Biased Grading

[C&C]

I decided to check my grades this morning and saw that one professor (who is unprofessional and has made it clear that she does not like me) is dangling my grade at an [redacted]%. I am in this class with one other graduate student and we taught most of her classes for her (don't get me started on that), led discussions, and the course is in my area of interest...so there is no doubt that I did A work all semester.

 

I know she is doing this to mess with me, but I do not know how to approach her via email. I have scholarships and assistantships on the line so I need straight As. Either I convince her to bump me [up by redacted]% now (which is honestly the very least I earned) or I am most certainly disputing this grade with the department and any deans necessary. I am in such shock at how unprofessional she is and that I was stupid enough to want her to be my adviser. 

 

Any suggestions? (Grades are due tomorrow so I need to contact her ASAP.) 

Edited December 16, 2014 by TakeruK
some unnecessarily specific details removed for anonymity

[fuzzylogician]

You didn't give us any information that can really help and since there is only one day left, it's not clear what you can do. The question is what you could appeal if you were to go to the department and/or dean. Those are the things that you should bring to your professor's attention; at this point, I'd suggest emailing and asking for your grade to be recalculated. Point out the specific places where you think your grade should have been higher. Apologize for doing this last minute, be professional/dispassionate, and keep the entire email correspondence for your records. You should have probably talked to her earlier, but for the sake of any appeals you might pursue after your grade is given, it'd be better for everyone if you can demonstrate that you tried to work it out with your professor first. It won't reflect well on you if you go over her head without first trying to talk to her. 

[ProfLorax]

What is your final grade based on? Can you start by asking for a breakdown of how she calculated your total grade?

[C&C]

She graded everything last minute even though we turned in all of our assignments much earlier so I know that was her guise to lower my grade based upon her mood. Thankfully, I had the good sense to check my transcript before sending out an email and saw that she bumped it to an A. I'm incredibly happy that my university is on a flat grading system so all As look the same.

 

Thank you both for the quick feedback! I've read in other posts about horrific professors and how political grad school can be. Unfortunately, it turns out my program is no different. 

[Cookie]

She graded everything last minute even though we turned in all of our assignments much earlier so I know that was her guise to lower my grade based upon her mood. Thankfully, I had the good sense to check my transcript before sending out an email and saw that she bumped it to an A. I'm incredibly happy that my university is on a flat grading system so all As look the same.

 

Thank you both for the quick feedback! I've read in other posts about horrific professors and how political grad school can be. Unfortunately, it turns out my program is no different. 

 

You have nothing to prove that she graded you unfairly, yet you came here to say horrible things about her. I think it is you that is unprofessional.

Sorry but I am not sorry.

[ProfLorax]

I'm glad everything is resolved! I'm glad there is a space for us to vent and troubleshoot stressful moments in grad student life without judgment. 

[Applemiu]

Maybe "Cookie" is the professor's online alias!!! 

[C&C]

Sorry not sorry Cookie, you're just wrong.    Most of us here frequently try to limit or omit details on our programs to maintain an air of professionalism even while dealing with uncomfortable situations.

 

I am just thankful that this professor and I can have that solid professional relationship now that I am out of her class.

It was a lesson learned on my part, and I'm guess I'm happy I learned it early on in my graduate career. Yay learning? Haha

[Cookie]

You said horrible things about her and now she gave you the  A you wanted, then everything is fine again?

 

I am just thankful that this professor and I can have that solid professional relationship now that I am out of her class.

It was a lesson learned on my part, and I'm guess I'm happy I learned it early on in my graduate career. Yay learning? Haha

 

Yeah, I hope you learned something: to not jump to conclusion whenever things dont go your way...

Professors dont have to give you good grades. You either earn it or you dont, nothing has to do with how much work you do for them or how friendly they are to you. That is what I mean.

[victorydance]

Have to agree with Cookie on this one. 

[1Q84]

Agreed. Given your attempts to "limit or omit details on our programs to maintain an air of professionalism" (which seems laughably cynical considering how badly you're slamming this professor for actions that you won't actually describe here), it's hard to say who's at fault. The information you've provided thus far has amounted to: "I'm convinced she doesn't like me and is concertedly trying to destroy me because I haven't gotten straight A's".

You're certainly coming off as one of those grade-grubbing students that all grad students hate to deal with. Just letting you know what it looks like to a stranger on the internet who has no idea what your IRL situation is.

