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How come I didn't know that everyone else was cheating in college? Here I was learning the content like a sucker and then being useful in my job after graduati

How come I didn't know that everyone else was cheating in college? Here I was learning the content like a sucker and then being useful in my job after graduation.

vasco 21d ago
"Man drums publicity up for his fake essay business for people that are too lazy to even use AI"
robotnikman 21d ago
Tbh I kinda enjoyed writing essays in college if the topic was interesting.
- __rito__ 21d ago
  Same for me. When I was High School and uni, there was still copying from Wikipedia, obscure blogs, paying people, etc. but I did all my own work. It was a rewarding experience and breath of fresh air from 'remembering-regurgitating learning'. Even the topics that I didn't enjoy, I did the essays, presentations, assignments myself, and that led me to learn at least something in those topics.
QuadmasterXLII 21d ago
Scandal as fraternity discovers 2/3rds of pledges were cheating by paying TaskRabbit temp workers to drink and dance in their stead, while the pledges stayed home and doomscrolled.
tombert 21d ago
I was a constant frustration to teachers in high school because I would do well on tests, but I wouldn't do the homework [1]. I'm kind of glad that I didn't know you could pay people to do your homework, since I have to admit that it would have been tempting to do that. I would like to think I would be above that, but it's easy to act high and mighty when you've never been tested. Similarly, I'm very glad that I finished my undergrad before ChatGPT or Claude was released. It would have been overwhelmingly tempting to get AI to do everything. For this one I actually do know I would be able to resist that urge, because I only got my masters a year ago and I was able to do that without using generative AI [2]. [1] I wish I had a good excuse for this. I regret not taking high school seriously now. [2] With the exception of getting ChatGPT to generate BibTeX citations because Easybib is terrible.
- nsagent 21d ago
  As another student who did the same, I similarly regret it, but also realize if I were put in the exact same scenario I would have behaved identically. I literally had to retake trigonometry, while simultaneously being advanced into pre-calc, because my teacher saw that I aced the exams, but said I had to do the homework. I ended up doing well enough: I dual-majored in CS and Math in undergrad and then completed a PhD in CS later in life, but I do sometimes think I could have achieved even more had I known better.
  - tombert 21d ago
    > I literally had to retake trigonometry, while simultaneously being advanced into pre-calc, because my teacher saw that I aced the exams, but said I had to do the homework. Yeah, I passed the Calc 1 AP exam in my Junior year the first time around but I failed the class because I didn't do the homework. I was simultaneously retaking Calc 1 online while taking Calc 2 in school. I don't think anyone ever disputed that I was good at math in school, that was relatively easy to prove, but I was decidedly not good at school itself. I did mediocre in high school and poorly in college the first time around, though I did eventually complete a bachelors and masters. I was part of a PhD program but I never finished, but I have had a reasonably good career in software engineering. I do wish that I had taken school more seriously when I was younger, but things worked out ok so alls well that ends well.
  - kotaKat 21d ago
    > I literally had to retake trigonometry, while simultaneously being advanced into pre-calc, because my teacher saw that I aced the exams, but said I had to do the homework. I loved one of my early math teachers that caught that out in his statistics. If you started to slip down the slope of "great exams and no homework" he'd reach out and give you an offer-in-compromise to change your grading to exams-only, with the compromise that you can only attain a maximum of a B grade to be fair to those that complete the exams and homework in the course. I took my B.
    - wrs 20d ago
      I’m a bit baffled by how one could learn math without doing the homework. In my experience the homework is how you learn the math! So the exams would essentially already be testing whether you did the homework.
Beijinger 21d ago
You did the right thing, based on your financial and mental capabilities, and you are not "useful in your job". Look at your boss, his job is "gainful to him". He likely cheated in college and learned to delegate work and lead people.
- genxy 21d ago
  Useful to his boss. The frats at my school had a couple full height filing cabinets with copies of every test ever given in most classes, with many instructors giving the same test every year, or rotating through them. The frat boys would grind on these final tests being able to pattern match and fill in the templated answers.
