Top 5 Most Irritating Habits of College Students

Now in my 8th and (for now) final year of college, I’ve spent enough time in classrooms and around my peers to notice that some of them are completely inconsiderate, rude, entitled people. Granted, this can be said of any group of people. But there are some things that specifically college students do that I just haven’t observed in others. Now that the semester is nearly over and I’ve got some free time, I’ve compiled the top 5 most irritating, rude, and obnoxious behaviors of college students. Hopefully this post can serve as a public service announcement, and someone, somewhere, will learn something.

5. Riding Razor scooters around campus

When I was in middle school, Razor scooter’s were all the rage. The year was 2000, and anyone who was anyone had a Razor scooter. Knock-off scooter’s wouldn’t cut it, they had to be Razor scooters. Which is fine, when you’re 13, and hanging out with your friends in an empty parking lot on a Saturday. But when you’re in college, scooting around a busy, crowded campus is not just annoying, but dangerous. I’ve seen careless scooter owners knock people down in their mad rush to class. Some claim these scooters are just dandy because they can get to class a whole two minutes earlier than by foot. If you’re that concerned with getting to class on time, maybe you could, ya know, leave earlier. It’s really not that hard, and you might actually look like an adult instead of a little kid. I think it says a lot that when you do a Google image search for “razor scooter,” nearly every picture is of a child on a scooter. This entire paragraph applies to bikes and skateboards, too. There are times and places for those modes of transportation. The quad at the busiest time of the day, when literally hundreds of people are walking to classes, is not one of those times or places. It’s one thing biking to school, and chaining it to a bike rack. It’s a safety hazard when you decide, “Oh no it’s cool, I’ll just go down the middle of this busy sidewalk, where people are walking, and most of them texting and walking! What could possibly go wrong?”

4. Begging a teacher for extra credit when you haven’t been in class all semester

Hey, some classes are hard, and you need every point you can get. What’s annoying though, is when it’s the end of the semester, and students beg the teacher for extra credit because they just now realized that their grade might be bad in the class they haven’t bothered to come to for the past 16 weeks. I’ve seen this nearly every semester, and I don’t get it. It’s not the teacher’s problem that you are a horrible student. A few semesters back, I was taking a class, and we were nearing the end. For the last 3 classes of the semester, these two girls who no one had ever seen before, started sitting front and center and would pester the teacher for extra credit. Thankfully he didn’t give in, but these girls were relentless. “Please Mr. Cooper, we really need these points, or else we won’t pass!” If they were actually concerned about the class, they would have bothered to at least come to the exams. At this point, all the extra credit in the world wouldn’t be enough for them to pass. I think if the teacher had given in, the rest of the class would’ve revolted, because we had actually been there and doing the work that was required of us. But I see people do this every semester, and they get really angry when the teacher doesn’t give in. It’s weird, and rude. Please don’t be this kind of student.

3. Texting and talking during class

College is not cheap. People go into lots of debt to attend college. Which is why I can’t fathom that people will come to class, and text for the entire hour and fifteen minutes. You can text any where else, for free! If you have to send one or two texts throughout the hour, it’s not a big deal. But when you can’t put your phone down, maybe you should just leave class. Obviously something really important is going on for your phone to be blowing up like that, right? RIGHT? No? Oh. Well then. That’s rude. It’s rude to your teacher, and it’s rude to those around you. It’s distracting when every 30 seconds, your phone is buzzing on your desk. You know what else is distracting? When in the absence of your phone, you have to bug those around you. “Hey, what are you doing after class?” or “OMG I was like SOOOO drunk last night!” Some people actually care about what the teacher is lecturing on. Some of us actually take notes, and it sucks when you distract us because you’re “SOOO bored!” and we just missed something important. If you’re bored in class and can’t put your phone down, maybe you shouldn’t be there.

2. Being on your laptop in class

Apparently, there’s a serious epidemic sweeping our nation’s campuses that renders students unable to take notes by hand, because every class there are people “taking notes” on their laptop. One girl once pleaded with a teacher who had a no-laptop policy that she just had to have her laptop, because she “falls asleep when taking notes by hand.” This girl must be some new kind of human, immune to the effects of caffeine. What’s really frustrating, is that the teacher broke his own rule and allowed her to use her laptop. Do you think she took notes? No. The distinct lack of her typing made that clear. What was she doing? Checking her Facebook, of course! When I started college in 2005, it was rare to see laptops in class. Now they’re ubiquitous, to the detriment of all. It sucks to be sitting behind one of these people, because you’re subjected to their internet browsing habits. This one beats texting and talking, because so many students will lie to use their laptops in class: “But Professor, my hand huuuuuurts when I take notes!” Maybe it does, because you never write. If you did, you could handle taking notes for an hour. But you can’t even take notes on your laptop. You’re not taking notes, you’re wasting money to be in expensive classes so you can waste time on the internet.

1. Complaining about how hard college is

This one tops the list because this last week, I’ve heard way to many students complain about being in school. College is not easy- if it were, more people would do it. But this is not some secret, which is why I get so annoyed when I hear people complaining about it. It shouldn’t be a surprise that college is difficult, and that yes, sometimes you have to spend hours doing research for important projects. It’s the nature of the beast. In one of my classes this week, we had several projects due on Monday. The teacher wanted to have a class discussion on what we learned in the class. The first person to talk decided to take the opportunity to bash the class and complain about school. She said, “I’m just really tired. We have other classes to focus on, and having to do these projects was difficult.” The teacher responded exactly as I hoped he would: “We’re all tired. You can ask anyone on this campus right now how they feel, students and professors alike, and they’ll all say the same thing.” I restrained myself from applauding him, but he was completely correct. Yes, we all have other classes, and we’re all tired. Our professors teach other classes, are is well aware that this isn’t the only class we have. Later that same day in my government class, my classmates were trying to determine how “hard” our final would be. I wanted to scream at them, “It’s an upper-division class, why do you think the final will easy!?” I personally get really frustrated when a teacher makes an upper-division class too easy. I’m not in college to waste time, I’m in college to learn something and be challenged, to push myself and be proud of my progress. So when students complain about college being hard, it doesn’t make any sense. Why are you in college, then? If you feel like your classes are boring, you don’t want to put in the work, and the work you actually manage to do is “too hard,” then you seriously need to think about why you’re in college. I would rather be in a class full of students who have the same academic goals as I do, then be in a class full of rude, lazy people who can’t be bothered to pay attention in the classes they’re going into debt for. Some people work really hard to be in college, and try hard in their classes and for their grades. It’s not fair to those of us who work hard to complain about how difficult college is when you’re barely trying. No one is forcing you to be in school, and if you can’t handle college courses, then you’re going to have one hell of a time in an actual career.

So these are the top 5 most irritating habits that I’ve seen my fellow college students engage in. I have no hopes that the situation will improve, which is really unfortunate because I think college is great. I love college, and I’ve loved my experience at CSU Sacramento. I have been challenged in ways I never imagined, and I’m a better person for it. I didn’t take the easy route, I took classes that were very difficult and actually had to re-take a few. I encourage students to get off their Razor scooter, put their phone away, leave the laptop at home, and try to actually be engaged and challenged. You’re professors are here for a reason, and you’re paying tuition fees to be here. So pay attention in class, and at least try to learn a thing or two. You’d be surprised at how much you can learn just by putting your phone away for a while and actually trying.

If you like this story, check out my other post about the irritants of fall semester. Also check out kssu.com, Sac State’s college radio! Great music played by awesome DJs, you can’t go wrong!