His university scammed him out of $10,000 and his workspace — so he used their mandatory thesis acknowledgment to settle the score permanently

A university makes rules to protect its students and guide them towards the right track. However, sometimes rigid policies and punitive codes of conduct add more chaos to students’ lives than any actual help. These headstrong rules end up making students resent the university. In a June 21 Reddit post, a PhD student (u/1ce_dragon) shared how their university’s entitled demand forced them to plan for petty revenge. Well, despite providing neither funding nor support for their thesis, the university expected the student to write an acknowledgement and also charged them $10,000 for a mistake they didn't commit. Frustrated, they gave in to their demands, but with a sarcastic twist. The post has received over 5,500 upvotes online. 

The hardest page to write

The person had almost completed their PhD thesis. They had already finished the main text, which their supervisors had found satisfactory. But when they checked the list of requirements, they realized that the acknowledgement was missing from their report and made a big deal out of it. According to the university, the PhD student needed to thank everyone who contributed to their thesis. The acknowledgement wasn't the problem, but the author said that the university had only made their thesis completion difficult, and they couldn't think of anyone who supported them. 

As the person recalled, their journey towards finishing the thesis wasn’t too pleasant. After one of their supervisors retired due to unforeseen circumstances, things went downhill. They listed things that they were forced to participate in due to the university’s poor management. At first, the students were compelled to pay $10,000 because of an administrative error. Moreover, the university took away their desk, the only place they had to work on their research. After all this rigmarole, writing an acknowledgement wasn’t easy for the author. 

Three pages of payback

Fed up with the entitled demand, the person decided to use the acknowledgments page to seek revenge on the university. While most students wrote one to two pages, they wrote three. In the first two pages, they thanked everyone, from supervisors and patrons to their flight school and their family members. On the last page, the author called the university and said, "I dropped a very dry paragraph acknowledging the university, thanking them for the wake-up call for my development into another career, and giving me an experience to foster autonomy by doing my own maintenance work and sourcing my own funding." Eventually, the PhD thesis passed the final validation, and the author said it would be placed in the university library forever, as an inspiration for the younger generations of students on how to write an acknowledgment.

Plight of PhD students

It seems the author is not the only student who is unhappy with their PhD institution. According to a study (by Gopika SenthilKumar, Natalia M. Mathieu, and Julie K. Freed, among others), studies show that as many as 50% of graduate students report symptoms of depression, anxiety, or burnout while pursuing the course. In fact, 75% of students report feeling stressed as the pressures of a PhD pile up on their shoulders, from laboratory work to administrative paperwork to teaching classes, and funding their own thesis.

Similarly, a Nature survey, as cited by Enago Academy, says that one of the primary causes of this stress and anxiety is the lack of adequate assistance. Of thousands of students surveyed, 20% reported they didn’t get any support from their own institution. 

'Passive-aggressive hall of fame'

Meanwhile, in the comment section, dozens of fellow graduates swooped in to appreciate and support the “petty revenge” the person took from the university. u/doctormoneypuppy said, “And you’ve learned the most important life lesson – ‘ain’t nobody’ looking out for you better than you. Crush it!” u/thresholdofadventure remarked, “As someone who just finished her own dissertation (defended in February) — I applaud the petty revenge! Congratulations on your doctorate, too!”

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