Going from a state school to a prestigious engineering institution, he was floored on the first day when a professor expected everyone to have already learned the material in the first six chapters of an algorithms textbook.

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Henry's experience also echoes what Paula England, a Stanford University sociology professor, learned when she co-edited "Unmarried Couples with Children, " which was published in 2007.

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Kocher, son of a physics professor at Oregon State University in Corvallis, says he learned about computing because he stayed home a lot, too lazy to bike the two miles into town.

FORBES: Issues & Ideas

It would have placed a large bureaucratic boot at the Labour leader's nether regions and kicked him out of the door faster than you could say Professor King. (The prof wrote a learned paper a few years back on how the BBC was too Anglo-centric).

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But UC David professor Michael Wilkes investigated and learned that the seminar was primarily a sales pitch about the prostate specific antigen (PSA) test, and that its main message was that men should get tested regularly beginning at age 40.

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Physical activity is a learned behavior, says one of the competition's judges, Avery Faigenbaum, a professor of health and exercise science at The College of New Jersey.

CNN: Schools given $25K to help kids move