Student Put Her ”College-Level Thinking Cap” on for a Strongly Worded Email
Published Oct. 11 2023, 10:12 p.m. ET
Have you ever wanted to give someone a piece of your mind? OK, that seems like an obvious question because of course you have. But most of the time we decide it's just not worth it even though being the bigger person sucks sometimes.
Except for when you decide not to be the bigger person. This is exactly what one student decided to do when she clapped back at her professor in an email. She even took it a step further and posted the email in a TikTok video for all to see. We break it all down below.
A student claps back at her professor in an email.
In a now-viral video with over 14.7 million views, 2.9 million likes, and 21.3k comments, @kknichelle4, who goes by Kay, posted the email exchange between her and her professor's email set to "Formation" by Beyoncé.
The professor's email reads: "Makayla, The program you wrote down is only 1/4 of the assignment. Please put your college-level thinking cap on and use the rubric attached to the Dropbox."
The video then includes two side-eye memes, which are in reference to the "college-level thinking cap" comment. Kay then posts a screenshot of her email back to her professor.
Kay's email reads:
Good evening professor,
I appreciate your feedback on my assignment. Thank god my "college-level thinking cap" was on when reading your previous email or else I would've completely missed how distasteful your response was. I think you have a bad habit of speaking down on others, which explains your student's sudden lack of attendance. Not only did you say it in an email (which will be forwarded to your higher-up) but you had the nerve to say it to my face as well...
Kay continues stating that she actually did complete the entire assignment originally, saying the professor would have noticed if she had her "Ph.D. thinking cap" on. Kay ends the emails by stating, "There's a way to speak to people, and maybe you felt like you could get away with it with your previous students but unfortunately, you had the wrong one on the right night." Woof.
People commented things like, "ATE HER UP AND LEFT NOTHINNNNNNN," "Somebody calls an ambulance for Ms. Ph.D.," and "I like how this is a PHYSICAL FITNESS & WELLNESS class too."
Kay posted a follow-up stating that the email wasn't even the first interaction she had with this professor. The professor actually said all of this to her face. This part of the story helps to clarify why Kay was so mad in the first place.
A couple of days after the initial video, Kay posted another update after she had the class. Kay had to ask her professor multiple times when they could have a conversation about the email, and the professor responded during her "office hours" and told her that she was disrespecting her. The conversation escalated and Kay ended up being kicked out of class and went straight to the dean to report her.
We don't get an update for a few more days and then finally Kay posts another TikTok video with screenshots of her emails between her and the registrar at her college with her switching out of this professor's class and into another one. The caption reads, "Peace out Ph.D. level thinking cap."
And people in the comments are rejoicing. One person wrote, "Good for you girl! I’m so happy this came back to my fyp," and another commented, "The update I was waiting for."
Glad to see Kay's issue got resolved and she got out of there.