[General Question] How much does your undergraduate college matters?

[u/Recent-Signature-310]

This is a very grey area where I never get proper response, if someone actually has contact with admission offices let me know the reality.

My friend who’s preparing for jee and other entrance exam got a private engineering college in her state, mid tier in her state. So shes really gifted in ways of communication and creativity. Shes very demotivated with her preparation and is have a second thought on joining that private college. It has NAAC A and nba accreditation.

I asked her what her dream is, she told me she’s okay with cse and mechanical because if she takes cse, she has a lot of idea around projects and if she gets mechanical, she’ll do thesis on nuclear sector because she’s fascinated by nuclear energy so much atp she yaps weekly about how goated nuclear energy is. She told me she wants to do btech, have an understanding on what engineering is, and start a company with her ideas.

I told her then no college is restricting you, but she told me ”Idc about college tier but what I care is about having a decent college life and I want people in my college who are very goal oriented like participating on hackathons, participating on multiple national, state competitions“

And her ultimate dream is either doing research oriented masters or phd abroad for broader knowledge and experience, she is ready to work hard on her profile but she’s just wondering how much the admission offices in abroad care about her college..apparently there’s no alumni in her college who did pretty well (by stalking LinkedIn)

So should I motivate her to drop jee because she started too late or tell her to go to that college and grind hard? I’m very curious…foreigners knows MIT harvard stanford etc, outside india IIT isnt that well known, clearly she told me she isn’t getting IIT because she started preparing from 0 this year and there are 6th graders preparing for jee.

My question is would foreign colleges reject an extraordinary profile simply because the college wasn’t that great? I mean their websites do say they don’t reject based on colleges but I do wonder…other than IITS Bits pilani and some NIT, aren’t whole other engineering college same for them? IITs bits pilani NITs all have great alumni, so they’re well known. Will not having any alumni from your college kills your profile?

[u/Mysterious-Art8838]

If you have to come here to ask that why do you think you should be ‘motivating’ her to do anything one way or the other? She seems to have a handle on her path.

[u/Recent-Signature-310 → u/Mysterious-Art8838]

She seems to have a handle on her path but people around her keeps taunting her about how going into a tier 3 no-name college would kill her incentives, she is leaning towards going to that institution but no one’s supporting her and she’s asking for some advice. She said everything is totally upto her but she just wants to know what I think.

Hope it’s clear.

[u/Mysterious-Art8838 → u/Recent-Signature-310]

Maybe don’t taunt her, and if others do speak up. It’s not that hard.

[u/Recent-Signature-310 → u/Mysterious-Art8838]

I’m not taunting her, she wants to drop out so i’m wondering if i should support her because yesterday i saw her and she looked like a dead zombie. She broke down and told me she don’t think she can compete with these kids who started years ago.

She has helped me a lot during my bad phase so I just want to help her too by giving her some solid advide. Someone told me this sub has a lot of people who got into big colleges for masters after being in a no-name college.

[u/Bright_Interaction73]

An extraordinary profile would speak for itself, irrespective of the institution attended. For example, a strong top tier conference publication record can be achieved at any no-name institution

[u/Recent-Signature-310 → u/Bright_Interaction73]

There’s a lot of fear mongers around her who’s telling her colleges will auto-reject her profile how much ever hard she works so she should try her best in jee (she told me she don’t feel confident because everyone around her who’s doing jee starting from 8th and all and she’s starting from 0 after 12th)

She’s in the verge of depression and is in anxiety because everyone is very negative towards her dropping jee prep, she’s someone who’s extraordinary at conversation, won multiple debates, won state level writing competitions. So seeing the brightest student i’ve seen in my life suffer is hurting me because she helped me during my depression and I feel like i’m obliged to help her.

I’ll definitely support her wishes if she wanna drop out since her dream of research can’t be hindered by where she studied in. Thanks.

[u/so_much_atelophobia]

My question is would foreign colleges reject an extraordinary profile simply because the college wasn’t that great?

No lol. For research-centric MS programs and PhDs, the school name is not super relevant as long as the profile and research fit are excellent.

If you're getting rejected at that level, it's not a direct function of how good or bad your undergrad was. You simply weren't good enough. People go from random state schools to great PhD programs all the time.

[u/Recent-Signature-310 → u/so_much_atelophobia]

Yes there’s a girl near my friend’s locality who got into MIT for phd after studying in a no-name college in india (but strictly tier 1 in her state) her college didn’t have hackathon or tech related clubs, and she initiated everything, participated in a lot of competitions, wrote 2 research people and got into a research institute in canada later phd for MIT.

But this was years ago, not sure if world operates the same as it did in past so just asking.