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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Eh, not all schools are equal.

A top honors degree from third rate undergrad may not get you into prestigious graduate school, especially if their programs suck in your field of interest.[/quote]
There's a lot to be said for being the big fish in a small pond.  I ended up at a third rate undergrad for financial reasons and had no problem getting into a top grad school and top law school.  Leaving undergrad I had tons of awards, glowing recommendations, and perfect grades.  I don't know that my application would have been as stellar from a more competitive school.[/quote]

How many other kids from your undergrad were at your top law school with you?  How many of your law school classmates graduated from the undergrad of your law school?[/quote]

Congrats to PP for threading the needle and getting into top law school the harder way. We have a very close relative at Yale law. They went to a different ivy for undergraduate. Over half of the YL entering class each year is from the same 20 or so elite undergrads. Most of the rest are from T25-40 types/6-15 ranked LACs. There are almost no students from colleges below the top100 and these students are either hooked demographics or truly genius. [/quote]
Yale lists the 86 undergrad institutions that are represented at Yale Law School on their website.  You'll see lots of non-prestigious schools listed, from Northern Arizona University to Florida International University to Southern Utah University.

[url]https://law.yale.edu/admissions/profiles-statistics[/url][/quote]

That's 86 out of 204 students. 90 are from Yale, 30 odd from Harvard. Magically, that leaves your 84-odd figure because Yale, like Harvard, cherry picks the valedictorians from those other schools. That's how I got into both Harvard and Yale law schools. Both institutions brag these figures because to the unknowing it makes the schools appear less elitist. Fully one-third of my HLS class (560) were from Harvard undergrad ergo 185.[/quote]

THIS. Med school is similar.[/quote]

I agree with all the above.  I am a firm believer that good students will do well wherever they go if they work hard.  I earned a PhD from the top school in my field.  I went to undergrad at a [b]midwest state flagship. [/b] I could have gone ivy, but my parents couldn't afford it.  I graduated summa cum laude and had full ride merit scholarship.  So many opportunities were thrown my way.  When you graduate top of the class out of 5000 people, it felt like every grad school wanted me.  When I got to grad school, most of the students were from SLAC or ivy or were top of their no name school like me.  After graduating, I somehow managed to pass recruitment week at a top company and I work along side those who probably spent a half million+ more for an education I got for free.  I went public all the way.  [b]My kids will go private all the way (its easier)[/b].  [/quote]

I love your post for several reasons:

1.  You admit that you had to be nearly top of the class of 5,000 in order to get to the same place as average kids at top schools; AND
2.  You are sending your kids to top private colleges because you saw how much easier it was for your colleagues to achieve the same thing as you.

You made the perfectly logical, rational decision.  BTW, there are of course a number of highly rated midwest state flagships, so it's not even that you went to a school ranked #800.[/quote]

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