- Beijinger 21d ago
  Why the donwvote? You cunts always mistake an analysis for an endorsement.
  - DonHopkins 20d ago
    You always mistake downvoters for cunts. Maybe they're just "donwvoting" your analysis or spelling...
- Beijinger 15d ago
  You did the right thing, based on your financial and mental capabilities, and you are "useful in your job". The not was not supposed to be there.
threethirtytwo 21d ago
[flagged]
- BeFlatXIII 21d ago
  Some students enjoy learning for its own reward.
  - threethirtytwo 21d ago
    agreed, and I said this: "I think these things are good to know as general knowledge but i'd be lying to myself if I said it is relevant to our jobs."
    - DonHopkins 20d ago
      "relevant to our jobs"? Speak for yourself and your own job. Maybe you should just get a better job that lets you use your knowledge, unless you're not qualified because you cheated your way through college and never actually learned that knowledge, which you're now trying to retroactivally justify by projecting your bad decisions and cheating onto everyone else. You can't justify your own cheating by presuming and accusing everyone else of cheating. It's like saying "boys will be boys" because you acted that way too, instead of raising your boy not to be a misogynistic bully. You're just showing yourself to be a cheater, and limiting yourself to jobs for cheaters, of which there are many of course (especially c-level and MBA positions), luckily for you. You should go back and take some spelling and grammar courses, because "use-fullness" is not a real word, and "must've took" is not correct grammar.
      - threethirtytwo 20d ago
        [flagged]
        DonHopkins 20d ago
        [dead]
cortesoft 21d ago
There were always two types of people at college, those who want to learn things and those who want a certificate so they can get a better job. It was always pretty easy to distinguish the two. I think the second group has gotten more and more prevalent over the years, and I think it has to do with how college was pushed on everyone for at least as long as I have been alive. They told everyone "go to college to get a good job!", and so a lot of people go to college who have no desire to be there, they just want to get a good job. In fact, even worse, they tell people "You need a college degree to get a good job!" They don't say you need to learn anything, just that you need a degree. Well, if the degree is the important thing, it doesn't matter how you get it. Cheating is just a way to get the thing you want. This is a classic example of Goodhart's Law: We created college degrees as a way to measure learning, but once people realized the college degree is what people look for, it stopped becoming a measure for learning. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goodhart%27s_law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goodhart%27s_law
- tayo42 21d ago
  You're also 17 or 18 when you go. We were children. Alot of classes also end up sucking so you just power through it and get jaded about the whole experience.
  - catchnear4321 21d ago
    It’s just saying the same thing differently. The point was never to “power through” classes. It is just checking the same boxes with a different colored pen.
    - catchnear4321 20d ago
      Fascinating to see this get upvoted for a bit, then the long tail is down. Suspect a correlation with stance on the subject.
  - SubmarineClub 21d ago
    That’s funny, I was 17 & 18 once too and managed to never cheat in any of my classes…
jeffrallen 21d ago
Nice guys finish last. Welcome to the back of the line. We have cookies, at least. :)
Bombthecat 21d ago
I uhhh did that too when I needed money, I had a handler who gave me the stuff and paid me. ( Payment was pretty good) He talked about the people getting their homework and bachelor's done. Pretty much crushed my worldview. Cheating is, was and will be rampant.
DonHopkins 20d ago
Speaking of cheaters: John Waters described how Divine would smuggle marijuana in her artificial vagina, which she would check in her luggage at the top. Once they found that, they'd decide they didn't need to search any more, without looking inside. https://theeveningclass.blogspot.com/2007/07/john-waters-on.html https://theeveningclass.blogspot.com/2007/07/john-waters-on.... On Divine Getting Through Airport Security As A Drag Queen [Finding Divine's false tits in his luggage, Airport Security] would slam it back shut. He'd have his cheater on the top — his fake vagina — and [Divine] said he could come through customs with pot, they'd see the cheater and go, "Oh! Oh!" He would put the cheater right on top [in] his suitcase. Divine's cheater is at Wesleyan University at the Film Archives. Clint Eastwood's is too. No, Clint Eastwood is in the same place with me and I said to Clint Eastwood, "Y'know, just think, Divine's cheater and Dirty Harry's police badge will rest together forever!"

