Dear college student who's not happy with your grade in my class: [View all]

[cab67]

Reasons I would be willing to alter your grade:

1. An error has been found. A score was entered incorrectly, something that you completed wasn’t entered at all, you found some mistakes in the way your final exam was graded – something like that. And the points returned to you are enough to make a difference in your course standing.

That’s pretty much it.

Reasons I’m not willing to alter your grade:

1. It doesn’t reflect your own subjective assessment of the effort you put into the class.

2. You’re applying for a highly competitive job or for some form of post-graduate education (grad school, med school, etc.), or you plan to join the military as an officer.

3. Your parent(s) and or guardian(s) will be so very disappointed if your grade isn’t improved.

4. You suffered from physical or mental issues throughout the semester, or had some actual scheduling problems that kept you from attending class regularly, but are only bringing it up now, long after I (or anyone else) can do anything about it.

5. You just realized you didn’t turn in a homework assignment. It's now mid-December, but it was due in October. (And no, I won’t give you an incomplete so you can "continue the dialogue" over whether your TA or I might be willing to change our minds. I’ve had someone ask that.)

6. You found an error in the grading of your first midterm, which you took two months ago.

7. You had an exceptionally busy semester.

8. You might lose your scholarship if your grade isn’t changed.

9. Can’t I be merciful in the spirit of the holidays?

10. You think I’m being unfair in assessing your grade based on what you actually turned in, and not on what you would have turned in if you’d done better.

11. You're "just not a science person." (Do you know what my advisor would have done to me if I’d done poorly in a medieval lit class and tried “I’m just not a humanities person” as an excuse?)

There are other excuses I can add to this list, but these are the ones I've encountered in the past couple of years.

And you know what? "How far am I from the cutoff for the next highest grade?" will always be answered with “not close enough to justify a grade change.” It doesn’t matter how far off they are are – students will invariably try to nickel and dime points from every exam and assignment in the hope of crossing that threshold. It wastes a lot of time and never results an improved grade.

Seriously – a grade is a goal to be achieved. It isn’t a commodity to be negotiated. And begging makes you look really pathetic.

sincerely,

your humble instructor.