Should I drop this class?

The demand of the classes only intensifies in the last month. Talk to the professor, tell him you’ve had an “atypical” semester given your health issues and ask him of withdrawing is recommended given you don’t want to fail the class.

That being said, while grades are important, the learning is more important. Getting a “C” is not the worst thing in the world, especially if it’s an elective class that doesn’t have great value in terms of your major. If you can get an acceptable grade, then complete the class so your last semester is not overloaded. This can’t affect your GPA too much. Good luck.

Your professor sounds completely unreasonable. Even those who do not accept papers via email typically make an exception for someone who has made the effort to submit a paper on time despite illness and absence. Moreover, I’ve never heard of a professor who refused to accept a doctor’s note. These sound like the policies of someone who has forgotten that his job is to educate.

Anyway, a W isn’t really all that bad on a transcript. If I saw one on a transcript—especially on the transcript of an otherwise good student—I’d just assume that there was some sort of special circumstance that led to it (e.g., a health issue or some other mitigating factor). I know that my colleagues feel the same way. A WF, on the other hand, would be worse. It basically says that the student did badly and didn’t know to bail earlier.

Personally, I recommend dropping. If your professor really is unreasonable, talking won’t help. You can give it a try, of course, but don’t get your hopes up. I do agree with @BosM, however, that grades aren’t the end of the world. Maybe give his recommendations a try, and then get out as soon as you can if that doesn’t work.

Your professor doesn’t accept doctor’s notes? What an ass. Wow, I would smack him with an ADA threat. Here’s a case where you are being more acquiescent and empathetic than I would be!
I recommend dropping. You probably can’t talk reason into this guy, or impress him with your earnestness, if he is so suspicious of all students that he refuses to accept doctor’s notes.
Sure, grades “only mean so much,” but if you’ve made it this far with a 4.0, better not to sully it with this class.
Withdraw while you still can. You don’t want the equivalent of an F on your transcript your final year.

Is it possible to take a required elective as “Pass/Fail,” so retaking this class next semester won’t be so stressful?

In your place, I would drop the course. Having to take another course is a short-term annoyance. Having failed the course will have serious, lasting effects. Weigh the risks.

Now that I think of it, isn’t it probably tok late for me to drop with a W? I know there’s a deadline around mid-semester, which has passed. If I’m passing the course when I drop this late, would I get a W or a WF?

@livelaughlove21 : I’m not sure any of us could answer that for you. You probably need to check somewhere on the Registrar’s website where they explain that. I think these rules differ from school to school. We didn’t have anything like a WF at my college; nor do we at the university where I work now. Good luck!

Drop it or don’t. Don’t dither over it. If you are worried about your GPA taking a hit, drop it.

I called, and I was right – if I drop now, I’ll get a WF, which is the same as an F on my transcript. This was my professor’s response to me:

“As I said at the beginning of the course, and again in my email, it is rough to wait until the last two response opportunities, because things can get compressed.”

I guess all I can do now is hope for the best.

@livelaughlove21 : Eek. Well, good thing you checked it out ahead of time. Good luck with this class. Just a bit more bullshit before that degree that you want so much.

I’ve never felt so insulted and belittled by a professor until today.

I responded with:

“Could I turn it in early, say on Tuesday, so I have a better chance of getting a check on it in time?

I was under the impression, until I spoke to you Tuesday, that you preferred we disagree with the quote we chose from the article. That’s why I didn’t complete it earlier. I’ve also had a rough semester with my health, which is why I’ve missed more class than would be ideal. I know these things are my fault, but I just want you to know I wasn’t blowing it off until the last minute intentionally. I’ve got a 4.0 GPA that will no longer after this semester, so I’m just trying to figure out what is the best course of action.”

And his reply…

“I have noticed that some South Carolina students have a hard time with instructions, based on a variety of factors (GPA, student profile, etc.) they read things into the instructions, like
changing “encouraged” to “preferred.”

Bigger issue… if you had this question about the paper, I am not sure why you didn’t ask much earlier. I read this not as you blowing off the course, but as a slight disconnection from the course, it’s on the back-burner.”

Good grief. I just can’t do right by this man.

Wow. That is super insulting and condescending. I could never get away with saying something like that. But that is the difference that tenure makes.

Aside from the fact that he insulted you based on his prejudices, he refused to accept a paper early! What is wrong with this guy?!

Can you take this to your Dean? They are there to intervene on your behalf in conflicts like this.

Would it be possible to take one class over the summer? With such a good GPA I’d be hesitant to stay in that class and would take the W.

I would go over his head and take up your problem with the department head. And, I would do it as soon as possible. It would also be good, if you have the above response in writing, to take that along and show just how judgmental and insulting he is being.

What @rojo said! Seriously, a professor that full of himself needs a firm smackdown from his boss.

Talk to the department head, about, if nothing else, his condescending and libelous remark about students from S. C. Of course, if you squeal on him, you will have to drop the course.

@livelaughlove21 If I could offer a little advice, try to remember a few things when trying to negotiate with profs:

1. If you are arguing that your circumstances are in some way special, remember that he has probably seen this 15,437 times before, and most of those times have been students trying to get away with something for no good reason. He is not going to be inclined to trust or believe you.

2. Never tell him you’re a 4.0 or A+ student. That has nothing to do with your performance in his course, and even though you mean it as “So I’m accustomed to working very hard and take away more than the average student does from the course”, what he hears is “I will hold you responsible for anything that happens to my GPA.” People can get a 4.0 just by choosing very easy classes. They can also lie about their GPA. It’s just not as meaningful to your prof (who has no clue who you are) as it is to you, or to anyone who looks at your transcript to assess your academic work.

