A CompSci professor forwarded this to his 300 level class listserv. It seems like a good candidate for the CompSci => MIS => IST chain of failure.
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Dear Dr. X,
I was wondering if you are going to have any other types of chances for extra credit for the class. Frankly, I don't think the way it is set up is totally fair to everyone in the class. I full heartedly admit that I am not as stellar of a programmer as a lot of my classmates. What takes me a week of hard coding, asking questions, coming to get help from you, pulling my hair out, etc. takes a lot of people just a few hours. I am struggling just to get my program to compile, let alone get it to come up with the right output. I have no chance of being able to add extra stuff to get the extra credit. The difficulty of the program's are going up, as well as my time I spend on them. Yet, my grades are going down. I am not saying I don't deserve the grades I get, because a lot of time I can't get the right output no matter how hard I try. Basically, the really good programmers who have been doing C++ or some other type of programming since they were young can spend a few hours and maybe a little extra to get the extra credit, while me and I am sure there are others are struggling to keep up. I don't mean to complain, but I have learned over the last few years to look out for myself. Extra credit should be given to those that put the time to do a little extra. Unfortunately, most of the people that do that are very knowledgable and it takes them just a short time. I on the other hand, put a great deal of time and pride in to my work just to get it to do the "minimum". The question is I guess, is time or knowledge more deserving of extra credit?

he coulda sumed up that 400 word thesis with one sentance

"is there any chance i can get some extra credit"

if i were a teacher my response to that would be "loser -- F"

Gee boss, I know that I am not as talented as some of your other employees. I know they get work done faster and with better results, but I try really hard and my heart is in the right place and I don't think it is right for other people to be rewarded for their ability. So can I please have that raise?

whomever spray painted my sig on the concrete floor of the TJ tunnel years ago (I'm pretty sure it's faded now...) probably meant it for this guy...

It's a friggin 300 level class! If you routinely have problems with compiler errors at this level, then perhaps you are in the wrong class and/or degree program. Sure, I have my fair share of compiler errors, but I FIX THEM. I know what they mean, and often it was just carelessness on my part. If you have so many problems with compiler errors, how the hell are you going to debug your code when (not if) you discover run time errors? They don't print a nice explaination and line number location for themselves. So far, the programs in this class haven't really pushed the boundaries of what we should know. Most of the stuff has been from 153. S/he's gonna be screwed when we actually learn new stuff.

I don't understand how we get so many incompetent programmers at this school.

I think it goes something like: Gee I graduated from high school. What am I going to do with my life now? Well, I like playing with my Play Station. I know, I'll write computer games for a living.

"Yeah, I'll write computer games! That doesn't require any math! I hate math!"