<p>so i'm a senior and for one of the labs we have to take i have the worst professor like ever. She is threatening to fail me over two missed lectures. literally. it's an upper level lab and so more research oriented and there's a shorter lecture portion and the longer lab section. i had missed due to valid reasons, i had mandatory doctor's appointments which i have notes for, but i have only given her one of the notes since i have to get the other one still from my doctor. Anyways, i talked to her about it after she threatened to fail me over two absences which I have notes for and she was saying stuff about how she questions my competency in the course and if i'm even interested in the course. well if I got that far and passed all my other courses and am a senior applying to grad school doesn't that that show i'm competent enough. I was literally like shocked that she would say that she thinks i'm incompetent. it was like she was trying nitpick at every little thing. like she is so ridiculous and she was stating that the failure would be due to the absences and not the grades which i did all the work for the course up to this point and I literally devote the most time to this course that's how time consuming it is. I'm also a senior and i can't retake this course next semester since it would mess up my schedule which i already have mandatory courses i need to take next semester. i also cant withdraw because of tuition reasons. she's saying that she thinks i should audit it even though i've done all the work for it it's just the absences and i told her all of the above. she also read my grades on assignments and they were a's,b's,c's and she said that the C's was failing and then i corrected her and said a C is actually passing and she acknowledged that, that is how ridiculous she is she even stated a C was failing until i corrected her. i am still shocked that a teacher could be so unreasonable. anyways, she said i should talk to my advisor and the head of the department about it which I am going to do since my advisor was the one that said I needed to take this course this semester. so i wanted to know what would be the best thing I should do, i really want to avoid auditing or retaking the course because of all the reasons I listed. </p>
<p>Wondering if there is more to the story here? Certainly 2 absences that are supported with a doctors note would not be sufficient reason for a professor to suggest that you audit the class or to fail you. Are there other facts or history with this professor that are not included in your original post? Perhaps more than 2 absences?</p>
<p>If the facts are as you state them then I would indeed meet with head of the department and your advisor. I would be asking them for advice on how to respond to this professor.</p>
<p>No, there is literally no more to the story, i wish i could give evidence of how unreasonable and horrible she is but i don’t know how i would do that unless you have her personally. she is horrible i’ve never encountered such a horrible unreasonable professor, there is something wrong with her. there is no point in trying to talk sense or reason into her she will just come up with some nonsense. she kept going on about how we did a lot of group activity in those two lectures and i missed all that but that was exaggeration since the lecture is only 50 minutes long and we don’t even do that much group activity it’s mostly lecture, we do most of during the labs. And i had valid notes for them. She is trying to sabotage me and purposely fail me. Another person in my class already withdrew because of her as well. </p>
<p>I would discuss your concerns with your advisor, but I would probably continue in the class. I would try to do a good job on all the remaining assignments and schedule future doctor appointments for a different time. Does the syllabus describe the grading policy?</p>
<p>Based on your other threads, you seem to have a lot of problems with your professors. Have you considered that the problem might be with you and not with them?</p>
<p>If you had doctors appointments…did you get them cleared with the professor BEFORE you missed class? That would have been the appropriate thing to do.</p>
<p>I think you need to slow down.</p>
<p>Talk to your adviser. Try not to be so reactive when you are dealing with an authority figure. Try to listen to the message you are getting instead of getting so fired up that you are not hearing what is being said.</p>
<p>You are understandably upset at the idea that someone is challenging your competency. But you will need faculty in your corner if you are applying to grad school. So your first step is to work with this professor to address the concerns around your competency- ask for specific feedback of areas where you are weak, and then figure out a plan to remediate.</p>
<p>Don’t get all hot under the collar. Just because you are getting A’s, B’s and C’s doesn’t mean that this professor will automatically assume you are grad school material. Perhaps your absences aren’t the issue at all- perhaps this professor has formed an impression that you aren’t ready for grad school. So figure out what could have given that impression and work on fixing that before you decide that the professor is unreasonable.</p>