3. Try to do this sort of thing in person. That way, you can judge his reaction as you go, and abort as soon as you realize he doesn’t care about your circumstances. Also, you don’t leave a written record that he can associate with your performance later.

I’m not saying this guy isn’t a jerk – he does sound like a jerk to me. But you can do some things to protect yourself and keep this kind of situation from becoming worse than it already is.

A lot of people here are saying things like “Go complain to the department head or dean”. Be very careful about this. The prof made his expectations clear at the outset of the course, and you’ve waited too long to try to fix a situation that you already knew was broken. The department head/dean will be inclined to back up the prof here. The only thing you can hope to gain is some leeway over the fact that you were sick. You would have to provide doctors’ notes… and remember that you said in your email that missing classes due to illness was “your fault”. I really don’t think you have a leg to stand on.

@glacial I agree with you. Thank you for your advice, I appreciate it. I know he’s probably heard a million excuses, and his most recent response back to me (not posted) basically stated that he doesn’t care how heavy my course load is, how much I’m working, or what health problems I have, because I should’ve known what I was getting myself into taking his course. He even called my involvement in his class “sketchy,” whatever that means.

And you know, he’s probably right, though I would never be so overtly rude to a student in his position. I won’t be going to the dean about this, because I don’t want to make my relationship with him any worse. I think he will ensure I do poorly if he has any indication that I squealed on him. It just shocked me that he was so insulting toward me. I should have been in class every day; I should have made more of an effort to get an earlier paper in. Now it’s up to me to make up for it, if I can.

I have ceased our email discussion, because I only seem to be making matters worse and upsetting myself more over it. I will just grin and bear it – do as best as I can from now on, ignore his obvious disdain toward me, and hopefully never see the man again after this semester.

I’m graduating in December and, after this situation, graduation day couldn’t come soon enough. I guess I should just consider myself lucky that I do have that GPA to fall back on. One class will not fail me out of school or keep me from getting my degree. I just won’t be able to show off my GPA on my resume. Oh well.

Yeah, that is what I would do. Remember that you have that 4.0 for a good reason – you will probably do better than you think in this course, when it’s all said and done. And I don’t know what field you’re in, but in my experience, a single grade that pulls down a GPA has less weight with anyone you’re turning in an application to than how your transcript hangs together overall – did you take courses that were interesting or challenging? That’s of greater interest to the people reading it than the GPA itself. What the GPA is good for is making sure that you made it over the bar – and no one course will pull you from a 4.0 to under any minimum GPA. You would still be a very, very viable entity as far as postgraduate applications and scholarships go.

And putting your GPA on a job resume is just showing off. That would probably hurt you more than help you, anyway. :P

Good luck with the course!

I agree with everyone saying that you should take this higher. Go to the department chair, the dean, and your advisor. Make sure the chair and the dean both know that the professor has made prejudicial comments about you and refuses to accept a signed doctor’s note as a legitimate reason for missing class. Use the word “harassment.” Imply that you are considering filing a complaint, but really just want this over with.

Ask your advisor what special arrangements might be needed to allow you to do a late withdrawal without getting a WF. Do not accept any statement along the lines of “it cannot be done.” It can be done, it’s just a matter of who has the authority to do it. Find out who the dean of students is and talk to that person if it is someone other than the school dean.

@glacial The deans are always inclined to back up the professor first. That’s just procedure. And of course someone will ask why @livelaughlove21 waited to address the issue. That’s also procedure. But she does have an answer: the health issues didn’t come all at once, and the harassment came near the end. Surely you know as well as I, though, that the last thing a department wants is for an issue like this to crop up as the spring semester comes to a close.

The recommendations I’ve made above are based on what I did when I was harassed by a professor. The circumstances are a little different—it was a graduate level class, the professor was attempting to engage in professional intimidation as well as personal intimidation, and the professor happened to be the head of my department and in charge of my funding—but I still managed to get out of the class late with a W rather than an F and continue on in the program without difficulty.

This is not the kind of thing that students should take lying down. University is where you truly take your education into your own hands, and that includes being proactive against bad professors. This is not the kind of thing that teachers should take lying down either, though. Bad professors undermine our profession, and we should not be blithe about their existence or their excuses.

@livelaughlove21 : I feel like I might have misunderstood something. Are you from South Carolina? If so, your professor was stereotyping you based on your place of origin and his assumptions about your socioeconomic class, educational preparation, etc. If he just meant “students at this university in South Carolina,” he was being condescending but not specifically deploying stereotypes. In either case, I am inclined to agree with @SavoirFaire that you should not take this lying down.

@bookish1 I go to the University of South Carolina. I wasn’t all that offended by the SC statement; just that he was implying I was that way.

I’ve got the new paper written, as well as the second one ready to turn in. I think I’m just going to go through the rest of this semester and hope I do well enough to pass with a C or better. There’s only one month left. But I plan on keeping our emails and speaking with the dean and the department head about his behavior after the semester ends. Maybe something will happen, maybe not, but I don’t want to cause anymore trouble for myself.

Have a counsellor intervene…thats what they are their for.
Pehaps with an Authority figure on your side..the Professor will accept your last paper?
Good Luck.

@bookish1 @livelaughlove21 It seems to me that the professor could be stereotyping regardless of whether he was talking about South Carolinians in general or students at that particular school in South Carolina. The latter still betrays an attitude that his current job is beneath him and that he does not need to think of his current students as being even potentially equal in capabilities to some other set of students he has in mind. Whether the class is dropped or not, though, I’m glad that something will be said to the dean.