I took Cell Biology this semester as advanced science elective(so it’s not a pre req), but due to some personal circumstances, I didn’t do so well in this class.
I requested to change it to Pass/Fail on late April, which was not supposed to happen, but after talking to the professor Jenny(the one teaching the class) and Dr. Singleton, the director of Engineering advising center(and also a registrar), I got a permission to get Pass/Fail.
So I looked up my grade and there is an ugly C-. Good news is this is a passing grade, but bad news is: why is it in letter garde???
I contacted the professor and he says that the it is in the hands of the Registrar, while the registrar says the professor has to submit grade change to Art & Science college. Basically, each one is saying that the other is responsible.
I am so confused…I am leaving on 17th to Oregon and I want to protect my grade and get it done before I leave. What should I do at this point?
I hope you have documentation of this change request (emails, etc.)? If not, it is a he-said, she-said situation, which will be difficult to resolve.
You have tons of time to resolve this (2 whole weeks), so don’t panic.
My advice is to be calm throughout this - they are doing YOU a favor by granting a request, so if you met the deadline for a change, then calming state your facts. If you did not meet the deadline, but can prove you had approval for the change anyway, then I think you just calmly present the facts. If you did not meet the deadline and you cannot prove the approval took place, then I think you are sadly stuck with this grade.
The pass/Fail were originally due late march, but when I tried to meet my advisor earlier, my advisor was busy entire month packed with other appointemnt, and my classes had time conflict with her walk in hours.
So I explained the situation to the Registrar’s secretary by email, and made an appointment, and met him last Tuesday 26th. He told me that if I go to Dr. Jenny agrees, it can be done. And on next day(wednesday)I got appontment with Dr. Jenny and I explained thoroughly the situations, and he agreed to change it to Pass/Fail and that he would send email to Dr. Singleton.
The problem is, Dr. Singleton told me that the professor teaching the class is responsible for changing the grade, but Dr. Jenny doesn’t seem to know of this…
It sounds just like a bit of misunderstanding, and as long as you have documentation and approval, this will be taken care of. Just be calm throughout…re-approach the professor and explain that according to registrar, it is the prof’s responsibility to change the grade, not the registrar. Some professors don’t know the process (I know this from S’s experience), and while you have to get several people involved in the end it all works out. Time is on your side before final grades need to be, um, ‘final’!
Prof. told me the final grade are due tuesday. I will try to call him and visit him today, and update the result
Important caveat: I don’t know for certain how things work for faculty at Alabama, since I’ve never worked there.
However, everywhere I’ve worked, the professor’s hands are tied a bit when grades are submitted—if a student is in the system as being a letter-grade student, a letter grade must be submitted. Similarly, if a student is in the system as a pass-fail student, a pass-fail grade must be submitted.
Where did you see your grade? If it was in Blackboard (which is what UA uses as a learning management system, if I understand it correctly), then you’re not seeing an actual finalized grade. On the other hand, if it’s through their portal where you’d normally see the record of all of your final grades, then yeah, there’s a real problem. Like others said, remain calm and recognize that two weeks is plenty of time to take care of this (as long as you keep on it, of course).
My professor replied that I need to request a meeting with the Dean of College of Art & Science…to either
- The Dean’s office in the College of Arts & Sciences can consider your explanation for the request in change of status regarding your registration and switch you to Pass/Fail , or
- The Dean’s office in the College of Engineering can grant you a late withdrawal from the course for the semester.
Obviously I am going to go for 1). Also, he told me that “Students are required to choose the Pass/Fail option at the beginning of the semester and cannot personally just choose to make the change at the end of the semester.”. Obviously this wasn’t in any of school website I have researched in our school,…wish it was much clearer in school website.
I will try to see the dean of Art & Science.
Do a search for “UA pass fail option.” The info you are looking for can be found there.
Oh Now I see…it seems like the info was in rather outdated website format.
Ok, so now the Assistant Dean of A&S College told me, my prof, and the registrar head that the A&S College has no jurisdiction over me; my residence college(College of Engineering) should handle the process. What in the world is going on? They are basically pushing this matter back and forth to each other and I am so confused.
It sounds like even tho the class is in A&S, the College of Eng’g registrar must change this to Pass. If you’re still getting the run around after talking to CoE Registrar, then go to the Dean of Students for help
Thanks for the suggestion @mom2collegekids . This bureaucracy is very frustrating to me. I m pretty sure I m not the only one requesting to change the class to the pass/fail in the middle of semester!(except this one got dragged for nearly a month)
http://registrar.ua.edu/services/myfaculty/grade-reporting/grade-terminology/
“Once the deadline to add a course has passed, a student may not rescind the decision to take a course with the pass/fail option.”
You had until the final late course registration date to request pass/fail.
What you quoted is not what he’s asking to do, @Class2012Mom. In fact, nothing on that page says there’s a deadline for changing it to pass/fail. Anyway, nobody’s telling him that he can’t change it to pass fail; they’re just giving him the runaround as to who is the person that needs to do it.
It may not specifically say you cannot request change “to” pass fail, but why would the require the change “from” pass/fail so early without the opt in being at a similar time.
There is no reason to believe UA would allow students to decide to change from letter grade to pass/fail midway through the term. If that were the case there could be a stampede of students who feel their classes “aren’t going as expected” seeking that change.
It appears to me the confusion is in the faculty suggesting the change could happen that late. Either way, I am interested in the outcome.
Ah well, if I end up getting C-, I will just have to suck it up and do better next semesters.
I was rummaging through the emails, and the one from the registrar office says the pass-fail switching is due to March 30th, which was also the last date to withdraw from course. However, nowhere in the website says that, both in new and old ones.
Actually, there are plenty of cases where there are different deadlines for related things. (To take one clear example, the institution I used to work at changed their add/drop deadlines a few years back so the add deadline is later, allowing students to take advantage of slots opened up by last-second drops.)
Now, whether that’s the case for this one, I don’t know. But quoting policy in one direction doesn’t give what the policy is in this one (where it appears, from the student’s account, that permission was granted for a late change, so it might not matter anyway).
This was clearly an oversight in drafting. Whatever the intention was with regard to a deadline for electing pass/fail, it should have been spelled out.
Paul, if you’re still premed, you’re going to have to dilute the effects of that C- in your BCPM GPA. Try to include an easier BCPM class in somewhere, even if you can take something during the summer at a CC while you’re home. It doesn’t have to be related to your major or premed goals. If you take stats, make sure it’s a true math class, in the math dept.
Sometimes, you need to get the players actually talking to each other, not trading emails.
DH could change a class to PF at the last minute; it required process, approvals, and it was up to the student to do the running around, have a good reason. One issue is that now is the worst time in the academic year to be asking, when they’re doing end of year and dealing with graduation issues. It’s one of several reasons they set earlier deadlines.
Who can quarterback this for you? GPA may not be a strong enough case. I think you realize that. Best to you, in trying to resolve this.