<p>And if you are as flippant with her as you are with us, I would agree that perhaps you are not that interested in the course. She is not going to pass you just because it would be inconvenient for you to have to take the class over again with more focus.</p>
<p>Most college students don’t spend so much time in class that it would be hard to schedule doctors appointments for times when you didn’t have class. I can see that she might feel put out that you chose her class to skip, not once, but twice.</p>
<p>^yes, this was my thought. You had to skip her class twice to have a doctor’s appointment? Why? Many 2x a week classes have an upper limit of 2-3 absences because you’ve missed a week to a week and a half of class at that point, and if a student told me that she missed my class because she had two <em>scheduled</em> doctor’s appointments, both of which she voluntarily scheduled during my class, I would also be miffed. Especially if she said she had a “valid excuse” for both of them but only showed up with one. I would also wonder whether she was interested in my class.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>How do you know what you missed if you weren’t there?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I’d be willing to bet a lot of money that this professor has many, many better things to do with her time than purposely fail/sabotage you. Why would she be trying to target you, specifically you? Answer: most likely she’s not. Missing two classes is not “a little thing,” and she’s not nitpicking. She might have meant that a C was failing in a colloquial sense, not the actual sense. Also understand that professors get irritated when students say “I need to pass this class because I can’t take it next semester because I am graduating and it doesn’t fit in my schedule…” That’s completely irrelevant to your performance in the class.</p>
<p>In any case, I think the first thing you need to do is drop your defensiveness and interact with this professor like an adult. Try to understand why she is saying the things she says, and address those problems without involving your emotions in it.</p>
<p>*</p>
<p>Since you are applying to grad school, I feel compelled to share that graduate professors could care LESS about notes. They don’t want them. They want you in class. And in graduate seminars you usually have to let the professor know ahead of time that you are going to miss a class for any reason, unless you are dying.</p>
<p>Also, in grad school, a C really is failing.</p>
<p>That was my thought, @mathmom I’m not sure what constitutes a mandatory doctor’s appointment or why two would have to be scheduled during this prof’s lecture as opposed to at a time when the OP was not in class. Obviously, I do not want details, but it may be that the prof has heard “doctor’s appointment!” one too many times. </p>
<p>On one hand, are doctors really known for their flexibility and broad hours? I have never had to miss a course for medical reasons before but in my experience at least doctor’s offices tend to be open at roughly the same time as your standard 9 to 5 office job and when most classes are scheduled. I don’t have a hard time believing that a doctor’s appointment – especially if it’s at a doctor that’s reasonably far away from the school – might conflict with class time. I know many doctors are going towards evening hours, Friday hours, and weekends but that’s hardly universal and it’s not all together unreasonable that someone might have to miss especially one of those science seminars that are three hours long.</p>
<p>On the other hand, how much attention and effort is the professor really supposed to be making here vs. the student? If the student is approaching the professor with the breathless block paragraph rant approach that he is using in the original post of this thread then I can see why the professor isn’t having any of that! A lot of times the difference between a positive and a negative reaction from someone is less of WHAT you are saying but HOW you are saying it. If you are asking your professor for some kind of favor – and a waiver of penalty for absences is a favor of a kind – then it pays to be as conciliatory as respectful as possible. </p>
<p>If she gets the impression that you think that she is “ridiculous” or “unreasonable” she is going to be less inclined to ignore what you’re saying. </p>
<p>I agree with everyone else who has posted. Take a deep breath and approach this situation like an adult. Don’t sound aggrieved or enraged or horrified by your evil professor’s evil ways. Just calm down and try to make her feel like you respect her as a person and as a teacher even if you really don’t. It’s honestly the best way to go about it, and not just in academia either. </p>
<p>Is this professor more or less unreasonable than the one who didn’t respond to your email? I agree with the poster who suggested that you need to look deep within and figure out why you keep creating these crisis situations for yourself by missing classes, labs, exams then stewing or heading out of town without just going to office hours. You seem to have years now of wondering why you can’t make things up or find things out when all it takes is showing up. Show up to class. Show up to lab. Show up to office hours. BAM! Easy peasy. :!! </p>
<p>Amen to that.</p>