How come I didn't know that everyone else was cheating in college? Here I was learning the content like a sucker and then being useful in my job after graduation.

vasco 21d ago

"Man drums publicity up for his fake essay business for people that are too lazy to even use AI"

robotnikman 21d ago

Tbh I kinda enjoyed writing essays in college if the topic was interesting.

__rito__ 21d ago
Same for me. When I was High School and uni, there was still copying from Wikipedia, obscure blogs, paying people, etc. but I did all my own work. It was a rewarding experience and breath of fresh air from 'remembering-regurgitating learning'. Even the topics that I didn't enjoy, I did the essays, presentations, assignments myself, and that led me to learn at least something in those topics.

QuadmasterXLII 21d ago

Scandal as fraternity discovers 2/3rds of pledges were cheating by paying TaskRabbit temp workers to drink and dance in their stead, while the pledges stayed home and doomscrolled.

tombert 21d ago

I was a constant frustration to teachers in high school because I would do well on tests, but I wouldn't do the homework [1]. I'm kind of glad that I didn't know you could pay people to do your homework, since I have to admit that it would have been tempting to do that. I would like to think I would be above that, but it's easy to act high and mighty when you've never been tested. Similarly, I'm very glad that I finished my undergrad before ChatGPT or Claude was released. It would have been overwhelmingly tempting to get AI to do everything. For this one I actually do know I would be able to resist that urge, because I only got my masters a year ago and I was able to do that without using generative AI [2]. [1] I wish I had a good excuse for this. I regret not taking high school seriously now. [2] With the exception of getting ChatGPT to generate BibTeX citations because Easybib is terrible.

nsagent 21d ago
As another student who did the same, I similarly regret it, but also realize if I were put in the exact same scenario I would have behaved identically. I literally had to retake trigonometry, while simultaneously being advanced into pre-calc, because my teacher saw that I aced the exams, but said I had to do the homework. I ended up doing well enough: I dual-majored in CS and Math in undergrad and then completed a PhD in CS later in life, but I do sometimes think I could have achieved even more had I known better.
- tombert 21d ago
  > I literally had to retake trigonometry, while simultaneously being advanced into pre-calc, because my teacher saw that I aced the exams, but said I had to do the homework. Yeah, I passed the Calc 1 AP exam in my Junior year the first time around but I failed the class because I didn't do the homework. I was simultaneously retaking Calc 1 online while taking Calc 2 in school. I don't think anyone ever disputed that I was good at math in school, that was relatively easy to prove, but I was decidedly not good at school itself. I did mediocre in high school and poorly in college the first time around, though I did eventually complete a bachelors and masters. I was part of a PhD program but I never finished, but I have had a reasonably good career in software engineering. I do wish that I had taken school more seriously when I was younger, but things worked out ok so alls well that ends well.
- kotaKat 21d ago
  > I literally had to retake trigonometry, while simultaneously being advanced into pre-calc, because my teacher saw that I aced the exams, but said I had to do the homework. I loved one of my early math teachers that caught that out in his statistics. If you started to slip down the slope of "great exams and no homework" he'd reach out and give you an offer-in-compromise to change your grading to exams-only, with the compromise that you can only attain a maximum of a B grade to be fair to those that complete the exams and homework in the course. I took my B.
  - wrs 20d ago
    I’m a bit baffled by how one could learn math without doing the homework. In my experience the homework is how you learn the math! So the exams would essentially already be testing whether you did the homework.

