<p>This is going to sound a little odd. So this is my first quarter at UC Davis as a cell bio major. I'm taking 5 rigorous classes and am part of the honors program. I should have all A's in those classes except...general chem. I actually feel I understand the chem material quite well, but for some unique circumstances (some outside my control), I got a C- on one midterm and a F on the other. I do not have documentation of those reasons (the first one I was sick and let myself of the study hook a little, the second was a one time mental health crisis, but I never checked into any institutions) so there can be no special compromises. I <em>might</em> be able to pull a C in the class if I ace the final. The UC's let you repeat a failed course and only count the retaken grade in GPA. The D/F will stay on the transcript, however. It is too late to formally drop the course. So, should I just intentionally bomb the final, accept an F, and be fine? I am quite confident I could get an A on the retake (and I am NOT overestimating myself, honestly). If I were to get the C in the class, It would basically derail my entire college career before it even really started. I will get kicked out of the honors program (which gives me priority registration) for sure, and it will take the rest of my 4 years here (more than that without my priority registration) to make up a relatively decent GPA. I could still have a 4.0 with the retake...I would just need to explain the F to grad schools. Please help, I'm more than a little stressed right now and my advisers are booked for weeks to come. Thank you.</p>
<p>When I was a TA (at another UC school), there were always a few students who would hand in blank final exams in order to fail the class, and I’ve known people who have asked professors to turn their C- into a D (after they received their final grades) so that they can retake the class and have it replace that class in their GPA. You’re definitely not alone in this situation, and in certain circumstances, I think it’s a valid option.</p>
<p>Would you be able to drop the class with a W? I know the drop deadline for my school (with a W) was fairly late in the quarter, so you might still have time to do so. In my opinion, a W is better than an F, but I don’t have anything in particularly to back up that assumption. If nothing else, I don’t believe it’ll affect your GPA, and a W or two shouldn’t hurt you as long as you don’t make a habit of it.</p>
<p>If you got an F, would you be removed from the honors program (at least, until you could make up the class again)? If so, taking the W might be preferable.</p>
<p>Sorry, but how is getting a C going to get you thrown out of Honors, but an F would be okay? o.O</p>
<p>I’m assuming you’re in this program: [UC</a> Davis - Davis Honors Challenge](<a href=“UC Davis University Honors Program”>UC Davis University Honors Program)
If those are your requirements, a C isn’t the end of the world. Even an F might not get you kicked out, but that depends on the relative weights of your classes.</p>
<p>But honestly, this is college. A C isn’t that bad of a grade, and a 4.0 generally isn’t a realistic goal. One C isn’t going to destroy your life. I would stick with it, make sure you pass, and move on. It’s a waste of time to retake a class if you understand the material… spend your time learning new things, not stressing out over GPA.</p>
<p>A W is pretty much out of the question unless I somehow get the medical excuse (which is VERY unlikely). It is past the drop deadline and a W will only be granted for “well documented” circumstances…mine may not be considered well documented, although I’m still exploring that option. As for the honors program, the GPA is checked at the end of the year so I would have time to turn my little pet F into an A. Come to think of it, I could probably stay despite a C…but still, you are supposed to have a superb GPA such that the inevitable bad grades in crazy upper division engineering courses (I was going to switch into biomedical engineering) would be cushioned. Of course I do not expect a 4.0 at the end of my stay here. It just really bothers me to have used up all my “insurance” my very first quarter in a class that i DO actually understand… thank you for all your advice though :)</p>
<p>As for exploring the “special circumstances” route, can they ask for medical records? could I voluntarily supply those…or are they banned from even seeing them?</p>
<p>I don’t believe you have to show them your medical records, but they can ask for documentation for your illness. What that entails probably depends on who’s asking, but I know friends who were able to take exams late or receive incompletes by submitting a note from their doctor saying that they were unable to take the exam for medical reasons. I don’t know what your school would accept, though. You can always petition to drop the course and see what happens. The worse they can say is no, but if they say yes, then there’s no problem.</p>
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<p>Wow.</p>
<p>I’ve never been in this situation, but what the hell is with colleges making rules that are gamable like this?</p>
<p>So…you’re worried that getting a C will get you kicked out of the honors program, but you seem to think that getting an F won’t?</p>
<p>That doesn’t even make sense. </p>
<p>Generally there is some kind of grace period with honors programs. You might go onto some type of academic probation/limbo kind of period where your honors program is concerned. They usually give you a semester or so to bring your grades up before kicking you out of the program.</p>
<p>I’d just take the grade and move on. You still have 7 more semesters to worry about bringing your GPA up. A C isn’t the end of the world.</p>
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<p>I always thought it was ridiculous when students handed in blank finals–another TA had to explain it to me the first time it happened. I had a close friend that had their C- turned into a D, and for her, it made sense to do so.</p>
<p>I always thought the rule was to help students who struggled for reasons that were unrelated to the course material (social or personal issues that interfered with coursework, difficulty adjusting to college, etc)–sort of like a second chance for students, which I’m all for. The D/F still stays on the transcript so it’s not like they can hide it, but it doesn’t have to tank their GPA. And it’s not like you can do it with all of your classes. There’s a cap on how many times you can replace a D/F grade (it was 16 units at my school, which is the equivalent of an average quarter of classes), which makes sense if it was originally intended for freshmen having trouble adjusting to college (I don’t know if that’s true or not though).</p>
<p>@baktrax…yes, that second chance is exactly what I’m desperate for. I would have never imagined being here…and I would have ridiculed the system myself just a month or so ago. Lesson=learned and I think I will watch myself more carefully in the future. If I do get “saved” so to speak, I feel the bit of guilt would actually motivate me really well in the future even if this whole mess isn’t entirely my fault. I’d get pretty depressed if the rest of my college would be focused on “paying” for some fluke. I feel like I would never take a single risk and I would just structure everything around fluffing GPA.</p>
