>>14245802It's a little more complicated at the grad school level. In undergrad, it's all about the university you go to. In grad school, it's almost entirely university agnostic and instead it's all about who's lab you are in. No one says "such and such is at a Harvard lab, they're probably good", they say "such and such is in X's lab, I love their research". Now, there is definitely a correlation, and the top schools for undergrad are often the top schools for grads. That said, I went to a no-name liberal arts college of 4k people and ended up working as a harvard lab tech and then went to a t20 for grad school. It's about connections and interest. Obviously, people at prestigious universities have more connections, but going to a "top school" does absolutely nothing for you unless you do the legwork yourself to make yourself interesting and get yourself noticed. So I would shy away from thinking of it in terms of "what schools do I want to go to to look good", and instead think of it in terms of a few related things:
1) where do I want to live for 5-6 years?
Believe it or not, this will make or break your a lot of times. You will absolutely rely on what's around you to not go insane in grad school. If you live somewhere with culture/awesome shit to do, you will be so much happier and productive. Feel free to email current grad students anywhere and ask if this is important, they will all tell you the same thing.
2) What Grad programs are good?
Unless you have an exact idea of lab, umbrella programs > all. Some grad schools have amazing grad student support. Investigate the grad school programs.
3) Who's lab/what research do I want to do? *Will they be a good mentor*?
Believe it or not- most people really have no fucking clue what they like. And you actually develop a love of your particular science you do because you are doing it so much, not the other way around. For grad school, you want a good mentor over all.
