Comment by Finnucane

A long time ago I wanted to be a engineer and went to RPI. In those days, it was a real pressure-cooker program. A heavy workload, difficult tests--it was designed to crush the weak, and they actually bragged about the failure rate. Later after failing differential equations too many times, I went to the state school and got a degree in English. One of my favorite comments on a paper from a teacher was "You seem to have at least understood the text, which is more than I can say for some of your classmates." It's just gotten worse since then. I've heard similar stories from people I know who teach at the college level these days.