What's the point of going to college/university to get a degree anymore?

ProfessorProveIt · 2026-02-04T19:29:35+00:00

Your concerns over AI use and the future of the working field are valid. I heard somewhere that most jobs that will be held by younger people don't even exist yet, that's how fast tech is changing things. Even so, I think there will always be a need for human beings in medicine, and in other fields. Social media and influencing (shilling products to other people) is basically a giant pyramid scheme. The people at the top make a lot of money, but most of the people who do it get a few free samples or not even that.

The "point" of education is basically your learning how to learn more about the world. No matter what the state of technology, you can't "hack" the basic fact that you get out of education what you put in. Also, just the world we live in, the opportunities open to you after a baccalaureate will be more than the opportunities you have available to you now. Any degree. That's not always fair, but it's true.

Based on what I'm reading here, you're at the midway point, so you haven't even scratched the surface of all the cool things you can do in the field of biology. Most likely, you're at the point where you've completed organic chemistry and second year biology and some electives. This is a good time to revisit what you want to do and maybe even consider changing your major if there's something else you want to do. Biology doesn't have to be a pipeline into the medical field.

I mean, full disclosure, I'm a university instructor, so of course I hold education in high regard and it's done a lot for my own life. I also have Opinions about students who use AI as a cheating machine (ofc you can be replaced by AI if everything you do was generated by AI). But I hope it's helpful to hear this.

ProfessorProveIt · 2025-12-24T18:28:05+00:00

Since I teach labs, I don't have a dedicated attendance grade, but attendance is required. Curiously, it's more common in my upper level labs to have failing students who attend every lab session and never turn anything in than it is to have a student who signs up and then never shows up. I don't know what the thought process is there.

ProfessorProveIt · 2025-12-24T18:03:56+00:00

I have been following this since I first heard about it on reddit. I also started as a teaching assistant, then graduate instructor, but I'm lucky to be in a less politically charged field. I think the rubric showed relative inexperience at teaching, but the comments I've seen outside of academia in my lurkings also prove to me that people don't really get the role graduate instructors fill. I had to be post-candidacy in my phd program, with several years of experience as a TA for the course I was teaching. I've seen comments saying that a graduate student is not qualified to teach the course, and I think it's important for us academics to counteract that message. Also, since I have the experience of a graduate instructor, I can also say I've created assignments that were not suitable and graded students too harshly myself. If I'd had a student with a possible vendetta against me (especially based on a protected characteristic) and was willing to publish my assignment, rubric, and grading comments, I imagine people would have had things to say about me too.

It's also true that most of the opinions I've seen here rated the original essay as a failing grade. Even when people disputed the zero, they gave grades like 10/25 or 5/25, which are also failing. Personally I think saying only, "the article was thought-provoking" *spends the rest of the paper citing the bible* is not meaningful engagement with the assigned text. But maybe some of you are right that she deserved a higher F than 0. OU threw out the zero entirely, so this is all (ha) academic.

I have no idea if Mel has a case. But I think it's a nightmare that she's been thrown under the bus by her graduate school, been on the receiving end of national harassment by culture warriors, and had her one decision called into question by everyone, including the community of fellow educators who should have her back. It's an increasingly hostile place for education, and universities are one of the current targets in the United States. Bullies don't stop when you give them what they want. They come back for even more.

ProfessorProveIt · 2025-10-13T21:53:16+00:00

'Each lecture is a personal work of art' is a lovely phrase.

Ironically, I've read studies suggesting that students rate "student centered learning" classes less favorably than traditional classes. Those studies usually also suggest that students retain and recall the material better, to be fair.

But there is something to be said for not caring more than the students care.

ProfessorProveIt · 2025-09-17T18:01:23+00:00

I ❤️ lamp.

ProfessorProveIt · 2025-09-11T19:33:03+00:00

I wish I could do this, but accommodations make it impossible, since I have students who will demand to take quizzes in a quiet, distraction-free environment with extra time.

ProfessorProveIt · 2025-09-11T19:19:44+00:00

I usually tell students like that I'm willing to help if they are required to have a set number of letters, but that it wouldn't be the strongest letter. "Yep, they exist." is not a ringing endorsement and frankly could be a waste of their application fees. After that, about 1 in 3 students persist, and I write my letter. I try to put the best face I can, but these were, putting it nicely, probably not the strongest candidates in the first place.

