<p>Especially if profs grade on a scale...do students help each other out? Do students try to be the best? Is there always that 1 student in each class that stands out and is the teacher's favorite or is everyone equal?</p>
<p>Short answer: It depends.</p>
<p>Long answer: There will always be someone that’s cutthroat, but just how cutthroat the class overall (and the individual in question) is varies depending on the school and class. </p>
<p>Speaking of a school’s culture in general: Some schools tend to be more cutthroat/competitive as a whole, others have little to no competitiveness, and most are somewhere in the middle. I personally go to a school that’s somewhere in the middle: People are competitive without being cutthroat about it, and most will help classmates if they’re able to and are given the chance.</p>
<p>As for the class, if it’s a class where there’s only a set amount of people getting a particular grade (which I’ve never seen in my classes thus far), of course people will be more competitive. In my experience with curves, people actually cooperate more when there’s a curve. That could be because the curved classes I’ve been in are math/science classes and tend to be more difficult as a whole. The fact that my school tends to not be cutthroat could also have something to do with it. Maybe the people in those classes just happened to not be the competitive type. There are a variety of factors, and in all likelihood it will be different to some extent at any other school.</p>
<p>To your last question, I’ve only seen one time where someone was obviously trying to be the best and kissing up to professor to try to be their favorite. It backfired, and the professor and other students in the class got annoyed with it pretty quickly. As a general rule, lecture classes are too big to really stand out, let alone be the professor’s favorite. Of course, if you go to office hours and make it a point to talk to the professor outside of class, you’re much more likely to stand out. Even then, most professors don’t play favorites from what I’ve seen.</p>