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> "Does University Choice Matter?" A better university matters only if you're able to take advantage of what it offers. While the core curriculum is more or l
by GrumpyYoungMan 5y ago
> "Does University Choice Matter?"
A better university matters only if you're able to take advantage of what it offers. While the core curriculum is more or less the same for all accredited colleges / universities, a better university gives you access to a larger selection of advanced courses, proportionately more well known instructors, and better labs and facilities. However, the pace of a better university is higher, the hours are much longer, and the competition from fellow students much stiffer than in high school; the transition can be very jarring. Only you know whether you're talented enough and able to put in the hours (the latter can substitute for the former to an extent) to do well enough as an undergrad to make it into a post-graduate program, but understand that the bar is generally pretty high.
- beforeolives 5y ago> A better university matters only if you're able to take advantage of what it offers. There's more to it. A top university gives you a stamp that signals "I was smart enough to get in" for the rest of your career. That matters.
- GrumpyYoungMan 5y agoKind of but at some point the rubber meets the road. You see a lot of comments on HN that say "Wow, this person came from a top university / FAANG and yet couldn't pass our interview or did badly on the job."
- beforeolives 5y agoThink of it from the opposite direction - If you take only the people who can pass the interview and do well on the job, the ones from top universities/FAANG get more opportunities to interview in the first place. It's much easier to be a capable person who is associated with a prestigious institution than to be a capable person who isn't.
- HDMI_Cable 5y agoDo you think grades / things you did outside of school would matter? Would a top student from a small school have a better chance than an average student from a good school?
- HDMI_Cable 5y agoYeah, that's what I was (a bit) worried about. I just don't want to be passed up for an offer, (or something similar) simply because I went to a smaller school. Hopefully the graduate degree matters more in my case.
- GrumpyYoungMan 5y agoFrom the small bit I know about non-medical graduate admissions, the rigor of the program is a factor in graduate admissions but it only matters when comparing a candidate with good grades from a weak program and a candidate with equally good grades from a strong program. Again, it's all about the student and how well they can prove they learned the material, not about prestige. If you really want a more in-depth answer to your question, go to https://academia.stackexchange.com/ https://academia.stackexchange.com/ and see what practicing academics say; this sort of question has surely been asked and answered many times. (I'd dig up some links for you but, not to be unkind, the very first thing you'd better get used to if you hope to reach graduate school is finding stuff out on your own given some hints.)
- HDMI_Cable 5y agoOh yeah of course, you've already done quite a bit by answering, thanks. I now realize I probably could have looked there first, but quite honestly I only ever go onto StackOverflow.
- GrumpyYoungMan 5y agoNo worries; good luck to you.