I took a class during the winter quarter of my senior year, and for some reason the professor gave me a C when I should have received a B. I emailed her about it in early March, and she admitted making a mistake and agreed to change it. Part of the problem though, is that she misplaced some of my final papers, and although we knew that the grade was at least a B, we weren’t sure of the actual numerical grade. Several weeks went by, and eventually she stopped responding to my emails asking when she was going to submit the grade change, and if she’d found my papers. I went to her office a couple of weeks before the end of spring quarter and she said that she planned to submit the grade change at the end of the school year when she turned in the grades for all of her current students. The school year ended May 21, and the C is still on my transcript.
I took this class for my minor, which wasn’t really related to my major. Will one C hurt my chances of getting into Grad school? I graduated after spring quarter, so it would be a hassle to go back to the school to get the grade taken care of, especially since the professor doesn’t seem too concerned with fixing the problem. Should I bother?
I’d make an issue of it. There is a world of difference between a C, which is “average work” and a B, which is “above-average work”. This makes a difference in stuff like financial aid, particularly merit scholarships.
You should have gone to the department head as soon as you felt it was taking too long. Especially since she ignored your emails. Yes, professors are busy, but students are a big part of their work. If there ain’t students, they won’t have a job. Too many seem to forget this.
I went to talk to the ombudsman about the problem, and they recommended that I talk to the professor face to face before going up the chain of command. I happened to catch her just as she was leaving her office, and she promised to submit the grade change. I thought everything was taken care of until the deadline for grade sumbissions passed without my grade being switched.
It happened to me once in a physics lab. The professor gave me a form to fill out. I filled it out and took it to the lab instructor. I signed it, the lab instructor signed it, the professor signed it. The professor took it to the department office, and they entered it into the computer. It took 20 minutes, tops.
I don’t know how the bureaucracy works at your school, but it shouldn’t be a big deal. Clerical errors are a part of life, and they should have procedures for correcting them. Nag the professor, then nag the department head.
I just recently had to fix a problem where a teacher had omitted my grade entirely! :eek:
I was able to contact the teacher, and as it turned out she had already fixed the problem by the time I got a hold of her (whew!) turns out they were using some new grading software and she thought the grades were submitted when they really weren’t.