doodledee

There's a story in the Strib today about how much cheating goes on over at the U. It's based on some nationwide survey of college students that - brace yourself - reveals that kids don't think they cheat all that much. And, what's more, they don't think the cheating they admit to is really all that serious, so hey, what's the big deal?

I hate when I start sentences like this, but "back when I went to the U" I dated all the hotties from the dorm saw tons of cheating going down. Especially in the math classes I had, where it wasn't uncommon at all for a group of kids to pull their desks together during a test and just WORK AS A GROUP! And the wussy Chinese TA's wouldn't have the balls to confront them! And it used to drive me insane! And all this rage I'm working up now is totally fake! Because I don't care anymore! Because all that crap is behind me now!

One place I didn't see much cheating was in my honor's classes. (Nerd!) Those classes were extremely collaborative and open and stuff, but at the end of the day they were also extremely cutthroat. It was one those environments where a bunch of us would get together to study and then it would get late and someone would say "I'm gonna go home now" and everyone would leave but then as soon as they got home they'd stay up for another hour or two just so that they'd kick your ass come morning. That stuff rules in a way, but mostly it rules if you'd rather work stupid math problems than play SEGA hockey 14 hours a day. (*cough* hockey *cough*)

I always clung to the notion that cheating would catch up with people. I'm not sure it really does. Ok, ok, yes, it probably does because the people who cheated were probably idiots in the first place, but bear with me, I've got a point to make. See, out here in the real world™ I crutch along on other people's work all the time. When I run into a tough computer problem - like how to photoshop myself into a car at the Daytona 500, for example - I don't lock myself in a room and try to solve it by myself, I fire up the interweb to see if someone else already has the answer. Genius! Did I need to go to college to learn that? Apparently yes.

Seriously, though, all those pictures from when I was in the olympics are totally real.

Do U students cheat? Oh, a little [strib]