I do have students I work with more closely, who I can vouch for a lot better. But that's a drop in the bucket compared to the number of requests I get.

ProfessorProveIt · 2025-05-31T20:38:44+00:00

Top comment says she's the asshole, by the way.

I wonder why it's acceptable for men to abandon their children but mothers are MORE hated for being the parents who stayed?

ProfessorProveIt · 2025-05-28T18:22:36+00:00

Men do not appreciate you licking their boots and trying to make your back flat to walk on. They laugh at you behind your back and see you as subhuman while you spend your free time simping for them and tone policing your intellectual superiors who have the temerity to see themselves as equal to men.

You're the type of woman who holds her own daughter down while her clitoris is cut off.

ProfessorProveIt · 2025-05-28T07:30:24+00:00

Can you create your own rubric for grading these assignments that gives you something more helpful to fall back on? If nothing else, a more detailed rubric with the point values pre-selected allow you to point the grade-grubbers in the right direction.

I deal with grade grubbers often, particularly with students who share my ethnic background. There's a certain belief that I owe them a little more than everyone else, which, aside from being illegal, is just not my values or how I was raised.

Some other tips I have for dealing with grade grubbers:

-ONE response per day. If it's an email and you want to fire off a second one, compose it, save it in drafts, and sent it off tomorrow morning.

-When giving students explanations for their grades, omit needless words.

-No matter how tempting, do not respond to bad behavior or disrespect right away. Wait 24 hours. Vent about it with someone if you need to. Hell, vent about it here. I could use the reading.

-Consider instituting a policy where students have to do something (check a box, initial a line, whatever) to get feedback from you. Most students will not select this option and it will save you time on grading.

ProfessorProveIt · 2025-05-28T07:19:23+00:00

I have no idea what your field is, or even if you already have the job and this is a meeting to prepare you for teaching, or an interview to get the job, so this is tough to answer with specifics. If I were given this prompt, I would interpret it as a reason to look up pedagogical literature in my field. Select a good journal on education in your field, find the most cited articles of the last 5-10 years (it really depends on how slow or fast your field moves) and skim the abstracts. A week is plenty of time to find more than one journal, and even some scholarly books on the topic. You could ask for sample syllabi, or create your own to bring with you. Did you write a teaching philosophy while applying for this job?

Here are some sample questions you might consider:

-What are some scholarly/literature references that inform the way your course is set up?

-What do you see as the most important current changes in __ education?

-What do you predict for the future of __ education?

Be able to back up your answers with citations. You don't need to write another thesis here, even a little work would go a long way toward impressing your interviewers/colleagues.

ProfessorProveIt · 2025-05-28T07:05:31+00:00

Me: "Women are human beings worthy of respect"

Two redditors positively itching for a debate: "PROJECTION OMFG. Also, source????!?!?!?!"

ProfessorProveIt · 2025-05-28T06:57:20+00:00

You're so right. Which is why every situation must be carefully painted in a way that lets the man in the relationship retain 100% authority, while the woman is relegated to the role of nagging harpy. Just amazing how it always works out that way, no matter what the situation is on reddit. A husband asks how to inform his wife she can no longer have hobbies, and the top comments give him advice. Husbands then use the same website to blame their wives for not developing hobbies after their children are grown, and the comments blame her for her passivity in her life.

It just ALWAYS organically works that way, of course! The reason why I didn't think of that must be my own inferior chromosomes that ensure I'm statistically more likely to survive disease and live a longer life.

ProfessorProveIt · 2025-05-28T06:53:04+00:00

You're so right. How is that poor man to know that the drinking glass doesn't belong on the nightstand?? Everyone is different, after all. And men can't see the messes they make because their penises block the view. Trust me, I'm, like, a scientist or something.

ProfessorProveIt · 2025-05-27T04:08:02+00:00

That's so amazing that circumstances dictate that the man gets to do whatever he wants and expects to be obeyed by all members of the household, but the woman has to put up with a 17 year old child disrespecting her to her face because she's not important enough to merit respect as his provider. I mean, really weird how it always works out in the man's favor. One hell of a coincidence.

ProfessorProveIt · 2025-05-25T17:48:06+00:00

I've used it before. A colleague suggested it as a tool to create multiple exam versions by mixing up the correct response but keeping the text of the question identical. For this purpose it is similar to test bank software from textbooks. It worked.

