Said
Ms. Magazine article about
glomming is a
greatly exaggerated view of
undergraduate life by a disgruntled
grad student who has since transferred to another
university. I suspect the previous
cut-and-paste writeup was also written by someone unfamiliar with
Caltech undergrauate
life.
That is not to say glomming does not happen. Combine high concentrations of socially clueless teenaged males, a 2:1 male:female ratio, and an environment where students homework, do problem sets and crash in close proximity 24/7, and there are bound to be those who either knowingly or unknowingly become obnoxious annoyances. However, it is more an unfortunate side-effect of the ratio and the types of students that go to a tech school than the pervasive element of student life that Ms. Magazine makes it out to be. One common definition of glomming is "unwanted attention."
Further Reading
http://www.msmagazine.com/aug01/college3.html
http://goobnet.caltech.edu/whine/20010805.html
http://robinsworld.editthispage.com/2001/08/03