Transition from 3rd tier uni in your undergrad to a 1st tier uni for grad

[faithleee]

Hello everyone, 

For those of you who come from a 3rd tier university for your undergraduate and manage to do well enough to get into one of the top if not much better universities for your masters in the country, do you often have fears that you are going to struggle in your new university? Fear of struggle because the calibre of students in that top university are probably much much better,  etc, and its going to be harder for you to get decent grades (thanks to bell curve? ) to maintain your masters scholarship / funding? 

I have this dilemma when it comes to accepting my offer... anyone of you in the same shoes? 

[Texan_Air]

My undergrad was diffidently a 3rd teir school. Is 1st tier just top 1-15? Anyways, the answer is yes that you will feel like you have to step it up. I decided to go to graduate school to push myself and to turn me into something I wasn't previous, so I expected Graduate school to kick my butt and break me down. I'm friends with a lot of international students, and some of these students are at a much higher advanced level than me (heck a lot of them already have masters already). Plus my undergrad is in a slightly different major from my masters (Mechanical to Aerospace) and I worked for a few years after undergrad so it seems like a disadvantage at times

Honestly just take your first semester easy...like take 2 course + thesis research credits if you feel like you need some time to adjust. Also in my transition experience, graduate classes aren't graded as harshly because everyone actually tries in graduate school compared to undergrad. So some classes will have high majority of As (70-80%) in their grade distributions. Graduate school isn't about weeding you out, but more like building you up into the great graduate student you didn't think you could be. Hope that helps...