Deciding Grad School: Same Institution for BA & PhD?

[chickenz]

Hi. I'm in condensed matter experiment, and I was wondering whether employers (in academia or industry) would look less favorably on hiring people whose BA institution and PhD institution are the same.

I've heard different answers from different people about this question. Some say that employers don't like it. Others say that where you get your degree doesn't matter, but that it's the quality of the research that you will do there that does.

So what do people here think?

To put my question into context, I'm an undergrad in physics at UC Berkeley, and I am considering returning to Berkeley for grad school. My other choices for grad school are comparable (e.g., Stanford, Princeton, Caltech, Chicago, Columbia, etc...)

 

[fss]

It doesn't matter.

 

[Vanadium 50]

I am more concerned with the question than the answer. The reason it's a bad idea to stay at the same place is not whether potential future employers will care, but it's because you will likely learn less than if you go somewhere else.