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Location: Huntersville/Charlotte, NC and Washington, DC
26,700 posts, read 41,748,461 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by tvdxer
I was sorting through some old stuff when I came across a document I wrote in my junior year of college. I remembered writing it, as well as the professor (actually "visiting instructor" - he was working on his Ph.D) for whom I wrote it; it was an important mid-semester essay that happened to be due on the day after presidential elections.
I turned it in about four or five days late.
We were supposed to attach the peer-revised drafts, as well as the revision suggestions. I lost them, so I added a page to the essay. The font for the addendum was ironic Mac II - Style, and it read:
Regardless, I received an "A", with him commenting "impressive work" on the front page. I have already graduated, but I am wondering: in your experience, are most professors this lenient on due dates and other requirements? Mine varies, with some professors marking off significant points for late work, but I've seen other situations in which a student (not me) turned in absolutely nothing until a month before the semester ended, and the professor allowed him to make it up without consequence.
In my experience, professors are pretty forgiving on due dates if you explain your situation beforehand. Last year my dad was on his deathbed around the beginning of the term and I explained it to my professors and they were very understanding with my tardy work as I would hope most professors would. I've heard professors being as lenient for circumstances less extreme than my own for things like working a lot of overtime, a wedding, sickness, etc.
I think that it varies dramatically between professors. A college friend of mine had a real tragedy right around midterm exams at a major University. Her brother went missing two weeks before his wedding. The search was front page news all over our state. He was found dead the day that he would have been married (murdered by his ex-girlfriend). Needless to say his sister was extremely upset. Most of her professors were very understanding and didn't even reguire her to make up missed work or to take the midterm exam.
However, one professor was a real jerk and said that she missed taking the midterm exam (it was held while she was in her hometown helping to search for her missing brother) and could not retake it so she would get a zero. In addition he was going to give her a zero for class discussions and on all assignments due for all the days that she missed (searching time, finding him dead, planning and attending the funeral, helping her family, etc was about three weeks).
He said that he couldn't be sure that she wasn't making it up----even though it was front page news in the college town for almost a month----and that other students would "try to get away using the same excuse". "Sorry, that I missed the test but my brother was murdered by a crazed lunatic" doesn't seem like it would be a common excuse.
She ended up dropping the class rather than dealing with that insensitive fool. Luckily she had good enough grades going into the midterm exams that the other professors allowed her to finish the bare minimum of work to allow her to the credits or to let her take incompletes to finish the classes in a few months.
He said that he couldn't be sure that she wasn't making it up----even though it was front page news in the college town for almost a month----and that other students would "try to get away using the same excuse". "Sorry, that I missed the test but my brother was murdered by a crazed lunatic" doesn't seem like it would be a common excuse.
Wow!
I had two huge tragedies happen while I was in college - my dad dying (the first semester) and me getting diagnosed with a generally lethal, inoperable brain tumor (the fall of my senior semester). Although I responded well to both events, I still had to miss some class and assignments, especially for the second event. All my professors were very understanding.
However, one professor was a real jerk and said that she missed taking the midterm exam (it was held while she was in her hometown helping to search for her missing brother) and could not retake it so she would get a zero. In addition he was going to give her a zero for class discussions and on all assignments due for all the days that she missed (searching time, finding him dead, planning and attending the funeral, helping her family, etc was about three weeks).
It's hard to wish bad things upon people, but I really hope something bad happens to that guy. Some of the people involved in the academic world are just pathetic people who don't understand anything about the world.
I think that is something I would have taken to the Dean, unless this guy was bringing in a ton of grant money for the university's research.. behavior like that would certainly have repercussions.
No, none of my professors really accepted late work. i think the closest to that was assignments being handed back, revising and grading it again but I think it's your responsibility to turn things on time, not days later - i wouldn't even do it if I were to hand it in days late. I guess meeting deadlines is pivotal and very important to me, being a journalism major because people are not going to take you seriously if you slack behind. Unless you do talk to them and give them a valid excuse, I don't think it's acceptable.
I don't think I ever had a professor who accepted late work.
Right now I'm taking classes part time for an MBA, and I'm only 9 months out of chemo. My immune system is still shot so I get sick ALL the time. My class last semester penalized you for every class you missed - no matter the reason (even though I am documented as having a disability with the disabilities office). Because of this policy, lots of people came in sick, which in turn made me sick more often than I would be otherwise. I ended up getting a lower grade than I deserved for the work I did because of 3 absences. This has been the norm in my world.
I was sorting through some old stuff when I came across a document I wrote in my junior year of college. I remembered writing it, as well as the professor (actually "visiting instructor" - he was working on his Ph.D) for whom I wrote it; it was an important mid-semester essay that happened to be due on the day after presidential elections.
I turned it in about four or five days late.
We were supposed to attach the peer-revised drafts, as well as the revision suggestions. I lost them, so I added a page to the essay. The font for the addendum was ironic Mac II - Style, and it read:
Regardless, I received an "A", with him commenting "impressive work" on the front page. I have already graduated, but I am wondering: in your experience, are most professors this lenient on due dates and other requirements? Mine varies, with some professors marking off significant points for late work, but I've seen other situations in which a student (not me) turned in absolutely nothing until a month before the semester ended, and the professor allowed him to make it up without consequence.
Not in my personal experience; there was heck to pay if someone expected to be given a "break" without a serious reason. Our entire class spent a lot of time listening to lectures about other people's lax study/work habits.
I'm more lenient near finals for students who have clearly worked hard. If docking the points would have affected the letter grade in the end, I'd be lenient. If it wouldn't have made a difference, you'd get fully docked. But, I'd also see if the leniency would have affected anyone else's final grade significantly. And I'm going to admit it, if you were a pain in the butt student, I'm looking for reasons to dock you.
Anything before those last 2 weeks of class, I'd fully dock you.
My professor is very lenient, my art history professor, that is. She grades work and gives out As most a good portion of the time. I'm sure she understands how difficult art history is.
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