[lewin]

You're certainly coming off as one of those grade-grubbing students that all grad students hate to deal with. Just letting you know what it looks like to a stranger on the internet who has no idea what your IRL situation is.

 

Glad I wasn't the only one who got that impression. 89.90? Probably a coincidence in how everything averaged out. Ended up as a 90? Probably because everything gets rounded up to whole numbers. 

 

 

 

there is no doubt that I did A work all semester. 

 

Says every student ever, but we know that people aren't good at evaluating their own skills.  

 

 

 

I have scholarships and assistantships on the line so I need straight As.

 

"I can't change grades based on non-academic circumstances," is what I tell the handful of students who tell me this, or variations on it, every time I teach.

 

 

 

I know she is doing this to mess with me

 

Have you been feeling a loss of personal control since entering graduate school? That can lead people to see nefarious conspiracies.

[ProfLorax]

Hey people. We all have freak out moments in grad school. I don't see the reason to pile on C&C. The professor ended up agreeing that C&C did A-level work, C&C ended up with an A. The conflict has been resolved. What's the point of harping on someone who responded to a stressful situation differently than you would have? 

[GCool]

It's easy to come down on people who are stressed when you aren't stressed.

[dr. t]

What's the point of harping on someone who responded to a stressful situation differently than you would have? 

 

Uh, so they learn and maybe next time they're in a stressful situation they'll behave differently?

[ProfLorax]

Uh, so they learn and maybe next time they're in a stressful situation they'll behave differently?

I think it's problematic, though, that people on this forum think it's their job to teach other graduate students how to be proper graduate students. C&C had a moment of panic, came to what C&C thought was a safe space to vent, and has been attacked on a weirdly personal level since. C&C didn't name the professor or the program, didn't email the professor or the chair with accusations. There was no bad behavior exhibited by the OP.  I think the only thing posters here have taught C&C is that this isn't a safe space to vent. 

 

Also, C&C asked a fair question. What does one do if a grad student suspects an unfair grade? This is a legit problem in the humanities, especially when most or even all of our grade is based on one seminar paper turned in at the end of the semester. The conflict between C&C and the professor has been resolved, but this could have been an opportunity to discuss strategies and methods to discuss end-of-semester grades with difficult professors. But rather, people decided to detail how C&C is "unprofessional," paranoid, and overly confident. 

[dr. t]

I think it's problematic, though, that people on this forum think it's their job to teach other graduate students how to be proper graduate students. C&C had a moment of panic, came to what C&C thought was a safe space to vent, and has been attacked on a weirdly personal level since. C&C didn't name the professor or the program, didn't email the professor or the chair with accusations. There was no bad behavior exhibited by the OP.  I think the only thing posters here have taught C&C is that this isn't a safe space to vent.

 

Also, C&C asked a fair question. What does one do if a grad student suspects an unfair grade? This is a legit problem in the humanities, especially when most or even all of our grade is based on one seminar paper turned in at the end of the semester. The conflict between C&C and the professor has been resolved, but this could have been an opportunity to discuss strategies and methods to discuss end-of-semester grades with difficult professors. But rather, people decided to detail how C&C is "unprofessional," paranoid, and overly confident. 

 

You say "teaching", I say "advising". People here offer their own advice and perspectives, and sometimes that perspective is that the person asking the question is wrong. I don't see that as problematic. Nor can I really agree that this is simply venting. There's a thread for that, and this one specifically solicited feedback.

 

I agree that the question is fair, but I also think that the advice to first examine one's initial reaction - that his or her grade is unfair - is well-founded. Moreover, people only seemed to "pile on" based on C&C's followup posts - Cookie's statements were originally not well-received. 

[TakeruK]

I agree with proflorax that we (graduate students in general but also specifically the users of this board) need a safe space to vent. C&C did not post anything that would harm any other person. We might not always agree with the poster's point of view, but that doesn't mean we always have to criticize or react negatively to it.

 

Since there are no details that would identify any person and that C&C is not taking any actions that would harm our community here as well as the general "academic/grad student" community elsewhere, then I don't think there is any harm in a venting of frustration/stress like this.

 

I would say a post like this by C&C is far different from a lot of other posts that were "harmful" venting because they either specifically named programs or schools or people and/or they advocated for extremely unprofessional or dishonest behaviour. 

