The thing that makes the UIUC reddit so enjoyable is how ridiculuous it is. UIUC is a prestigious college, with certain programs like engineering and computer science being highly-ranked nationally. However, the school's subreddit doesn't reflect that academic prestige, at least for the most part. Most recently, for example, was the "Morgan" craze. Apparently, a student named Morgan had skipped the lecture section of a history class five times in a row, and would receive a failing grade class if he skipped again. Dozens of posts were made dramatizing the situation, such as this one:
Another thing I find interesting about the subreddit is that it gives me some insight into what some UIUC students are really like. While I've walked around this campus for the last four years plus seeing thousands of students, they might as well have been robots from my point of view. I haven't spoken to any college students enough to know what they're like. In this subreddit, you can see even the most supposedly high-achieving CS or Engineering students cracking stupid jokes. I find that pretty funny.
On top of the jokes, the reddit is also useful for finding information on various university courses. Recently, my friends and I have been trying to find easy general education requirement-satisfying courses at U of I to take in the spring, and there are dozens of posts listing easy classes, or comments describing the course load for a particular course. I also used the reddit to look at potential majors, as I applied to the college November first. I was completely undecided, and so i was considering just applying as undeclared, but I'd heard mixed things about the program.
The subreddit is also a great place to find out more about campus in general. If I want to know how good a certain campus restaurant is, I can find a dozen reviews on it within a minute or two of browsing around.
You integrated real information about the usefulness of Reddit along with its humorous side. Its a seamless combination. Good job.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great informational essay! Perfect for the genera of essay that we are working on today :) I too love the UIUC reddit and all of the mishaps that occur on it and I hope to create one of these someday.
ReplyDeleteFascinating. What do people say about being undeclared?
ReplyDeleteThis is an excellent summary of what the subreddit is like. Honestly, /r/uiuc has made me consider going to the U of I just for the shitposts
ReplyDeleteThe UIUC subreddit has always been hilarious. I remember waiting to see if Morgan did attend that final class or not but then the History professor never ended up taking attendance. But wait there's more, Morgan ended up coming out with an AMA later, and revealed that he was, in fact, at that final lecture. I think another notable meme to come out of it was a person voicing their complaint about dating on this campus.
ReplyDeleteThis is really funny. I never knew UIUC even had its own reddit page. In a way, it's good you're preparing yourself now for the stuff you're going to encounter next year. Anyway, this is a really interesting post.
ReplyDeleteI found this post super cool! I don't really use reddit at all so I liked learning what you use it for! I actually checked out the UIUC sub reddit after reading this post and its really funny haha. I will definitely use reddit more after reading this post!
ReplyDeleteHow much did Reddit give you for this advertisement? Really, though, this is quite funny, and I would absolutely sign Morgan's petition if I could be bothered to. I also wish you had posted this before Nov. 1, so that I could have gone onto this website and taken advantage of the reviews of classes and majors. Still, the information I gathered in reading this post might be useful for later.
ReplyDeleteGreat post Will. I also wrote a post about Reddit, so I see that you are a fan of my blog posts. The Morgan story is still so funny to me. The UIUC subreddit not only shows the humor that college students have, but it also shows their sense of solidarity. At the end of the day, college students or not, everybody likes to crack jokes here and there.
ReplyDeleteI agree, Reddit is the absolute best for getting UIUC student culture and learning which classes to avoid/take/how to study. I also follow the UIUC Memes for Somewhat Funded Teens, which doesn't have super important info, but is funny nonetheless.
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