[fdej]

In my case, I only had to use a predetermined stylesheet for the title page.

I've heard of one university (there must be others) where there's a thick compendium that specifies exactly which font to use where on each page, what spacings and margins to use, how to format the table of contents, etc. Not actually a LaTeX stylesheet you can use, but a list of rules that you manually have to make sure your thesis conforms with. Of course, the rules were written with MS Word in mind, but math/CS/science people who need to use LaTeX have to replicate the rules in detail. Of course, there's a person employed by the university to check that your submitted thesis exactly conforms with the rules, or else it will be rejected.

The person who told me this might have embellished the story, but sadly it sounds all too plausible to me.

[analog31]

20+ years ago, my university's formatting rules were pre-computer-age, and the asked a guy in the IT department (a friend of mine) to create e a new set of rules. The new rules were entirely based on MS Word.