Years ago when I was in undergrad at a top engineering school I had heard about this situation with grad students but it was not clear what the policy was with

Years ago when I was in undergrad at a top engineering school I had heard about this situation with grad students but it was not clear what the policy was with undergrads. Before starting classes for the first semester, I met with the provost and asked him whether the university asserted any IP claims on any undergrad work, related or unrelated to school. He assured me absolutely not and thought the idea was crazy. I wrote down what he said and asked him to sign it as an official of the school. He thought that was unnecessary but signed it. During my senior year I invented some technology on my own time. A couple years ago a professor from the school found out about this at a conference we both attended, and subsequently I was contacted by one of the school's lawyers who indicated they believed they owned my invention and I was in violation of the school's rights. Fortunately I still had my signed paper and they realized they would never be able to prevail in court. If you have any intention whatsoever of doing creative original work of any sort in college either on campus or off (or even in a part time job off campus), you need to get it IN WRITING that the university will not assert IP rights. If they will not give this to you signed and in writing, do not write a tuition check. Find another college, or better yet, skip college entirely. It is a complete rip off.