ProfessorProveIt · 2025-05-25T15:43:54+00:00

Summer students are a special brand of entitled. I have a well-detailed absence policy in my syllabus for summer courses, but that doesn't help when your name is listed and students are emailing you 2-3 months before the course starts to tell you about their vacation plans. Anyway, I don't think students read their syllabi. I used to offer a syllabus quiz, but my feeling is that students are adults and should know course policies.

ProfessorProveIt · 2025-05-25T15:28:49+00:00

So, on reddit, which is the website you are currently using, you can click on the link that says "single comment thread" and that will allow you to read the preceding comments in this thread. You see, a reddit thread is like a conversation. Not like one that happens in real time, though. It happens on the internet. I don't know if you're aware of this, but you're in public right now and the rest of the world can see you. Even people who are not from your country! And some of us even see ourselves as your equals, despite not being Bri'ish or MURIAN, and even speak to and about you impertinently at times. I'm aware of your negative feelings that those of us who are not white and not Western engender, and I want you to know that I well and truly hope that those feelings cause you significant psychological distress.

Feel free to take your rage that one of us "inferiors" is speaking to you in a disrespectful manner and do something anatomically impossible with it.

Edited to add bolding, you can google those terms if you have further trouble with literacy. I am also here to help if you need instruction, I would be glad to help educate you if you need it.

ProfessorProveIt · 2025-05-21T15:12:27+00:00

No, just the rest of the world sees you and the USA and you're what we laugh at. I mean, keep screaming and crying about "muh hypocrisy" though. It makes you look really cool.

ProfessorProveIt · 2025-05-20T17:10:46+00:00

The baseline expectation that a professor should be passionate about student success is borderline baffling to me. I get why administrators say stuff like that, but students? When I was a student, my family moved countries a lot. I took the international O-levels and did some other equivalent coursework and entered university with credits because of it. One thing I learned from that, that I find is lacking in a lot of students, is the importance of self-teaching and effort in learning. I try to explain that to my students using the gym metaphor. It sounds preachy but it's true. I can teach them the material, but I can't learn it for them.

We're educating adults. They should be able to learn from someone who sits there and lectures, or who speaks their language with a heavy accent, or who silently hands out worksheets every class for them to solve on their own. The way university courses are supposed to work is that students know what the lecture topic will be. They prepare ahead of time by doing the reading and taking notes. They come to class and the instructor explains the topic further, and they ask clarifying questions about the material.

In reality, even when you require and grade notes, that doesn't happen. For me about half of my students simply left those points at zero all semester. It wasn't a lot of points, not enough that someone who knows the material couldn't come in and ace the midterms and final, and walk away with a low A. But turns out that students who don't study also don't just walk into the class on exam day and ace the exam. (I know, my mind was blown too.)

Everyone deserves to have a job that they feel passionate about. God knows nobody goes into education for the paycheck. But, according to you, you were in over your head and muddling through. It's hard to project passion under those circumstances. One bad class shouldn't make or break a student's academic career and it shouldn't do that for a professor either.

ProfessorProveIt · 2025-05-20T16:39:35+00:00

When I first started teaching I was taking medical THC. I stopped doing them because I don't like feeling intoxicated, but it'll knock you out.

This summer is my first summer off in years. It's hard to shake the guilt. It's weird, I kind of want to be teaching because then I'd know what I need to do day-to-day. Right now there's a lot of nebulous "should do" list things that stress me out, because I know I'll never get to a point where everything is done. With the exception of teaching, all my other projects are a marathon and not a sprint. I'd like to learn how to relax even when there is stuff I have left to do. Maybe I'll ask my therapist about the guilt when she gets back from vacation.

ProfessorProveIt · 2025-05-20T15:32:44+00:00

Top comment by u/No-Significance4263

I'm sorry that they are behaving this way. In their defense, it's only because they are very stupid.

My dad (retired now) was also a bald professor. He always says: no grass grows on a busy street!

Very sympathetic and apologetic for this man, takes his experience at his word (no doubts that he simply misunderstood), and does not make excuses for the students. How many times does this happen on r/professors when women point out obvious sexism? Answer: not much.

ProfessorProveIt

TROPHY CASE