<p>I have never heard of being expected to inform a professor in advance that you are going to miss a class. I can understand it being a big deal to miss a lab, but it sounds like the OP didn’t miss any labs, just a couple of lectures. The whole thing sounds odd.</p>
<p>Based on past posts, OP has a history of:</p>
<p>Difficulty communicating with professors.</p>
<p><a href=“professor never responded to email! - Parents Forum - College Confidential Forums”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1697682-professor-never-responded-to-email.html</a></p>
<p><a href=“emailing professors - College Life - College Confidential Forums”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-life/1586517-emailing-professors.html</a></p>
<p><a href=“grade curving - College Life - College Confidential Forums”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-life/1586526-grade-curving.html</a></p>
<p>Trouble adjusting to a new environment.</p>
<p><a href=“not sure about school.... - Parents Forum - College Confidential Forums”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1695174-not-sure-about-school.html</a></p>
<p><a href=“do not like my school.. - College Confidential Community - College Confidential Forums”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-confidential-cafe/1689075-do-not-like-my-school.html</a></p>
<p>Difficulty adhering to deadlines.</p>
<p><a href=“submitting app late - Parents Forum - College Confidential Forums”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1611376-submitting-app-late.html</a></p>
<p><a href=“urgent question!! - Transfer Students - College Confidential Forums”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/transfer-students/1572305-urgent-question.html</a></p>
<p><a href=“Urgent! - Transfer Students - College Confidential Forums”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/transfer-students/1473887-urgent.html</a></p>
<p><a href=“submitting late - Applying to College - College Confidential Forums”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/1467654-submitting-late.html</a></p>
<p><a href=“Urgent deadline q plz help - College Search & Selection - College Confidential Forums”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/1467470-urgent-deadline-q-plz-help.html</a></p>
<p>Failing to understand or follow class rules.</p>
<p><a href=“participation grade - College Life - College Confidential Forums”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-life/1588246-participation-grade-p1.html</a></p>
<p>Not making it to exams.</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-life/1466374-missing-exam.html”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-life/1466374-missing-exam.html</a></p>
<p>I’m inclined to believe that the current issue is more of a student-based problem than a professor-based problem (or something else).</p>
<p>OF COURSE THE PROFESSOR THINKS THE OP ISN’T SERIOUS!! BECAUSE THE OP INDEED IS NOT SERIOUS ABOUT THIS CLASS!!</p>
<p>Honestly. If the OP were serious about this class, he/she would have had the decency to not schedule any medical appointment during class.</p>
<p>If for some reason the first appointment could not be scheduled for any other time at all because of something having to do with an extremely unusual situation with the physician, then the OP should have discussed the pending absence with the professor and have arranged to make up the work that would be missed in advance of the first missed class.</p>
<p>There should have been no second missed class. If there needed to be, then the OP should have spoken with the professor again with sufficient anticipation of that absence to make up the work.</p>
<p>RE post 13. When I went to college, if we were going to miss a class because of an unavoidable conflict. We did let the prof know in advance. </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Based on the issues the OP has herself admitted to, I am amazed she has made it this far in school. I had to wonder if these threads were actually legit, or if she just enjoys pulling our legs.</p>
<p>And grad school?! </p>
<p>OP, no grad school program would put up with this kind of behavior. I sure hope you get it together soon.</p>
<p>Academic Munchausen?</p>
<p>to clarify, i have an ongoing health condition that i have to see the doctor for, and the doctor is only available one day a week on monday which is when the lecture portion is. this is why i have decided to change my doctor. i never missed a lab since i know those are more important. but i also had b’s and few a’s and she said still the overall grade was ‘failing.’ and in undergrad a C is not considered to be failing so in that context she’s incorrect.and for the amount of time and effort i put into her class i should not be failing. i gave her a note as well so she knows that i legitimately have been to the doctor but she is still saying other nonsense, like giving her a note doesn’t even matter to her. Also, i don’t care if she would think i’m ready for grad or not she’s not going to be living my life I am. My teacher doesn’t know me or my ability so saying that i’m incompetent and that i have no interest in her class is just her opinion, it’s not like she was trying to be supportive or helping me to pass the class in any way after everything i told her. This teacher is definitely unreasonable because my professor that didn’t respond to my email did respond eventually and let me make up the exam. </p>