Howdy all. I’m having a bit of an issue with one of my grades I’m hoping I can get some advice on. At my university, final grades are due at the end of this week. Final exams were last week.
On Monday, my professor randomly entered a grade as a zero for a quiz I know I completed and scored well on. This brought me from a B to a C in the class. I thought this would be a simple fix, so I sent a polite email to the professor the same day the grade was entered and I still haven’t heard back from him. To compound issues, the chair of the department decided to go on vacation until the end of the month.
I suspect that the reason for this is that the quiz in question I had made up a few days after the rest of the rest of the class due to an excused absence for a university-sanctioned event. I had emailed him the documentation of the excuse, but maybe it got lost somewhere along the way.
Who should I contact next to get this resolved? Thank you in advance for your input.
Final grades are never final. They can be changed after the date, particularly if it’s just a clerical error. You can certainly resend the email to the professor, but he too may be on vacation. Or simply go to his office. I would not spend time freaking out about this. There is no reason to escalate the issue yet.
You’re right; it’s a clerical error. Maybe the email got lost in the shuffle. Do you have any idea how many emails professors get per day at this time of year? I know it’s hard to believe, but professors are human, and they, too, make innocent mistakes. Go see the professor in person, if possible. Do not go to the chair–it will make you look ridiculous to do so.
Above posters are correct, not worth making a major issue with this at this time. Wait for the prof to come back and deal with it then. The only circumstance that would compel me to do anything about it now would be if the lower grade causes you to go on academic probation or something to that effect or if it cause you to loose funding. Better to have those corrected before they become an issue. Just getting a grade corrected for the record should be no big deal.
Are you and this professor both still on campus? If so, stop by his office. This is a busy week for professors too.
Thank you all for your advice. I definitely didn’t want to make waves. While I am by campus, I doubt even if the professor was in town he’d be available, given that he wasn’t even in his office during his scheduled hours on dead week.
I rushed to address this because of past experience: after my senior year of high school, a teacher entered my grade wrong and didn’t check his email for a month. I thought I might lose my scholarship. Basically, the situation HPuck mentioned. The stakes weren’t as high this time, but I didn’t want to have this drag out again.
But, anyhow, that’s all behind me and this is resolved. The professor entered final grades online I didn’t see until now. Apparently, despite the error being in the grade book, I still earned a B because of the curve! Again, thanks everyone.
Even incorrect grades due to a clerical error are corrected even if you didn’t know it right away. The transcript office really want to record the correct grade. Talk to them for guidance, but that office may have greater success contacting the faculty and verifying the correct grade than a student would.