<p>Common: Three absences = automatic F. No excuses. The student missed the material and deadlines. College is pretty rigid. </p>
<p>So the doctor is only available on Mondays. Is the class ALL DAY long? Couldn’t the appointment have been scheduled at least one time when this class was NOT taking place? Sorry, but your story doesn’t wash with me either. </p>
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<p>OP: you really need to make an appointment the counseling center at school, and probably the mental health center. Print off all your posts on cc and take them with you to begin a discussion on how you continually miss class, miss a *final<a href=“!”>/i</a>, miss deadlines, are unhappy at your transfer school, and yet you still expect that that you will be given grades like you were in HS.</p>
<p>Grad school should be the least of your worries at this point. Learning to become responsible for your day-to-day commitments is much more important to your future.</p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
<p>I agree with bluebayou. Take advantage of any and all academic and other counseling services that your current school offers. There is a pattern here and whatever the cause you are having difficulty coping with the demands of your college academic life. Set aside any urge to blame professors or explain the minutiae of why an of these problems unfolded as they did. Either you have been singularly unlucky or there is a deeper common thread in your own approach that seems to make it hard for you to put all the pieces together consistently. </p>
<p>OP- there is no professor on the planet who gives a %^&* about how much time and effort you are putting into the class if the results show that you have not mastered the material (which is what a C in a college course which is part of your major’s sequence suggests). I don’t know the particulars of your major- if you are an engineer getting a C in Victorian Poetry, then the professor is likely not going to view sub-par performance as problematic as long as you are attending every class and handing in assignments on time.</p>
<p>But if this class is part of your core degree requirements, the professor is absolutely within her rights to view your C’s, absences, and general attitude as evidence that you are not ready to pass the course and progress to grad school.</p>
<p>It’s not her job to cut corners to help you graduate. It’s YOUR job to fulfill the degree requirements to graduate. So approach her again, with a degree of humility, tell her that you guys have clearly gotten off on a bad foot, and that you’d like to hear what remediation you need in order to pass the class. Leave the subject of how inconvenient it would be to re-take the class out of the discussion (not the professor’s problem). Just go in and listen.</p>
<p>I think a calm visit with the Dean would be useful. That’s what the Dean of Students is for. </p>
<p>Got to wonder if there is a professor out there having a glass of wine with friends, and saying, “I have the most ridiculous, unreasonable student ever this semester.” </p>
<p>@Arabrab I officially nominate your response for “Top Ten Best Responses Ever on CC”.</p>
<p>While I get that many think the poster created his/her own situation, please keep in mind that the poster is a student. Mocking the OP doesn’t help and is disrespectful. </p>
<p>Unless and until the OP is ready to learn from past mistakes, own her own behavior, and set a little higher standard for herself, no one here will really be able to help her. JMO.</p>
<h1>1: It is common courtesy and respected by professors to notify them of an absence you are aware of before the class you will miss. To not do so means you do not value the class or the professor.</h1>
<h1>2: A C is considered failing in some cases, that is, some majors require a B or higher in the major classes or the student must retake. My college has some classes which require an A to move on to the next higher class. It is a confusing issue.</h1>
<h1>3: If you have a chronic illness, and have not talked to the university administration about accommodations, you are hurting yourself. It is an accommodation to miss class for doctor appointments not due to an acute condition.</h1>
<p>It sounds to me like you hate this professor and just want her to pass you.</p>
<p>However, from a professor’s point of view, if you missed two classes and did not notify her beforehand, and if you provided one note but not the other note which you “have” but haven’t gotten to her, you are not respecting her.</p>
<p>I used to accept doctor’s notes and other excuses from students. I do not any more. I make them go to the Dean of Students. Technically, the Dean of Students is the one who approves excuses for missing class for any reason, and they have training in privacy laws so your business isn’t public knowledge. The Dean of Students then notifies the professor of the approved absence and tells them to work with the student to allow them to make up work.</p>
<p>You seem quite huffy like “how dare she!” and “she is ridiculous!” and “I am getting lower grades than I deserve!”. My dear child, who do you think YOU are to judge a professor - (let alone to judge EVERY professor)? That is very likely her and likely others point of view. SHE is the boss, and when you get to a workplace, you need to follow the boss’ orders or change jobs. You need to put up with this woman for ONE semester and be done with it. You have to follow her rules.</p>
<p>The fact that you have a chronic illness is not her problem. UNLESS you notify the university and request accommodations. You do need to talk to the counseling center, to notify them that you are requesting accommodations. Your accommodations are that you are allowed to miss class occasionally, with a doctor’s note, due to your chronic illness. And if this all goes through the university, SHE and your other professors will be told by the Dean of Students (usually, at most colleges) that you missed class due to an approved excuse.</p>
<p>Take her out of the equation, make the Dean of Students tell her to work with you.</p>
<p>And for the love of Pete, be TOTALLY upset and earnest with the Dean of Students, do NOT take an attitude with him or her. If you want to go to graduate school, they are going to expect more maturity, more hours spent on class and research, than you are spending now. Often you’ll have a smaller group of people you have to deal with regularly. And often you’ll be asked to do research far beyond the hours that you are assigned.</p>
<p>I don’t see what’s so unreasonable. Nothing bad happened. You’re still in the class. You still have an opportunity to succeed. When I filter out the smog in your original post, it seems to my that your professor was trying to make two points.</p>
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<li><p>You’ve established a pattern of missing lectures. She’s not going to fail you for it, but she expects you to change your behavior in the future. That is a reasonable expectation. It is not for you to judge how important the missed lectures are to your education; the department and the professor get to make that judgment.</p></li>
<li><p>She’s aware that you want to go to graduate school. She knows that you’ve earned a few Cs. She wants you to know that Cs will be unacceptable in graduate school, and she thinks that a serious candidate for graduate school would do everything possible to stop earning Cs as an undergraduate. This is ALSO a reasonable expectation. (And since, as you yourself wrote, she’s not going to fail you for these grades, it’s not even an issue.)</p></li>
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