"My parents tore into me about how I was ‘only going to community college,’ and how I ‘didn’t go to high school anyway.’"

College presents many challenges to young adults, but nobody talks about the struggles of the first few nights sleeping outside your childhood bedrooms. While we all had sleepovers and trips with friends and school, that is not the same as completely moving out of our home and regularly sleeping in a different bed, and that is not an easy experience for young people. On my first night in my dorm room, the first thing I noticed was how loud the street outside was, mainly because of all the cars…

There is nothing like proving an authority figure wrong! Here, we have a college professor who has probably been tenured for so long that he thinks he can get away with just about anything. That's why this college senior felt compelled to call him out on his nonsense. The senior was in his final semester before graduating and needed to complete this specific course for his major despite knowing that the professor was notoriously unkind and unfair. After the student got sick and had to miss the…

"I told them I'd take that recording to the dean if they didn't make things right."

That kid in your group project who didn't do any of the work, instead deeming their membership to be enough contribution to qualify them for a good grade, gives off exactly the same energy that a lot of managers do… taking credit for the success of their subordinates' efforts purely by merit of their presence. In fact, a lot of them probably go on to be managers who do this, their confidence propelled by that earlier undeserved success with a lack of effort or accountability. Disappointingly, t…

I'm sorry, but I'm not a psychic.

It's a commonly overlooked reality that being kind is easier than being unpleasant. Besides, the impolite individual is the only one who will eventually suffer the consequences. The story that follows is from a displeased student. The original poster (OP) describes his encounter with a lecturer who exudes entitlement. As a student, OP gained expertise in handling a variety of personalities. But nothing had prepared him for the smug professor who was unwilling to give his students the time of da…

For some reason, there's a log of predatory landlords going on in and around universities. Something about the melting pot of higher-density areas, where tens of thousands of desperate students are vying for limited accommodation. The entire system further holds student tenants hostage based on the fact that they need references from previous landlords to get accommodation for the upcoming year. The problem is that, as a young student, you're very limited in your options for previous references…

Fighting over limited parking spaces is one of those universal experiences that connects even the most different individuals. Here , we have a group of five college students whose off-campus apartment included just two parking spaces in their driveway, which unfortunately meant that three of the tenants needed to rely on street parking regularly. One of the students who claimed one of those two desired spots at the beginning of their lease had their car towed. However, instead of giving her spo…

Some people are highly skilled at getting out of doing any actual work… that is, until they meet their match. We're used to seeing this dynamic play out in work environments or in certain relationship dynamics, but one of the earliest examples of this kind of flawed collaboration is the group project. Group projects don't necessarily teach you about collaboration; if anything, they teach you about how to deal with the givers and takers of this world. That is the only silver lining with a group…

While it's probably a controversial take, the argument stands with strong reason: If you're a landlord or a professor or in any other position where someone is paying you for something you're providing them… you're providing a service, and the person paying you is entitled to good service. Far too many of these "service providers" not only regard this as unnecessary but also regard themselves as above the person paying them and use this to placate their nagging conscience. Who hasn't had a land…

There's always a bigger fish when it comes to the chain of command; if someone tells you they have the biggest and brassiest bells, you can almost guarantee they're still answering to someone whose bells are bigger and brassy-er. Still, people like to pretend that they're in charge and wield whatever power they have with impunity, and they certainly don't like being reminded that they do, in fact, answer to a higher power—especially when that reminder comes from some upstart students who are su…

It's no secret at this point that most people deride group projects, which are often little more than an excuse by the teacher to make students occupy each other rather than have to teach for that week. But, fair enough, it's a lot of work having a lesson planned for every single day of the week. Especially when that's in addition to actually teaching and then grading that lesson. Teachers deserve the breathing space, and putting a bit of the onus of their own education onto the students isn't…

Group projects serve as an important lesson to students to prepare them for the rest of their working lives. That lesson is that you can never, and should never, rely on any of your working peers for support and that you'll—more than likely—end up doing their work for them. After all, isn't that the biggest takeaway that everyone has from these experiences? Sure, it's not like you'll ever hear about or remember the time that you had a group that worked perfectly together, but you'll always reme…

We all remember the people who would do mental math in class all the time. You know, those kids who thought it was cool that they could do double-digit multiplication in their heads. Sure, it could make them seem intelligent, and perhaps they are. But it also makes you straight-up obnoxious, and in some cases (like this one), your work can be straight-up wrong. Not to take us down a mathematics rabbit hole, but do any of us remember that point when algebra became hard? That point of no return w…

Group projects only work if everyone involved has to be accountable for their portion of the work. But as you'd know if you've ever had to do a group project, that's not usually how it goes down. Professors seem to love group projects — maybe it's less work for them to grade if they make all the students work together. Some teachers will claim that working in collaboration with your fellow students can make you a better leader or communicator. College isn't like the real world, though. If you h…