Beijinger 21d ago

You did the right thing, based on your financial and mental capabilities, and you are not "useful in your job". Look at your boss, his job is "gainful to him". He likely cheated in college and learned to delegate work and lead people.

genxy 21d ago
Useful to his boss. The frats at my school had a couple full height filing cabinets with copies of every test ever given in most classes, with many instructors giving the same test every year, or rotating through them. The frat boys would grind on these final tests being able to pattern match and fill in the templated answers.
Beijinger 21d ago
Why the donwvote? You cunts always mistake an analysis for an endorsement.
- DonHopkins 20d ago
  You always mistake downvoters for cunts. Maybe they're just "donwvoting" your analysis or spelling...
Beijinger 15d ago
You did the right thing, based on your financial and mental capabilities, and you are "useful in your job". The not was not supposed to be there.

threethirtytwo 21d ago

[flagged]

BeFlatXIII 21d ago
Some students enjoy learning for its own reward.
- threethirtytwo 21d ago
  agreed, and I said this: "I think these things are good to know as general knowledge but i'd be lying to myself if I said it is relevant to our jobs."
  - DonHopkins 20d ago
    "relevant to our jobs"? Speak for yourself and your own job. Maybe you should just get a better job that lets you use your knowledge, unless you're not qualified because you cheated your way through college and never actually learned that knowledge, which you're now trying to retroactivally justify by projecting your bad decisions and cheating onto everyone else. You can't justify your own cheating by presuming and accusing everyone else of cheating. It's like saying "boys will be boys" because you acted that way too, instead of raising your boy not to be a misogynistic bully. You're just showing yourself to be a cheater, and limiting yourself to jobs for cheaters, of which there are many of course (especially c-level and MBA positions), luckily for you. You should go back and take some spelling and grammar courses, because "use-fullness" is not a real word, and "must've took" is not correct grammar.
    - threethirtytwo 20d ago
      [flagged]
      - DonHopkins 20d ago
        [dead]

cortesoft 21d ago

There were always two types of people at college, those who want to learn things and those who want a certificate so they can get a better job. It was always pretty easy to distinguish the two. I think the second group has gotten more and more prevalent over the years, and I think it has to do with how college was pushed on everyone for at least as long as I have been alive. They told everyone "go to college to get a good job!", and so a lot of people go to college who have no desire to be there, they just want to get a good job. In fact, even worse, they tell people "You need a college degree to get a good job!" They don't say you need to learn anything, just that you need a degree. Well, if the degree is the important thing, it doesn't matter how you get it. Cheating is just a way to get the thing you want. This is a classic example of Goodhart's Law: We created college degrees as a way to measure learning, but once people realized the college degree is what people look for, it stopped becoming a measure for learning. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goodhart%27s_law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goodhart%27s_law

tayo42 21d ago
You're also 17 or 18 when you go. We were children. Alot of classes also end up sucking so you just power through it and get jaded about the whole experience.
- catchnear4321 21d ago
  It’s just saying the same thing differently. The point was never to “power through” classes. It is just checking the same boxes with a different colored pen.
  - catchnear4321 20d ago
    Fascinating to see this get upvoted for a bit, then the long tail is down. Suspect a correlation with stance on the subject.
- SubmarineClub 21d ago
  That’s funny, I was 17 & 18 once too and managed to never cheat in any of my classes…

jeffrallen 21d ago

Nice guys finish last. Welcome to the back of the line. We have cookies, at least. :)

Bombthecat 21d ago

I uhhh did that too when I needed money, I had a handler who gave me the stuff and paid me. ( Payment was pretty good) He talked about the people getting their homework and bachelor's done. Pretty much crushed my worldview. Cheating is, was and will be rampant.

DonHopkins 20d ago

Speaking of cheaters: John Waters described how Divine would smuggle marijuana in her artificial vagina, which she would check in her luggage at the top. Once they found that, they'd decide they didn't need to search any more, without looking inside. https://theeveningclass.blogspot.com/2007/07/john-waters-on.html https://theeveningclass.blogspot.com/2007/07/john-waters-on.... On Divine Getting Through Airport Security As A Drag Queen [Finding Divine's false tits in his luggage, Airport Security] would slam it back shut. He'd have his cheater on the top — his fake vagina — and [Divine] said he could come through customs with pot, they'd see the cheater and go, "Oh! Oh!" He would put the cheater right on top [in] his suitcase. Divine's cheater is at Wesleyan University at the Film Archives. Clint Eastwood's is too. No, Clint Eastwood is in the same place with me and I said to Clint Eastwood, "Y'know, just think, Divine's cheater and Dirty Harry's police badge will rest together forever!"