• a_non_monotonic_function@lemmy.world
    18·
    3 days ago

    I remember the culture shock of going to college in the south and having entire classes of incoming students believe this. And the lost cause shit. And all of the other bullshit.

    • TranscendentalEmpire@lemmy.today
      10·
      3 days ago

      I had a history professor in the south that had his own theory based on congressional deadlock over the construction and route of the transatlantic railroad. Made everyone buy a copy of his “book” from a local copying shop for like 150 bucks, it was just a packet of copied paper that you had to put together in a 3 ring binder.

      Dropped that class after 2 weeks.

        • TranscendentalEmpire@lemmy.today
          6·
          2 days ago

          Copy and print shop, basically a store that just sold access to a big office printer with the ability to scan/copy and fax. It was a little mom and pop one that was located next to the university. They had deals with a couple of the sketchier professors who had their own little shelves that they would sell overpriced class supplies and expensive prints of their required readings.

          • a_non_monotonic_function@lemmy.world
            2·
            2 days ago

            Oh, lol, I misread.

            But, yea, super sketchy. Note that I’ve had my professor texts before but those books were actually published by someone reputable and are otherwise important in the field.

      • Omega@lemmy.world
        3·
        2 days ago

        it was just a packet of copied paper that you had to put together in a 3 ring binder.

        I’m not sure how many pages a packet is. But I had a few classes that had a whole book of loose-leaf pages that had to be bound by ourselves. But they were legitimate.

        • TranscendentalEmpire@lemmy.today
          8·
          2 days ago

          It was his self published book, it was not legitimate in any way. He also had a scheme where you had to turn in all assignments in a specific blue paper folder that was only sold at the same copy and print shop for 25 bucks, otherwise he wouldn’t accept it.

          • Bytemeister@lemmy.worldEnglish
            2·
            2 days ago

            College was a fucking racket.

            I wasn’t allowed to submit my own lab reports when I was in college. I had to pay 125 dollars for a subscription to a website that I would enter my lab data in, and then it would write the lab report for me. I’d been writing my own lab reports for about 5 years at that point, so I wrote my own and submitted it and I got a 0 because I didn’t use the website.

            I dropped out later that year. The constant grifting just killed higher education for me, and that was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

            • TranscendentalEmpire@lemmy.today
              3·
              2 days ago

              Ouch, did they charge you lab fees on top of that? I worked the whole time I went to school and remember annoying the hell out of my professor about lab fees. Like, I will clean this tiny lab up for you and order supplies, I don’t understand why a biochem lab fee is like 400 bucks. None of the reagents we use are expensive.

              • Bytemeister@lemmy.worldEnglish
                3·
                2 days ago

                I don’t even remember.

                I had another class, I think it was psychology, where you had to get the book. The book sold for about 50 bucks used, or 350 new, but if you got the used one, you also needed to shell out 300 bucks for the one-time site access code that was included in the back of each book, and that site was where you got your homework and assignments from.

                I feel like every millennial is due a 150% refund of their student loans. Everything was a fucking grift, the quality of education, and the promise of well-paying careers did not pan out for most people. Fuck it, throw GenZ in there too, they’re getting the same fucking scams.

                • TranscendentalEmpire@lemmy.today
                  3·
                  2 days ago

                  350 new, but if you got the used one, you also needed to shell out 300 bucks for the one-time site access code that was included in the back of each book,

                  Oh yeah, I remember those coming out. Before that they did the same thing but instead of an access code the back of the front cover had a cd taped to it.

                  Fuck it, throw GenZ in there too, they’re getting the same fucking scams.

                  Yeah… Poor bastards got hosed during COVID. I know at the University my wife teaches at they were charging lab and room fees for online classes.