<p>so i emailed a professor about making up an exam before the start of the exam with a valid excuse, and he never responded! it was last week and i had to go out of town over the weekend so couldn't talk to him then. He still hasn't responded and it's been a couple days. Now i'm panicking because this midterm exam is worth like half our grade. He's known to be a really chill laidback type of teacher so should I just talk to him in person about it?why wouldn't a professor respond to an email regarding such an urgent matter? is it because he's that type? we have class tomorrow, and his office hours are tomorrow before class. should i go to his office hours tomorrow to ask or in class? i wanted to talk to him sooner so I could take it before he hands it back or anything since it's like an essay exam. i mean it's really not my fault since i emailed him beforehand with a valid excuse and i shouldn't have to fail or anything because he didn't respond.</p>
<p>Have you tried to telephone him? Look in your school’s directory or on his webpage. They surely have his phone # somewhere. Resend the original e-mail with the original time stamp. Go to his office and see if he is in office hours or not. Put a note under his door if he is not in or go to dept office and ask them to put a note in his mailbox. What does the syllabus say about proper procedure to follow?</p>
<p>Pick up the phone. Call him. Leave a message. If there is a departmental secretary, call him or her and leave a message as well. Walk over to the office and leave a note on or under his door. BTW - you should have done all of these at the very beginning if you needed a prompt response.</p>
<p>Talk to him in person. He may have looked at the email on his phone and made a mental note to answer it later when he got to his computer, and then . . . forgot. It happens. </p>
<p>In general, if a professor doesn’t respond within 24 hours, just send a polite email asking the question again. Since time is short, try calling also. </p>
<p>You went out of town so you couldn’t talk to the professor?</p>
<p>Big news- your phone has a function besides taking pictures of your friends and texting. It’s called “a phone” and it’s useful when you leave town because it helps you “phone” people and leave them messages.</p>
<p>Sorry to be snarky, but your post is a little sad. Yes- go see the professor. I’m sure he didn’t mean to forget to get back to you- but he did. Nevertheless, the responsibility is yours to make sure that you’re on top of any work that’s due. You should talk to him in person AFTER you’ve made a good faith effort to leave him a voice mail on his office phone and resending your email.</p>
<p>And try not to use the “I was out of town” excuse when you talk to him. He is likely of a generation where people phoned each other even when far away.</p>
<p>emails get lost in the shuffle all the time. A friend of mine called me up this afternoon. She sent me an email in the morning, but it never got to me. Who knows why. You always need to follow up email - phones usually work for our generation.</p>
<p>* i mean it’s really not my fault since i emailed him beforehand with a valid excuse and i shouldn’t have to fail or anything because he didn’t respond.*</p>
<p>Just so you know - this is not actually an argument that works in a non-academic setting such as the one you will be entering in four years or so. You will be learning something valuable if you discover that it doesn’t work in an academic setting either.</p>
<p>well it’s usually not protocol to call the professor’s number as I’ve never done this before and email was sufficient enough with other professors. i haven’t had this problem before so it’s very unusual that he didn’t respond. I also don’t see a number to call anywhere on the syllabus and it says email is the best way to reach him, which also strange since it says on the syllabus that email is the best way to reach him. I could try to look his office number on my school’s directory, but would it better to try and call him or go to his office hours tomorrow morning, since he has set office hours i know of for sure that are in the morning before class. </p>
<p>All professors are required to have office hours. Go to see this prof ASAP during his office hours. You should have done so as soon as you returned to campus from the weekend away.</p>
<p>Yes, go to office hours. Print out copy of email you sent. Hopefully he doesn’t bite.</p>
<p>What is with these students? What is wrong with face to face contact? Don’t be so afraid of speaking in person to a “professor”. If he bites, get a rabies shot.</p>
<p>In the future, if you have to miss an exam, no matter what syllabus says about preferred way to contact you should be sure to get a reply before you assume it’s ok to miss a test with no consequences. If no reply to email, then (unless in hospital or equally dire) go by department, call and leave message, look up his schedule and be waiting outside another of his classes, etc as others have suggested. You are the one asking for the favor. Depending on syllabus he may have right to not let you make it up.</p>
<p>The poor professor is probably buried in emails. Did you read the one about the professor who banned emailing her? <a href=“https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/08/27/sake-student-faculty-interaction-professor-bans-student-email”>https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/08/27/sake-student-faculty-interaction-professor-bans-student-email</a></p>
<p>“well it’s usually not protocol to call the professor’s number as I’ve never done this before and email was sufficient enough with other professors.”</p>
<p>It is not relevant that it was sufficient with other professors. You didn’t get a response within a reasonable time; the onus was on you to make contact with HIM and get clarity and approval. </p>
<p>What prevented you from picking up the phone? You know how to use it, right?
