It sounds like one of those stories people repeat that didn't really happen, but it did.

I was on scholastic probation at the time for bad grades, (D's in req classes I hated) and took that class that summer for a couple of easy A's. I got my A's, got off schol prob, and that fall made (IIRC) 3 D's and a B or some shit, and was right back on it.
I was a terrible student- why waste my time with shit like Eng Comp or Brit Lit, shit I'd taken ad nauseam in HS, when I'd get plenty of writing in my major? So I did ok in my major courses, merely passed ths shit they threw at me like Lit or Comp, or (can you believe this?) a fucking PE requirement! In college! I took fencing and, when they cancelled that, ROTC. In the end I got sick of them, and they got sick of me, and I quit/they kicked me out.