>>12238850I don't understand how people can think like this that aren't undegrads with 0 experience with other people from other institutions.
>be me>in undergrad>go to REU>meet autist from state school>smells like BO all the time>very clearly intelligent>turns out to be one of the smartest people I ever knew>two published papers as a junior in college>one as a coauthor one as a primary authorTotally crazy. Versus
>go to grad school for interviews>meet a nice girl>dense af>after talking I realize she's not so bright>turns heads with the stupidity of her questions to profs during visit>"Whats the difference b/w biostats and biomath?">"That doesnt sound like science">gets denied by EVERY SINGLE grad school she applies to>gets accepted to harvard>first in her family to go to college, latinaFor undergrad I think it carries a lot more weight, but still I'd wager it doesn't mean as much as OP likes to believe. If you're going to stay in academia it means even less. I no longer associate attending a good school to being intelligent. Not to mention rampant issues in top tier schools like grade inflation... at least in the states.
