So this is what we call a “Gatekeeper” in our household. There will be many Gatekeepers in your life-they are people who can keep you from attaining your goals, for whatever reason.
Our advice to our kids, and one we’ve both learned the hard way from and now know how to manage well, is figuring out how to get past the Gatekeepers.
For this particular instance, my advice would be (since you are well into the semester) is to set aside your assessment of the professor’s capabilities, and do what you need to do to get through the class with the best grade you can. He has all the power, and you have none. Nobody wants to rock the boat and go witch hunting on a bad professor.
Nobody.
Nobody gives a rat’s butt that he’s incompetent. You will discover as you journey through life that most people are incompetent. The secret is not to let the incompetents keep you from attaining YOUR goals. Your mission in life is not to tilt at windmills (the incompetents); your mission is to keep the windmills from chopping you into bits as they continue blissfully through their incompetent, half-assed lives.
The best you can do is leave him a bad assessment on the rate my professor website once the grades are finalized, and hope that you’ll be paying it forward to people behind you.
Right. “do what you need to do to get through the class with the best grade you can.”
So far, all this has been about what’s “wrong” with the prof, nothing about your efforts, other than trying for an appt and an email reminder. You note two got 98s. How about talking to them, getting some pointers?
This sort of tough situation happens often in pre-med (where some colleges consciously weed. Not your situation, but an example.) But you know, we all know, many kids do get through those years with great success and make it on to med school. Not by trying to control a prof, but controlling their own work, study patterns, etc, that they need, to overcome. A winner’s attitude.
I agree with @scholardad…you should go through the chain of command. First, with some others if possible, talk to the prof during office hours. Use facts (it took 72 hours to answer to email, late 15 minutes for the last 5 classes, never covered the XYZ topic on syllabus, etc) and see how it goes. Also you could talk to your advisor and tell them that you have done that and is there anythign else they would suggest. If the prof doesn’t turn around, go to the department head and discuss this. They will want to know asap.
My daughter had a similar issue…it was halfway through the semester and they had almost no hw/tests in the gradebook. She talked to the prof and to the dept head. It did get somewhat better.
My husband works in academia. This guy is definitely not fulfilling his duties If you do complain though do NOT, NOT , NOT mention your grade or GPA unless asked. Administration will mainly see it as sour grapes, otherwise. There are tons of students who complain about unfair grading when really it is just a professor who is demanding, so the powers-that-be tend to tune out students who mention their grades when complaining about a professor.
If he is an adjunct, he does not have much power. He can be asked not to return at any point for any reason. It also can mean that teaching the class is not his first priority, especially if he has a demanding full-time job elsewhere. At some universities, it can also mean that he is in this gray area where he is basically ignored by the department and the university as long as they have a body to teach the section. He may have no idea what is expected of him, and he may also not have access to things like teaching helps that tenure track professors do. You need to explain your complaints succinctly and with concrete points. Try to get your classmates to do so to. Making polite, non-whiny noise may be the only way the professor is talked to by the administration. Unfortunately, if he teaches in a field where they have trouble getting adjuncts, the administration may not do anything about your complaints.
That was incredible advice. Seriously the best advice that I’ve received in a very long time.
I studied my butt off and got an A- on my last test. I still plan on going to the department at some point (probably after the semester) because he shouldn’t be teaching, and I’d feel bad for anyone who might have to take his course in the future.
Normally, I would wholeheartedly agree with this. But for a business professor at a top 25 BBA program, this adjunct might actually be a successful businessman who teaches simply because he likes to teach, and he may wield more power than your average English or history adjunct. There’s actually a shortage of business professors. It’s still true that he can be asked not to return, but they’re a lot less likely to dismiss him because qualified business professors prestigious enough to teach at top 25 business programs are harder to come by.
Good on you for studying very hard and doing well on the last test and not wallowing on this.
For future semesters, you should use your social network to help identify the best professors at your school. Spending 20 hours this semester finding out who the most effective professors are for next semester is time well spent.
I deliberately took a less interesting art history class next semester (the history of sequential illustration, lol) with a teacher I LOVE versus an art history class that was more pertinent to my major with a professor who displays a stunning lack of critical thinking skills and accuses all of her students of cheating (her Surrealist History class was one of the most brutal six weeks of class I’ve ever taken, thank god it was a summer schedule class).
And I’m a mom and returning student, so this is not my first rodeo, college-wise. The professors make a HUGE difference in the quality of experience. Huge.