school is so international compared to undergrad that you'll always be able to find people in the same position.

[GeoDUDE!]

I can't believe this is a topic.

[fuzzylogician]

This is over a year old. Why revive it?

[orangeglacier]

Look on the bright side - the other direction is way worse.  I went from one of the top 5 undergraduate schools for my major to a rank 40ish graduate school, and whenever people ask me where I did my undergrad, they always give me a "wow!" followed by either a spoken or an unspoken "so how'd you end up here...."

[SymmetryOfImperfection]

Look on the bright side - the other direction is way worse.  I went from one of the top 5 undergraduate schools for my major to a rank 40ish graduate school, and whenever people ask me where I did my undergrad, they always give me a "wow!" followed by either a spoken or an unspoken "so how'd you end up here...."

 

same. I went from a top 20 to a top 40. I don't care though. There's ALOT of ppl in my department who have done that. You aren't obligated to explain anything to anybody. Who the fk are they?