# Tell me the ways your college kinda sucked **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 31, 2012, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-the-ways-your-college-kinda-sucked/633281 "2012-08-31T17:30:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![notsoheavyd3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/85e7bf/32.png) [@notsoheavyd3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/notsoheavyd3)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2012, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-the-ways-your-college-kinda-sucked/633281/61 "2012-09-06T04:10:39Z")
Well I could have done without that whole, you know, clinical depression thing. I guess maybe it would have helped if they even acted like they cared about their students.(Why I’d swear the school cared far more about research vaulting them into parity with the ivy league but I’m biased.) Hey, did I ever mention how during orientation a physics prof told me to take the freshman physics course that expected that you already knew calc?(After seeing that I really didn’t understand calc.) ---
**Author:** ![GreenElf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de053/32.png) [@GreenElf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenElf)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2012, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-the-ways-your-college-kinda-sucked/633281/62 "2012-09-07T15:04:14Z")
My college had fraternities and it wouldn’t let me have a double-major involving engineering which screwed up my career path. Also, it was in the sticks. ---
**Author:** ![Animastryfe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8797f3/32.png) [@Animastryfe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Animastryfe)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2012, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-the-ways-your-college-kinda-sucked/633281/63 "2012-09-07T15:54:39Z")
> [@Erdosain](#): > > Quite a few of my classes were taught by barely compensated TAs and Associate Professors. Tuition went up by a grand or so a year. Being located in a large city, there was not a huge amount of university interaction or communal activities. Do you mean assistant or adjunct professors, as associate professors already have tenure. Edit: Already answered. ---
**Author:** ![StusBlues](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@StusBlues](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StusBlues)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2012, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-the-ways-your-college-kinda-sucked/633281/64 "2012-09-07T16:12:17Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > I went to Penn State. I did not, but my diploma was signed by Graham Spanier. Also, the leading and typefaces on that same diploma are off where they printed my honors, so the document looks fake. Needless to say, I don’t have it posted. ---
**Author:** ![Jormungandr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@Jormungandr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jormungandr)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2012, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-the-ways-your-college-kinda-sucked/633281/65 "2012-09-08T13:03:01Z")
University of Southern California mid-90’s. Freshmen Writing Composition was taught by graduate students who had absolutely no teaching experience whatsoever. I had written maybe 5 papers in high school whereas some of my fellow students wrote that many in one semester. I withdrew the first semester, but passed the second time around due to the class being taught by a former high school English teacher. There was some sort of rivalry between the Math Department and School of Engineering. Not many people noticed it, but many of us noticed in the Calculus classes, which were divided between science/engineering/mathematics and business. It was especially noticeable when we got midterm problems that even the teaching assistants had difficulty doing, but similar types were missing from the mathematics and business classes. Speaking of business, there was a tutor who used to set up sessions in empty classrooms. He was very popular, but the business professors supposedly graded you down if you answered using his methodology. Of course, the surrounding gang problem. ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2012, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-the-ways-your-college-kinda-sucked/633281/66 "2012-09-08T15:11:12Z")
I went to a religious, private Bible college, so the rules imposed on students would make most of the SDMB recoil in horror (though to be fair, they weren’t nearly as restrictive as they were/are at some religious schools, and in fact we enjoyed quite a bit of (comparative) freedom), so I won’t bother with that aspect. My biggest complaint was with the maintenance department. Mostly they just sat around and drank coffee. Anything that needed to be repaired got an “Out of Order” sign on it, and would remain out of order for months. There was also the college’s suggestion review committee: a hand-picked group of students (usually sons and daughters of big donors) who would review suggestions and then post the reasons why the suggestions aren’t going to be implemented, and/or vague promises to look into it. An on-campus ATM was suggested (in 1992!), and the committee posted a response saying that they’d be talking to banks “in the near future.” AFAIK my alma mater _still_ doesn’t have an ATM on campus. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2012, 6:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-the-ways-your-college-kinda-sucked/633281/67 "2012-09-12T06:07:52Z")
UCSD. I had nothing to complain about in terms of the academics, nor in the quality of dorm life or cafeteria food. The latter wasn’t that great, but you could always use your meal credits elsewhere on campus. But the water! The water from the taps was so hard it actually had a slightly oily taste, and if you washed a mug or glass and left it to dry on its own, you’d come back find white powdery deposits on it. They wouldn’t be in just a single layer at the bottom, but rather in tiny little “piles” all over the bottom and inner sides of the glass. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-the-ways-your-college-kinda-sucked/633281.md?page=3)