How Accurate Is The Pass By Catastrophe Exam Urban Legend?

Like almost all urban legends, the "passing by catastrophe" legend and benefit varies depending upon the teller.  Basically, create one wheel with any number of tragedies — mass violence, a traumatizing death, natural disaster — and create another with any number of supposed outcomes — free room and board, automatically passing all classes, etc. — and you've got your own college urban legend generator.

And then there are the meta legends. Like the one that the Stanford Daily describes, saying if an earthquake occurs during a final exam, everyone passes. Or as Salarship says, if the university burns down, everyone automatically gets a free degree.

Of course, it's impossible to prove a negative, and short of carefully reading the policies of every last one of the 4,360 degree-granting institutions in the U.S., there's no saying that every last such urban legend is untrue. Salarship does a pretty good job of providing evidence that "passing by catastrophe" and its related variations are myths. But on a few occasions, universities have extended some leeway to their students in the wake of a catastrophe.

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