Laura Marx is yet another senior who foundherself shut out of her Core-of-choice. "When Iwas lotteried out I was very upset. I was livid."

Tzu-lu said, 'I should like to hear what youhave set your heart on.' VI. 26

"I'd been planning on taking it for threeyears. I felt like by not taking this course, Iwasn't going to graduate," Marx explains. TheMaster said, 'Even with a man who urges himself onin his studies as though he was losing ground, myfear is still that he may not make it intime.' VIII. 17

Marx was there when the class list was postedand things got ugly in the lecture hall. "Therewas a mob of thirty enraged seniors standingaround the stage," all of them trying to statetheir case to the head TF.

The Master said, 'To attack a task from thewrong end can do nothing but harm.' II. 16

Marx was one of the lucky ones. She, along withsome other seniors, eventually got into the courseafter she stated her case in a letter to the headTF. But for those seniors who are too lazy towrite, there's another way:

The Master said, 'I have never deniedinstruction to anyone who, of his own accord, hasgiven me so much as a bundle of dried meat as apresent.' VII. 7

Dried meat? Whatever..