dusklife wrote:
I do have two last questions regarding graduate school. I've been considering the London School of Economics as a school I'd want to go to for my masters. They obviously have a great reputation and London seems like it would be a fun place to go for a year, but the school isn't AACSB accredited. Do you think most Ph.D programs (mid-tier included) would recognize the school's name and look beyond the fact that it doesn't have AACSB accreditation? Also how important is MS name brand as a whole when applying to Ph.Ds? Obviously, a Stanford 3.8 looks better than a Cal State 3.8, but would it be better to attend a less prestigious school where it would be easier to achieve a high GPA than a more prestigious school where the brighter competition would make it far more difficult to do well? (ex. would a 3.5 from a top tier school- say UTAustin MAcc- typically hold more weight than 3.9 from a weak school - say U North Tex MAcc?)
No one in PhD admissions cares about AACSB accreditation, especially if you have a degree from LSE. There are plenty of international students with master's degrees from utterly unknown universities in Bulgaria, Turkey, Pakistan... who do very well at the PhD level.
As for your 2nd question, I can't tell for sure, but I'd assume it depends on the difference in reputation between the two schools. With your example (Stanford vs. Cal St), you're better off with Stanford unless you get a terrible GPA there. If there's less of a difference between the schools' reputations (Stanford vs. Carnegie Mellon), graduating with honors or something like that from CMU will beat a mediocre Stanford GPA.
I've got two more general comments though:
1) GPA isn't that important in PhD admissions (as long as it's 'good enough' -- I'm not sure what that actually means)
2) I don't know if you should assume that you'll get a much lower GPA/courses will be much harder if you go to a top school. It's tougher to get in and it's probably a little tougher to get through the program but in the end I believe that if you have the potential/dedication to get 3.9 at Cal State you probably can get 3.8-3.9 at Stanford, if you can get in and are serious about it.