Going from top of the class to average in college is a common shock. The pond got bigger. You didn’t get smaller.

Ranking first in a small group tells you about the group. Put the same ability into a place that selected for it and the ranking changes while the ability does not, which is a shock arriving as self-doubt. Nothing about you got worse; you are simply measuring against a different set of people now.

Switch from rank to progress for a term and see how it reads. Track what you can do now against September rather than where you sit in the room. Then go and talk to the people ahead of you, who are a resource rather than a verdict.