How Undergrad institution affects Grad school

[Takuza]

I have the option of transferring to either a top 5 school in my field or a school ranked about 100, but I could attend the latter with a full tuition scholarship. My question then is, assuming that I am only an average student maintaining about a 3.5 at whichever I attend, does it matter which one I go to? If I wanted to apply to UCLA or even Berkeley for grad school, will a degree from a top 5 school look a lot better? I should have some decent research opportunities either way

 

[Choppy]

School name seems to be of more importance in the US than it is in Canada (where my experience lies), but I think school name is still a higher order factor in graduate admissions there, if it's even a factor at all.

If you have a scholarship, it gives you several advantages. These include:

(1) A full scholarship itself can be a significant factor on a graduate admissions assessment. Awards tend to snowball.

(2) It may mean that you won't have to hold down a part-time job during the academic year. This would give you more time for studying or getting involved with research, which will then improve your chances for graduate school admission.

(3) It will reduce the student debt load you carry. Perhaps this won't be so big of a factor in graduate admissions, but at some point you'll enter the working world and keeping debt to a minimum will be pretty important then.

 

[TheAbsoluTurk]

Attending an institution for 4 years, regardless of what university, with all tuition paid seems like a good reason graduate school admissions to let you into their program, doesn't it?