Earlier this week, professors started sharing stories of their worst students. From students who used emojis in essays to students who "just didn't feel like presenting," the anecdotes were entertaining AF to read.
Well, we flipped it and asked students to drag their worst professors, and they delivered. Here are some of the worst of the worst:
1. This insulter:
"For the first 30 minutes of class, the professor called us all idiots for not understanding variance on an exam — to the point where he’s saying his 5-year-old could do it, so we should have no excuse."
2. This inappropriate professor:
"I was taking a psychology course in a graduate level program, and the professor announced she was going to circle the room and ask each student to share the age when they lost their respective virginities."
3. This ruthless responder:
"I had an essay due in about three days after I had a major knee operation. It was first year, and the marks didn't count. I asked for an extension and told her the date of my operation. She said, 'Well, you can hand it in early on the date of your operation. All my other professors let me have an extension of two to three weeks.
4. This rude recommender:
"I had a professor tell me, in front of our entire class, not to bother applying to the graduate social work program I planned to apply for because it was too competitive and that I didn't have a chance. I applied and got in and graduated with honors two years later."
5. This creep:
"I had physics teacher who once docked me 30 points off the top of a lab report that was 65% of my grade because I wrote in cursive. He later was found to have porn on his computer, and was making moves on other male students."
6. This conflict of interest quack:
"I had an economics teacher who made us do this cupcake-selling competition as a way to teach us the fundamentals of economics. He took it to the extremes, requiring that we get local businesses to sponsor us, buy decorations, supplies, and publicity out of our own pockets. One day, he dropped a hint that his brother might 'want' to donate. He asked our donations team to call him. They were so busy organizing other things that they didn't, even though they were only given 24 hours before he went off.
The next day, he began to scream and yell at us, eventually calling up his brother and humiliating us in front of him. He hung up and slammed his phone down, and continued screaming, eventually throwing stuff off his desk at us, before eventually storming out. He did not return to class. The next couple days, we were told by the other two sections that he repeatedly told them what failures we were going to be in life."
7. This late lecturer:
"My professor started the lecture 45 minutes late every week, just because he’s not a morning person. We often have to stay a lot later than we would’ve needed to if he’d just start on time!"
8. This unsympathetic jerk:
"I have severe anxiety and dyslexia, so sometimes when I don't understand something, I get flustered and even have a panic attack. One time, I was in a biology class, and I had a panic attack because my partner thought it was so easy, but I just couldn't figure it out. So I went to the bathroom to fix myself before the bell rang, and when I got back to class, the professor told me I needed to stop throwing temper tantrums and start to actually try to pass the class."
9. This checked-out scientist:
"I had a science professor my first semester who spent the entire semester telling us stories of how he used to be in a rock band (not famous) and essentially moping about his failed music career. The class was biological anthropology. Our only assignments for the entire semester were four very simple take-home packets that we had a month to do. He truly acted as though he did not want to be there."
10. This nightmare of a teacher:
"First year of university, my Greek and Latin literature professor was a creep, and pretty weird. He had a history of flirting with students, he smoked in the classroom, he carried around a little podium for his lectures, and he once spent an entire class (a two-hour period) sitting in the back and arguing with a single student who was a Jehovah's Witness about why his religion was a cult, because apparently, it was relevant to the program and he wanted all the students to hear."
11. This cruel instructor:
"I had a psych professor sophomore year who didn’t tell us that we would be having pop quizzes throughout the semester (which I guess is fine, but definitely still a surprise when we didn’t even know they were a part of the point total). About two weeks into school, I got some weird illness that left me violently throwing up into a trash can because I also needed to sit on the toilet (trying to spare the details). I emailed my professor right away to explain that I was vomiting and unable to come to class. Turns out, we had a pop quiz that day (that I didn’t even know was a possibility). I go into office hours after receiving a 0/10 on the quiz, and she tells me that I should have been in class."
12. This totally not understanding prof:
"A hurricane flooded my house and car. Had no way to get to school and had no electricity or heat. Professor said go to the library. I responded that the library in my town was also flooded. She failed me."
13. This P.O.S.:
"I had a college history professor — white man, roughly about 60 years old — tell the entire class (95% white) that 'slavery wasn’t that bad.' Two other students and I called him out on it, and then he ended class early."
14. And this one, too:
"In my literature class last semester, the professor made a remark about how many women were in the class. He then went on a rant about how his son is going to have a hard time finding a proper wife, now that so many more women are being educated."
—r00t
15. This scatterbrained prof:
"A kidney infection made me miss a week of school, so I emailed my professor to ask her what I missed. She told me to come in and pick up some paperwork I needed for an upcoming essay. I don't know why she didn't just emailed me. I was still feeling ill, but I took an hourlong bus ride into town just to get the papers. When I asked her about them, she said, 'What papers?' and asked me to turn in my rough draft. I just left. She was so scatterbrained."