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[quote=Anonymous]I strongly disagree with the above advice.
Go to the best undergraduate program you can get into (assuming you can afford it, of course).
I went to Swarthmore not knowing what I was going to do career-wise. I did get accepted into lower ranked schools, but I attribute my success in academia to my foundational years at Swarthmore and its faculty. I was surrounded by super smart and motivated people who really loved the pursuit of knowledge. Half of my friends from college have PhDs. The rest have law degrees, medical degrees, or MBAs. (One of my friends did not go to graduate school, but she is the exception by far.)
I cannot emphasize enough how powerful your undergraduate peer group is, and while such peer groups like the one I had at Swarthmore exist elsewhere, it would have undoubtedly been much more difficult to find.  
I feel extremely lucky. I did not know when I ended up choosing Swarthmore how profoundly its environment would shape me. 
That being said, I think that schools like Swarthmore (and Reed and Carleton) are highly unique. I don't think there's going to be much of a difference if you end up choosing between Berkeley and Michigan. But there will be a difference if you're choosing between Julliard and UVA.[/quote]

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