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How important is your undergraduate university

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How important is your undergraduate university

by jesseunc1 » Thu Mar 11, 2010 12:55 pm
Hi everyone,

I didn't go to the best undergraduate university (only top 50), but I scored a 720 on the GMAT.

My question is, how much will my undergraduate university hurt me? With so many people applying from top universities, am I at a significant disadvantage?

Thanks for everyone's help.
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by Brett N » Thu Mar 11, 2010 5:46 pm
Not at all...there are a ton of people at the top business programs who didn't go to a top undergraduate school.
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by money9111 » Thu Mar 11, 2010 9:19 pm
well it could work against you depending upon the rigor of the program and how you performed (GPA). if you did poorly in say a very liberal arts(y) major then it will work against you... if you had a tough major and did ok then I wouldn't worry about the "name" of the school too much. especially because there isn't anything you can do now to change it
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by harsh.champ » Fri Mar 12, 2010 8:13 am
Its said that good grades in a easy course can harm you than bad grades in tougher course.

Is this true??
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by money9111 » Fri Mar 12, 2010 8:17 am
I don't think good grades in any course can harm you. That wouldn't make any sense.
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by jon82 » Fri Mar 12, 2010 3:02 pm
My impression is that it depends where you apply. If you went to a Top 50 and are applying to Harvard then yes, all things being equal I think that they likely look at your undergrad institution and give you a slight knock. I mean, by applying to Harvard, a school with a tremendous brand, you are admitting that brand is important; so why shouldn't they acknowledge this importance, as well? Of course, I do not think it is a deciding factor and there are so many ways to overcome lack of undergrad brand.

If I were an adcom at a Top Program and I had two seemingly identical files in front of me, I'd choose the one that demonstrated academic excellence at a peer institution rather than a Top 50. Again, this can be overcome and I'm an example of that: I went to the UO (University of Oregon - Top 100 undergrad) and just got accepted by OU (Oxford University MBA - Top 15-20 globally). IMO, be reasonable about which schools you apply to, then forget about your shortcomings and go about proving your strengths and abilities. Good Luck!

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by tmino » Fri Mar 12, 2010 9:04 pm
If you went to a top 50 undergrad program then you should have a very high GPA to offset the fact that you didn't go to a top school.

If you don't have a good undergrad GPA (e.g. <3.0), there actually may be a way to improve your academic performance. If you graduated with a liberal arts degree (or anything non-quant or non-business related) and didn't do too well on the quant part of the GMAT then register at your local university and take evening / part-time courses in a business related / quant course. Good courses are statistics, accounting, finance, etc. Make sure you get straight A's in those if you decide to do so! Of course, if you are applying now in R3 or already applied then it's too late for this.
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by harsh.champ » Mon Mar 15, 2010 10:48 pm
Between two candidates:-
1)Bad grades at a top 10 undergrad(2.6-3.0)
2)Good grades at a top 50 undergrad(>3.5)

All other things being equal,which one would have a better chance to get accepted??
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by tmino » Tue Mar 16, 2010 5:24 am
That's a tough one - to be honest I wouldn't know. I somehow think though that a very strong GPA from a top 50 is better than a poor GPA from a top 10 school.

On the other hand, sometimes b-schools publish the undergrad institution (without GPA of course) in the profile of their class book. That book contains professionally taken pictures of all students with their pre-MBA employer and undergrad institution, and then it would look nicer to have Stanford than say XYZ state university.

But again, I think a strong GPA from a top 50 is viewed better (just my guess).
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by jesseunc1 » Tue Mar 16, 2010 2:35 pm
Hi everyone,

Thanks so much for your answers. I had a 3.7 gpa at my universit (top 100 but not very well known.) I had good EC.

My question is, how would you consider a 3.7? Would you consider it to be good, really good, or nothing that would stand out?

Thanks again everyone.
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