Comment by solomonb

> that world has definitely not stood still, and the prices have come down considerably. But I'd love to have my old frequency counter and pulse generator back

My whole workbench is mid to late 90s HP equipment I've picked up very cheap at swap meets. I love this older stuff but it is really crazy what you can buy out of China now. The Rigol Oscilloscopes and Spectrum Analyzers are crazy. They can actually replace a lot of other test equipment and do some pretty complex analysis.

> I'm really happy that you found an alternate path because such a put-down is terrible and should have never happened in any mature education institution.

I actually had a near identical experience at a different university when seeking advice about how to read Hegel. I think this is a common issue with our academic system.