The point of a university is to master the subject by any means necessary, which includes building up your professional and social network. This point was impr

The point of a university is to master the subject by any means necessary, which includes building up your professional and social network. This point was impressed upon us in our first week at uni. We were encouraged by profs and TAs to set up informal learning groups, if we didn't we weren't going to cope with the pressure. I keep telling my students the same. I hate to say this, but it must be said: anyone who calls dealing with an incompetent TA "hazing" when he is at a genuine university like Berkeley has missed something. Didn't you have fellow students to talk to to be able to pass Calculus? I know there are not-universities, and anyone who passes through these is cheated, but Berkeley isn't among the not-universities.