I hate using the phone myself, but why the hesitation on your part? </p>
<p>“I could try to look his office number on my school’s directory, but would it better to try and call him or go to his office hours tomorrow morning, since he has set office hours i know of for sure that are in the morning before class.”</p>
<p>A) They give you a school directory for a reason. It shouldn’t have taken you this long to have decided to look it up.</p>
<p>B) It’s better to be there, waiting, in person. </p>
<p>If you value your grade, get to those office hours before class. And make sure you look at your course syllabus regarding the policy about makeup exams and excuses. You may not have had as valid an excuse as you think…</p>
<p>Last week D called me in a panic to report that she was preparing to submit an essay that was due in a half hour and got logged out because of long idle time. When she logged back in the submit button had vanished though it was before the deadline time. Prof doesn’t accept late assignments for any reason and she e-mailed him twice with no response. I was like, what the ? Why are you calling ME? I am not there looking at your computer and can’t help you figure out what went wrong with your browser. Look up his phone # and call him on the telephone, NOW. If he doesn’t respond, e-mail the essay as an attachment. It was the middle of day so I said to also hop on bike and go to office and print a hard copy to submit in dept office and leave a note there and at his office. All his stuff seems obvious to me, but she hadn’t thought to phone him. Anyway, she called back 5 minutes later to say she reached him on the phone and he told her to just e-mail the essay. Problem solved. Amazing what one can accomplish with a phone besides locating the nearest fast food places and displaying reddit and etc. So now she knows what to do next time. Aiyeyiii!</p>
<p>The OP’s post reeks of entitlement! Look at the syllabus. What does the syllabus say about absences and make ups? According to the syllabus, what is considered as a legitimate excuse? Does your reason fit that description. If so, do you have what is needed to show that to be the case? Next, what does the syllabus indicate about things like how to contact the professor and what to do if you have to miss an exam. Some faculty members state that you need to bring documentation to the make up. Some have a standing time for make ups-that is especially true for very large classes. You can imagine that in a class of 600, there would be many students needing make ups. Usually in that case the procedure is described in the syllabus. The professor won’t necessarily reply to the 30 emails asking about make ups if that information is already on the syllabus. The professor already put in the work to write the syllabus-at least students should avoid asking the professor to do double duty–read the syllabus.</p>
<p>While I do agree it’s incumbent upon the student to chase all avenues down regarding communicating with the Professor on important matters such as missing a test, I do feel several responses here are a bit harsh.</p>
<p>First, many parents are assuming the Profs office/home phone numbers are listed in the college phone directory. </p>
<p>That’s not always a given, especially in large universities where Profs may have privacy issues or otherwise do not feel the need to provide additional avenues of contact. </p>
<p>If the Prof’s not in the office much and the office phone’s the only one listed, the student may be more SOL than sending an email as the latter provides a verifiable dated written record unlike phone messages where dates/times can be sketchy depending on how the answering machine’s set. </p>
<p>Heck, I’ve had one Prof for a summer course at an elite university who refused to even provide for office hours or list ANY CONTACT INFORMATION on the syllabus as he wanted his TAs to handle all questions/contact. </p>
<p>He was surprised at how I was able to track him down and gained a bit of grudging respect from him. </p>
<p>If I was the instructor, had a syllabus where I only provided email as the only way to contact me, and the student can prove he/she sent an email well before the deadline and had a valid excuse, I’d chalk the issue up to screwy technology and give the student a break. Especially considering part of the onus for this issue would also be mine to own up to… </p>
<p>Go to office hours.</p>