Evaluating your undergraduate school rank

[kronk]

Hey GradCafe,

 

     I'm a bit new to the forums but I have a question to ask.  I am an undergrad in engineering currently attending Cal Poly (SLO) and am a bit worried about how schools may view the school compared to others.  I strongly believe our undergraduate engineering is top notch and I would suppose those at most in California would agree but elsewhere the recognition is low.  It also doesn't help that our school is only known for it's engineering, architecture, and buisness to a lesser degree.  Cal Poly is a "learn by doing" school at heart that has great professors that mainly hail from Stanford, MIT, Berkley, Michigan, Columbia, etc but lacks any notable research from the few grad students at Cal Poly or the professors themselves. 

     Overall, I am just curious how you would view Cal Poly in terms of comparing to other schools when applying for graduate school.  As I have said, I just want to know my expectations coming from Cal Poly.  I would post grades but I am just going into junior year so it is really still up for grabs.  I will say it is above a 3.6 and I plan to keep it that way.  Any opinions are greatly welcomed.

 

Thanks!

[shinigamiasuka]

While school name and rank do carry some weight, grad application success usually depends more on what you did (i.e. coursework, labs, projects, research, etc.), and how your performance was at your school (i.e. GPA and/or class rank). Sections of the application package that are equally important are: LORs, SOP, and research experience. As for GRE scores, you'd usually need to be above a certain threshold set by the school that you wouldn't know, so try aiming for good/high scores.

 

Here's a site I found that might interest you: http://www.studentadvisor.com/questions/do-grad-schools-consider-what-college-you

[kronk]

Thanks shingamiasuka!

[akim41]

I know how you feel because I also went to Cal Poly SLO for undergrad. You have nothing to worry about! Like shingamiasuka mentioned, the success of your graduate application mainly depends on what you did and how you performed at school. I can assure you that you have a fair chance of getting into any of the top 10 engineering school as long as you have a relatively competitive application (GPA, GRE score, LORs, SOP, etc.). Keep in mind that I only applied to Master's programs. Just to give you a little more background, I applied and got into the MS programs of the following schools: Stanford (EE), Duke (Bioe), UPenn (Bioe), UMich (Bioe), Georgia Tech (EE), USC (Bioe), and UCLA (Bioe).

 

Good luck!    

[shinigamiasuka]

I know how you feel because I also went to Cal Poly SLO for undergrad. You have nothing to worry about! Like shingamiasuka mentioned, the success of your graduate application mainly depends on what you did and how you performed at school. I can assure you that you have a fair chance of getting into any of the top 10 engineering school as long as you have a relatively competitive application (GPA, GRE score, LORs, SOP, etc.). Keep in mind that I only applied to Master's programs. Just to give you a little more background, I applied and got into the MS programs of the following schools: Stanford (EE), Duke (Bioe), UPenn (Bioe), UMich (Bioe), Georgia Tech (EE), USC (Bioe), and UCLA (Bioe).

 

Good luck!    

 

I come from a small, international school that's probably almost unknown in the US; that should give you some hope.