TestMagic Forums - View Single Post - At what point does undergrad reputation hurt you?

Golden Rule · 07-09-2008, 06:27 PM

Just for a slightly different point of view, here's the undergrads of some American students in the incoming MIT class: Swarthmore (2), Middlebury, Cornell, BYU, Yale, UVA, Mills College, Indiana, Wisconsin

So a little more diversity in rankings than the Harvard list. Now three of the above are NSF winners, and MIT is known to take them, so that's a lot of it. Harvard is definitely known to take more of its own (while other schools tend to encourage the opposite), and that's also part of it. That Harvard takes more of its own doesn't really contradict anything a lot of us are saying. As you say, Harvard typically has the best information about its own, and so feels justified in taking them.

Anyway, the overall message I'm trying to get across, in case it's lost, is that if you're not at say Harvard for undergrad, there are plenty of things you can do to help yourself get into the program of your choice. You can win the NSF fellowship. You can get RA jobs at Feds or higher-ranked schools and get good LORs. You can distinguish yourself within your school and get an LOR that says they're the best student they've ever had. One thing that definitely won't help is feeling bitter about the advantages that Harvard undergrads might have.

07-09-2008, 06:27 PM	#22 (permalink)
Golden Rule TestMagic Guru-in-Training Join Date: Dec 2006 Posts: 541	Just for a slightly different point of view, here's the undergrads of some American students in the incoming MIT class: Swarthmore (2), Middlebury, Cornell, BYU, Yale, UVA, Mills College, Indiana, Wisconsin So a little more diversity in rankings than the Harvard list. Now three of the above are NSF winners, and MIT is known to take them, so that's a lot of it. Harvard is definitely known to take more of its own (while other schools tend to encourage the opposite), and that's also part of it. That Harvard takes more of its own doesn't really contradict anything a lot of us are saying. As you say, Harvard typically has the best information about its own, and so feels justified in taking them. Anyway, the overall message I'm trying to get across, in case it's lost, is that if you're not at say Harvard for undergrad, there are plenty of things you can do to help yourself get into the program of your choice. You can win the NSF fellowship. You can get RA jobs at Feds or higher-ranked schools and get good LORs. You can distinguish yourself within your school and get an LOR that says they're the best student they've ever had. One thing that definitely won't help is feeling bitter about the advantages that Harvard undergrads might have.