<p>I found this forum about a month ago and have found it tremendously helpful. I did my undergrad at a regular state university and I have been admitted to graduate school at Georgia Tech (aerospace engineering). Although I was relatively successful my modest state university (3.7 GPA), I am wondering how this performance can be translated to GT. I'm wondering my chances of being successful at a top university like this. More specifically, I'm wondering how difficult the curriculum for grad-level courses at a top university is. Is it impossibly hard? Are there any students that come from "NoName State University" and succeed at a top grad school? </p>
<p>I would love to hear the experience of current grad students and/or undergrads that have taken upper level (senior or grad level) courses at an elite college (CMU, Stanford, GT, Purdue, etc). One of my most important criteria for evaluating my grad school options is whether or not I can be successful in the grad program. I would rather go to a less prestigious school and succeed then go to an elite school and barely get by. </p>
<p>geo1113: Thanks for the timely reply. That makes good sense and gives me some confidence. I don’t know how much admitted grad students struggle with the curriculum, but I doubt that many do. </p>
<p>RacinReaver: I was accepted for an MS with no funding (at least no funding as of now). Since I’m graduating my undergrad w/o any debt (I went to school at cheap, in-state tuition), I’d be willing to take out some loans for a grad degree from a well-regarded institution. </p>
<p>Anyone else have any comments and experience with this??</p>
<p>My advice is that one should never get a graduate degree without funding. This is particularly true in the engineering and science majors, which have more research dollars available to them. Do you have a specific research interest? Have you investigated what GTech professors are researching to see if there is something that interests you? Contact them, and ask if they would be interested in taking on a graduate student. As part of your Masters, you will need to do a thesis, so would need to to be performing research. </p>
<p>You don’t say where your undergrad degree is from.</p>