Academic Inbreeding.

[gjd]

This is a general question about "academic inbreeding". How important is it when considering a graduate school, and what exactly is it considered? I know that an example of inbreeding might be to earn a bachelors, masters, and PhD from the same school and same location but what if they are from different school in the same state?

For example:

Bachelors - University of State - Location A

Masters - State University - Location B

PhD - University of State - Location C

[kahlan_amnell]

That depends. Do the departments at all of these schools function as one department? If they are independent departments, then no problem. If they work as one department divided between different locations, then it might be a problem.

[belowthree]

No you're probably fine, especially if you bounce between two independent state systems, and not even just separate campuses within the same system. (Which may also be fine, depending on the system.)

[noojens]

Are you steadily moving to stronger institutions as you go? It won't look great if you do your PhD at a lower ranked school than your undergrad, for example. But if you're moving on up then it's probably not a big deal.