Last year, Her Campus collected roommate horror stories. Well, it’s 2020, so it’s time to stay current with the world’s events and do Zoom horror stories. Enjoy the stories that were submitted below!
*Submissions were lightly edited for length and clarity.
“I was in a large (100+) lecture and my prof asked a question. A girl answered in the chat (her screen was off) and my professor asked her to turn her camera on so he could see who answered the question. The girl typed into the chat ‘I’m too ugly rn’ and my professor laughed and moved on.” –Barnard 2020
“In my Econ class, someone was crying and yelling on an unmuted mic about having to cancel their trip to Paris.” –Columbia 2022
“Someone was cooking while in my Spanish class which we all thought was pretty funny so I screenshotted our class. I wasn’t on mute so everyone heard the screenshot noise and my icon popped up. The girl got really annoyed that I screenshotted her, as did my teacher.” –Barnard 2022
“One time I was in office hours for my statistics class. There were only around five of us in there so we all had audio and video turned on. I was in my basement and my cat loudly threw up at the bottom of the stairs, then my grandma came downstairs and practically yelled ‘oh! somebody threw up down here!’ I am 1000% sure everyone heard her but I just said nothing and hoped everyone would ignore it.” –Barnard 2022
“Honestly not even a horror story but my TA was day-drinking during our recitation LOL.” –Barnard 2023
“I was presenting in my seminar, and then my dad hit himself against something nearby, yelling owww really loudly. I pretended it didn’t happen, but I was mortified.” –Barnard 2021
“We were in breakout groups for partner work and we were both reading and my partner said something and the prof was there. We didn’t notice him enter. I don’t know how long he was sitting there as we were reading silently.” –Barnard 2022
“This guy in one of my classes has shown up in a different colored wife beater every day since we started Zoom classes. He just sits there flexing in his wifebeater — we have this course four times a week. Every morning I get up and the first thing I see on Zoom is him sitting there in his new colored wife beater. I just am so confused by this man.” –Barnard 2022
“I had a large discussion section at 9:10 am and even though I’m still in EST I was planning on sleeping through it anyway. I woke up at 9:00, joined the call on my computer, rolled back over and fell asleep. Turns out discussion had been canceled and turned into office hours … After I fell back asleep and was fully out when I heard my TA repeatedly calling my name from the left side of my bed but my sleeping brain freaked out and believed he somehow got in my bedroom. I woke up in a frenzy to find myself the only member in his Zoom office hours. I guess I deserved it.” –Barnard 2023
“My professor did half of a lecture, thinking we could see the powerpoint, but we couldn’t and we were talking about how we were all watching her face instead of the powerpoint in the group chat. She didn’t notice it until the end of class, and she was in the group chat, too!!!” –Barnard 2021
“So for my language class, we are required to unmute ourselves since it’s a discussion style based class and so someone’s dog started barking so loud in the background that there was complete silence. The person said, ‘Sorry that’s my dog, I’ll be back really quick.’ An hour later, she didn’t come back and idk what happened to her or the dog.” –Barnard 2022
“During my class my professor tried to switch between her ‘whiteboard’ and a OneNote document, and she lost the Zoom meeting so she couldn’t see anything about the class. Then she spent five minutes trying to find the class on her computer and she couldn’t find it so had us log out of the class and join again. Finally after a few minutes she got the class back up and running.” –Barnard 2023
“17% attendance.” –Columbia 2020
“I invited a kid from 4chan to f*ck up the Econ Lecture.” –Columbia 2022
“So I drive to my grandma’s house every morning for my 8:40 Shakespeare seminar. She lives alone so this is fun for her and it allows me to bring groceries to her as well. Anyway, I’m not one to talk in a seminar so I just muted myself the whole class. The next day I come she has a glass of water on the table. Her: ‘it’s for you.’ Me: ‘ok, why?’ Her: ‘Because I thought you were going to talk this time’ … The sass!!! To her credit, I did talk during that class.” –Barnard 2022
Even in these strange times, it can be helpful to find humor in the idea of online classes. Her Campus Columbia Barnard wishes you the best of luck as you continue your adjustments to Zoom University!