I just didn’t want to deal with all the complaining.

Fuckin' joke college is. When I was a TA (not at a highly competitive or Ivy league school...as if that even matters), I flat refused to change grades for anyone (unless, of course, I made a mistake). Crying is for kids, and I was very clear in the beginning of that class that I didn't pass out grades; you earned them, for better or worse. And that this is fucking college, and you are now all adults, so go fuck yourself if you want to be a whiny bitch. The universe is indifferent to your sniffling, and so am I.

I once had a student cry to me, because she "tried really hard" and didn't deserve a D (her basic argument was that she had written a lot of words on her lab report). I told her that sometimes people don't do a good job, but that one score wouldn't affect her overall grade in the class too heavily, so not to worry about it. She sulked away. A few days later the prof whose class it was came to me and tried to "reason" with me that the student deserved a higher score. None of his reasons had anything whatsoever to do with the quality of the work. I told him it was his class, and he can pass out whatever grad he wants, if that's the way he wants to run the show. I have no idea what he did, because I never wanted to find out.