I just moved from a very small engineering/mining college in buttfuck nowhere (which is a place i'm quite fond of) to the much larger R1 school in my hometown, and I cannot stand the way people act here!!!!! At my old school seemingly no one was interested in each other and i witnessed almost zero flirting EVER. This may be because it was a 2000 person loser school for engineers (& others but not really) with a heavy male population bias and an economically depressed town (it was also freezing fucking cold 7-9 months of the year); however, in my first week at this big new school i have witnessed not only constant flirting ? all around campus, but incessant and ever present social ranking by attractiveness in every interaction. I blame this heavily on the fact I am doing all my biology requirements for my biochem degree this semester and have class with quite possibly the most terminally biology sophomores i've ever met in my life.
But this aesthetic ranking treatment really IS pervasive!! Lorn was telling me about an icebreaker they did in class (where you recite everyone ahead of your's names and interests, then add your own and your neighbor recites the whole thing + yours then adds their name, anyway) and there was a girl whose name was forgotten every single rotation because she was between two very pretty girls. It seems once again the only winners in this system are attractive boys who get the social benefit of hotness with none of the stalking, harassment, or other full spectrum creeping awarded to the hot girls. Not hot ? bummer I sure hope you've got some other charm because college is all about fitting in somewhere and nobody cool is recruiting uncool unhotties. Some of this surely is fueled by autistic bitterness, but i don't think much. I want to go to the college that was for sickos in 1940 where i emerge a learned doctor of science, instead i'm in the era of the College Experience, where both youth and education have been commodified.
The commodification of college is part of the microtransaction enshittification of america (and the world) as a whole. The part of college that sells is not the education, it is the athletics and social experience. Unfortunately for the suckers like me who only enjoy the learning and research part, those are not the university's money makers. And of course since a university is a business (??? is nothing sacred ???), we must maximize profits, minimize expenses, and create an environment that will attract People Who Pay Tuition (and hopefully room + board). Lorn and I went to the newly constructed "fancy" dining hall and it was fourteen fucking dollars per person to eat at a buffet where everything sucks a little bit to a lot bit. The best part of it all is the school is running into the ground, so there will be one "bathroom" in the ancient boiling hot forestry building, and it will be out of order (because the building is fucking 102 years old) while every football player is given a personal e-scooter (they seem to have a great time on them). Turns out the grass really is greener, but I have settled into the new school and I don't regret transferring. I DO hate it there but I hated my last school too; I just don't think the undergrad experience is for me!