<p>That’s not the right way of looking at it. You don’t need to spend the rest of your college career trying to “patch up” your GPA. You just need to do the best that you can do. People make mistakes. That’s part of being human. All you can do is accept it and move on. I can basically guarantee you that there are plenty of people in the class that would be very happy to finish it with a C.</p>
<p>I just had a physics exam last week, and from the sounds of it there are some people freaking out because there’s basically no way that they’re going to pass the class after this last exam. Unfortunately you can’t really change something that’s already happened though.</p>
<p>I think they should just let you retake any class you want but let only the most recent grade affect your GPA, credit hours, etc.</p>
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<p>That might lead to undesirable outcomes as well. Someone who’s not rushed retaking classes they got an A- in so they can get that 4.0? Can make the school look bad, might lead to more uncertainty about class enrollments.</p>
<p>Now, what might actually make sense is if you could retake a class to get credit, but retaking didn’t alter your GPA, there would be no incentive to do it anything other than getting the major, which is really the point.</p>
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<p>I think the issue with that is that this could lead to really impacted classes, since you could have tons of people retaking classes that they’ve already passed. I could also see that as really inflating GPAs, since a lot more people could just “try again” to raise their B to an A and get a higher GPA. It might also not be entirely fair to lowerclassmen if they have to compete against upperclassmen in lower-division courses. Presumably those have have taken the class before will do much better than those who haven’t. It’s similar to why (at my school at least) they don’t let you retake classes for credit (whether the credit was obtained through AP classes, community college classes, or classes taken at the school), since you’ve already received credit for the course and presumably learned the material already.</p>
<p>I do believe that you could technically retake any course you want at my school, but you wouldn’t receive any credit for it and it doesn’t factor into your GPA. I do think it’ll show up on your transcript though; you just don’t get credit for it. Retaking a class that you failed for credit is the exception, rather than the rule.</p>
<p>Huh. I just checked my university’s undergraduate catalogue, and it says that we can repeat any course up to 3 times with the most recent grade included in the GPA and the others on the transcript with an “E” for excluded. So, though the old attempts will still be there, you can basically improve any grade 3.9 and down. (I don’t go to a UC, though; this is a regional university in the Midwest) </p>
<p>So, depending on the school, it might still be on your transcript with the grade you received, and that may be important to you if you want to go for grad school. </p>
<p>As for what you want to do, I’d check with an advisor. Ask them wheat most people do, what your school’s specific requirements/rules are, etc.</p>
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<p>Did this in high school. It really doesn’t reflect my actual work from school since when I re-took the classes, I knew the material, had past tests/quizzes, and would replace my B’s with A’s which is why my GPA was so high. It’d be extremely unfair in a college setting IMHO.</p>
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<p>Isn’t a GPA supposed to indicate how well you understand the material? If you get an A the second time, doesn’t that show you understand it better?</p>
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<p>If the class isn’t graded on a curve, why does it matter?</p>
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<p>If they want the 4.0, who cares? If that means they have to spend more time before getting their degree, so be it.</p>
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<p>That could discourage students from retaking it even if it would be to their benefit to understand the material better (for later courses, etc.), since getting the GPA boost has become expected nowadays.</p>
<p>@emberjed:</p>
<p>But part of the point of college is to learn and challenge yourself (in my opinion, at least). That’s why the material is supposed to get more complex and in depth as you complete higher level coursework, not just to get the highest GPA possible. If students (and the college because they would need to invest in more professors and classroom space to accommodate all of the “retakes” of classes) are spending all of their time and resources retaking courses that they already passed (and presumably already know the material for), then there are less resources to devote to more advanced work (like seminar classes for upperclassman, courses devoted to in depth exploration of more specific topics, etc). It’s hard to support an upper div cancer biology or bioinformatics class, if you have to open up three more sections of general bio to accommodate students who want to get a perfect GPA (and more will need that perfect GPA because their now competing against other students that are retaking classes to get a 4.0). Eventually, a student’s GPA could become meaningless because it would be less a measure of well they perform academically and more a measure of how much time they can spend retaking classes. Graduate or professional schools will look at the transcript, but there are other situations where GPA is taken at face value without looking at your school records.</p>
<p>And retaking the class to get an A doesn’t necessarily mean that you know the material better. It could just mean that you know how the professor writes their test, what questions they ask or what topics they like to test on, and you’ve already completed all of the assignments so you know exactly what to expect. Even if the class isn’t graded on a curve, that’s still unfair to students who haven’t taken the class before, who would comparatively get a lower grade than the students in the class who have already taken (and done well in) this course before. They may not have the money or the time to retake the course again to improve their GPA and comparatively may have a lower GPA than their fellow graduates.</p>
<p>And it’s not just unfair in terms of grades. If students who have already taken the class are retaking it, then they are taking spots in the classroom that could have been given to a first or second year who needs that class to move on with the sequence in their major. At my school, at least, there is already enough scrambling for spots in some of the more impacted classes that there really isn’t a need to have students taking classes 2 or 3 times. I’m sure professors would hate it too because then they may have to drastically rewrite their tests to accommodate for students that have already taken their exams.</p>
<p>If it’s just about understanding the material better, a student who already passed the class could very well sit in on it again, just without getting credit for it (if it’s a large class; for smaller classes, they may need the professor’s permission).</p>
<p>That’s, of course, assuming that a large majority of students do retake classes to get the grade replaced in their GPA. If no one does it, then it doesn’t really matter if it’s offered as a policy or not haha. I just don’t see it as something the system (at my school, at least) could support, if a large portion of students take advantage of it.</p>