Coursework Difficulty?

[mechengr2000]

I have recently completed an MS in Mechanical Engineering at a school ranked in the top 50. I am going to be starting a PhD in Mech Engr at a school ranked at the very top. How different will the coursework be in terms of difficulty? More or less, I will be taking all the same classes over again.

Edited May 31, 2011 by mechengr2000

[eklavya]

I have recently completed an MS in Mechanical Engineering at a school ranked in the top 50. I am going to be starting a PhD in Mech Engr at a school ranked at the very top. How different will the coursework be in terms of difficulty? More or less, it will be taking all the same classes over again.

why take 'all the same classes over again'? won't they transfer most of your credits?

[mechengr2000]

They will transfer a maximum of two courses, as per their policy.

why take 'all the same classes over again'? won't they transfer most of your credits?

[Bison_PhD]

In my experience, which may be limited, whenever I've taken a repeated a course, even if the class as a whole is more difficult, I've found it to be a breeze. I remember taking a math course and really struggling through it, so I took it again to help my GPA, and the second time was SOOO EASY. It's not that the class changed, but that even though I struggled the first time I was way ahead of my peers in terms of my understanding. So, the classes that you will be repeating shouldn't be a problem.

[mechengr2000]

Yes - if it were the same course at the same school or a similarly ranked school, I wouldnt be worried. I was wondering if there would be a jump in difficulty since this school is ranked at the top.

In my experience, which may be limited, whenever I've taken a repeated a course, even if the class as a whole is more difficult, I've found it to be a breeze. I remember taking a math course and really struggling through it, so I took it again to help my GPA, and the second time was SOOO EASY. It's not that the class changed, but that even though I struggled the first time I was way ahead of my peers in terms of my understanding. So, the classes that you will be repeating shouldn't be a problem.

[wtncffts]

Yes - if it were the same course at the same school or a similarly ranked school, I wouldnt be worried. I was wondering if there would be a jump in difficulty since this school is ranked at the top.

of course not. I'm not really sure what you expect, especially since you're talking about a top 50 school. If it were a 'degree mill' versus a top ranked school, it would make sense. But do you really think just because a school is ranked by some external actor using some highly flawed methodology as lower than another, they dumb down the work? Any good university's goal is to produce the best scholars and researchers possible.

EDIT: I suppose that depending on faculty expertise some particular schools would have advanced courses that others wouldn't, but I don't think that has much to do with ranking. The material is out there, it's not exclusive. It's not like Harvard or wherever has a monopoly on superadvanced califragilistics.

Edited June 1, 2011 by wtncffts

[mechengr2000]

its funny you mentioned Harvard. I have a friend of a friend who goes there for physics. My friend, who has taken grad quantum mech at my school (but not any other grad classes), and has seen the homework my other friend is assigned for grad quantum mech at harvard told me that what they do at harvard is way more advanced.

It was that conversation that actually got me worried enough to write this thread.

of course not. I'm not really sure what you expect, especially since you're talking about a top 50 school. If it were a 'degree mill' versus a top ranked school, it would make sense. But do you really think just because a school is ranked by some external actor using some highly flawed methodology as lower than another, they dumb down the work? Any good university's goal is to produce the best scholars and researchers possible.

EDIT: I suppose that depending on faculty expertise some particular schools would have advanced courses that others wouldn't, but I don't think that has much to do with ranking. The material is out there, it's not exclusive. It's not like Harvard or wherever has a monopoly on superadvanced califragilistics.

[eklavya]

It was that conversation that actually got me worried enough to write this thread.

i take it this way: they are paying us to attend these top ranked grad schools. in a way, it's now our job to study, research and do other stuff. i myself am going from a top 75 to a top 3 school. break or bust, we are all the way in now. so no time to worry. we all will do fine.

[wtncffts]

its funny you mentioned Harvard. I have a friend of a friend who goes there for physics. My friend, who has taken grad quantum mech at my school (but not any other grad classes), and has seen the homework my other friend is assigned for grad quantum mech at harvard told me that what they do at harvard is way more advanced.

It was that conversation that actually got me worried enough to write this thread.

OK, well that surprises me, but if that's what you've heard than perhaps there's some credibility to it. There's all sorts of potential problems with the comparison, though: they may have been slightly different courses with different foci, they may have been at different points in the work, the prof may just be more of a hardass. It doesn't compare to grad-level work, but when I took the intro calculus course during my undergrad, the particular prof I had it with had us doing much more difficult material than others taking supposedly the same course.

Again, I'd think it odd if higher ranked universities are more difficult as a general rule, since that would seem to play havoc with the general ideal of academia in terms of an academic community and sharing of information. I mean, if the only people who are taught this superadvanced material are those at Harvard and the like, how do they interact with other scientists who come from 'lower' ranked schools? It seems rather closed off. Now, it may be the case that 'higher' ranked schools have higher expectations of their grad students, and so pitch their courses at a higher level, but I'd think the difference between any of the top 50, even top 100, schools in terms of such expectations is negligible.

[fuzzylogician]

For the most part, I didn't learn anything in my first-year classes that I didn't know before. But since I did know the basics, I could concentrate on the deeper and more thought-provoking parts of our homework assignments that my classmates who were dealing with the stuff for the first time did not even consider. You can always learn something from a class you've already taken once -- if nothing else, pay careful attention to how the prof is teaching the class and decide what you would do differently/the same when you teach it. In that respect, I think grad courses at top schools are always "difficult" -- there is always something new and different to pay attention to. In particular, being taught by top scientists is very exciting because you become exposed to the way they think about problems, which will most probably be different from your previous experiences even if the material itself is all familiar to you. But if you don't pay attention to these things, you could also think you've wasted a whole semester or a whole year and not learned anything new. So really this is all a matter of perspective.