The funny thing about my “naked in public” dream is that I usually consciously make a decision that I don’t need clothes, and then when I’m out in public I can’t believe I did it on purpose. I keep thinking: why the fuck did I think I didn’t need clothes!?!?!?!?
I occassionally have a dream that I failed my German language class in school (why its always that class I have no idea) so all my subsequent career and qualifications have been rendered null and void. They tell me I’m going to have to resit the entire year just to pass that class! :eek:
Doesn’t help that I hated school the first time around…
I’ve certainly had the college dream. Though now it’s transformed into the grad school dream.
I’m not sure I had the dream, but I did do almost exactly that in reality.
In my first year at university I had to take other modules not related to my main subject. I chose astronomy - it was a subject I was quite interested in and it was only one lecture a week. Or so I thought. Near the end of the year I found out there were actually weekly astronomy lab sessions I should have been going to and had no knowledge of whatsoever. Needless to say I failed, but fortunately it was only 10 credits out of 120 in the year, so it didn’t matter.
** What do you think causes it?**
I skipped a bunch of classes and reading assignments in freshman intro biology, and late in the semester had to run around borrowing notes and playing massive catchup, plus pulling an overnighter studying for the final - a massive effort that pulled my grade up to a “C”, but also set the stage for periodic lifetime nightmares about missed classes held in unknown locations and impending flunking. :eek:
Oh my god, I thought that I was the only one.
I graduated from college 35 years ago and I still have that damn dream. Every few weeks, without fail. I had it again a couple of nights ago.
At least I know now that I’m not going crazy.
I showed up at a class that I had skipped for a few weeks and wondered why the professor was not there. Then the TA’s start passing out little blue test exam books. Oops! Was that midterm today!?
Except that was not a dream. That was real. Still managed to pass.
Yeah, but did you ever dream that you fell asleep in a class you were teaching? 
In the fall my second year of being a college perfesser, I had a ridiculously heavy workload that had me exhausted all the time. And one night I had this dream that while I had one of my higher-level classes working at their desks on a problem, I put my head down on the desk, fell asleep, and (still in the dream) woke up embarrassed of course.
Then I woke up for real and thought, that’s the sort of dream I’d have in a semester like this.
I’ve had the dream through college and grad school, but I don’t think I’ve had it in a while. For me, I always interpretted it pretty straightforward. It was a time in my life, and most college students’ lives, where we’re taking on a greater degree of responsibility, and it seems to me that it’s just a fear of failure, not living up to expectations, not having control. It’s not the sort of experience that one has when going to high school or when having a job. You have a regular schedule and you’re not likely to just forget to show up to work for days or weeks at a time. But with college, we have the crazy schedules and we are under the pressure of it determining our futures. So, it seems to me, that it’s just such a unique experience that encapsulates all of that pressure and those fears so much better than just about any other experience that anyone is likely to have.
I have this dream about once a year. I’ve been out of college for 10 years now.
I have several of these dreams per year.
Like somone else said, I never had them in college, only after college. I remember when I was in college someone said, “just wait a couple of years, you will start to get the college nightmares.” I brushed it off because I had never had one before. Boy were they right.
I think it is related the high stress of college. I was probably more stressed out during times in those years than any other. If my brain wants to have a stressed out dream, it is at the top of the stack for ease and familiarity.
Guilty, all of the above.
Mine seem to come in two varieties:
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I have a test or paper on a book I haven’t read, because the professor mentioned it briefly on the first day and never again, so I kept putting off reading it until I forgot about it and it was too late.
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I’m back from a break and I don’t have a copy of my incredibly complicated schedule, so I don’t know where to go. Sometimes I dream it was just last week and I still can’t remember.
I’ve had the dream. The dream where you don’t even know where the classroom is and the semester is already half over.
The worst thing that ever happened to me was screwing up the time a final started and showing up an hour late for a 2 hour final.
I’ve had that dream many times. I’ve also had a couple of variations on that dream more than once:
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I find my self on stage with my bass strapped on, and no memory of how I got there. I look around and seem I’m there with some band that I’ve been a fan of for years. I’ve heard all their songs but never played them before.
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I’ve recently moved to another city. It’s evening, and I suddenly remember I’m scheduled to be at work the next morning. At my old job in the old city. Then I realize I can’t afford to leave the old job, but I can’t afford to commute either.
Graduated in1978 and get the dream two or three times a year. I’m back at university and going into lectures wondering if they’ll have missed me for the last 34 years.
There’s often a worry too that I’m back in my university town with nowhere to live and some trepidation at the prospect of having to share with students.
There has been at least one occasion where upon waking I’ve had to internally rehearse my career so far to convince myself the dream wasn’t real.
Yes, I definitely have that dream. Once or twice a year. I graduated about 4 years ago.
Either I will dream that it’s the end of the semester and I have totally forgotten I registered for a class and have missed all the lectures/tests/etc. and unquestionably failed, or that I’ve totally forgotten about the final project and it’s due that morning.
I never really had any experience resembling that in college - I was pretty much on top of things. I guess I did worry about it happening, though.
I don’t mind the dreams, because the feeling of pure, unadulterated relief washing over me when I wake up is so wonderful.
I had a friend in college who was one class shy of a degree because he never went to class and failed the final take-home exam. He was a double major (Env. Engineering and Biology) and ended up only getting the Env Eng degree because he was short 3 biology credits. He was pretty smart, but had a habit of mooching off others and blowing off class for no reason. Another friend of mine who was in the same dual-major program was sick of covering for him, lending class notes, etc… and at the end of the semester would not let Ray borrow his book or notes for the exam. Of course, he waited until the last minute to even ask. Then, the bookstore didn’t have the textbook in stock, and he couldn’t find anyone else willing to lend him one the day before the exam was due. So, he failed and didn’t get his second degree nor did he ever speak to our other friend again.
This same loafing friend told me, an impressionable freshman, that Physics labs never met the first week of the semester. I stupidly believed him and didn’t realize I had missed a Physics 100 lab session until after I skipped the first week of the Physics 200 lab a year later and the TA asked me if I wanted to make it up the next week. That’s when the light came on and I realized why I had gotten a B in Physics 100 lab despite getting 10/10 on all the assignments…
I was not always the most prepared student, so the dream always seems so plausible to me, even after I wake up. It takes me a minute to remember that, yes, my transcripts say I graduated 9 years ago and I have a diploma and a job that I probably wouldn’t lose even if it turns out I hadn’t graduated.
I’ve both had that dream and the late final experience (although that was caused by me not going to the last day of class and the professor deciding to hold it early, but I didn’t get the memo cause I wasn’t in class.)
Speaking of which, I had a somewhat related experience, which could have potentially been as embarassing as one of those dreams were I not so indignant about it. I signed up for a class but didn’t cancel it for like 3 weeks. So I try to cancel it only to be told that I needed the professor’s signature (??? What if they don’t agree to that???) So I go to that class at the appointed only to have the class well underway and the professor starts ragging on me in front of everyone for interrupting her class, and why couldn’t I have been there on time? (Yeah, she had also changed the start time with unanimous approval of the rest of the class. Except I wasn’t there because I was gonna drop the class anyway.)
The standard dream is “missing the final exam at the end of the term” but I’ve recently had the opposite: Not having a syllabus on the first day of classes. That’s because I teach college courses, and in my dream I didn’t have a syllabus ready - oof!
On the other hand, last year during finals week, I asked one of my students why he was there on Monday when the final wasn’t until Wednesday. He said that it was on Monday - here’s the syllabus! Oops! Ever create a final exam in 15 minutes? That wasn’t a dream, that was real life…