 

In addition, I would note that the original post asked for advice on how to proceed with asking the professor for a grade increase. The first few comments were responding to this question directly. I agree that it's helpful to advise C&C that perhaps 89.89 is just a coincidence, but we should keep in mind that 1) each poster might not share all the details of the situation and 2) for the sake of establishing a supportive community, we can recognize that sometimes some of us are more stressed out or feeling very frustrated and just need to vent their feelings without having their situation analyzed and criticized.

 

I know I sometimes give unsolicited advice so I'm guilty of this as well. GradCafe is an online, pseudo-anonymous forum that can be used for a lot of purposes. Sometimes, the poster wants advice and feedback on their actions; sometimes the poster just wants to vent and say unprofessional things behind the safety of the Internet, and sometimes, the poster just wants to ask one specific question without having to justify their past actions or motivations. Or sometimes a combination of the three. I think it is reasonable to say that for the latter two cases, it's not too much to put our highly analytical graduate student minds in the background and just be supportive when another colleague seems to need it.

[rising_star]

I'm not going to say that C&C or anyone else shouldn't vent on this site. But, when I read the original post, all I could think was how annoyed I would be if a student came to me with those complaints and/or sent an email questioning my grading and saying I was purposefully trying to mess with them. It just strikes me as a sense of entitlement and very, very similar to stuff undergrads at the Big State U use to beg for grades late in the semester. I would think (incorrectly perhaps) that graduate students would know not to do that or, at a minimum, would find a polite way to request a higher grade that doesn't read like grade-grubbing. 

 

C&C, I'll just add this specifically for you. Unless you have proof that the professor waited until the last minute to grade things as part of a guise, I would never level this accusation at anyone. You honestly have zero clue what was going on in this professor's life and why the grading was delayed. Having taught before, I'll say that all sorts of things have delayed my grading including, but definitely not limited to, getting sick, having to take care of a seriously ill parent, and having pressing work (grant deadlines, manuscript deadlines) that must be met. I would never tell students those things because it's none of their damn business. Some of them have probably thought similarly to you but, in all honesty, that rarely plays a role. Why? Because in most classes, and especially in grad school where participation is a big part of your grade, there are plenty of ways to affect a student's grade without simply waiting to return work. In my own classes (I teach undergrads only), participation is 12-20% of the final grade. That gives one plenty of wiggle room if one so desires and is far easier to adjust than it is to hold on to work and try to do complicated math with paper assignments.

 

And, having read this thread the whole time, I'll just say that if this constitutes "piling on" then a whole lot of threads (past and future) will have to be shut down. People are far crueler than this in threads that are currently active and certain posters (one MSW student comes to mind) get attacked almost every single time they post. Nothing here is a clear violation of the community standards we have set and uphold.

[Eigen]

I think it's a fine line. 

 

We have threads devoted to venting, but this thread wasn't tagged as a vent. It was asking for advice. 

 

If the OP just needed to blow off steam, letting people know you just need to blow off steam is good. Personally, I didn't read it as venting. I read it as an inappropriate and unprofessional attack on the teacher, while asking for advice. 

 

People gave advice- it wasn't all necessarily what the OP wanted. 

 

Had the post just asked about discussing grades with the professor without the accusation of impropriety, I think the responses would have been different. 

 

It's difficult to balance this being a graduate student and admissions board with this being "a safe place". When you come to a board that is a mix of prospective graduate students, current graduate students, and faculty and seemingly accuse another (graduate student, faculty member) of being unprofessional, even if it does not directly link to that individual, lots of people are likely to read it as an attack, and I think it's worth keeping that in mind when we post. 

 

And I think if you just want to vent, it's healthy to sat that. Or use one of the already made venting threads. 

 

I also highly, highly recommend containing venting to non-permanent, offline areas. Friends and family and cohort members are likely to be a better sounding board for venting than placing it permanently on an online message board. But that's just my personal take. 

[lewin]

I don't know how much of this was directed my way but the "don't pile on" messages did start after my post so of course that's meaningful 

 

Analyzing posters' assumptions, reactions, and, perhaps, misunderstanding of graduate school norms can help them both with the current situation and future situations. Maybe that's being critical, but it could also be more helpful in the long run.

 

Here, when asking about a possibly mistaken grade or inquiring about a grade bump, the OP will have more success (now and later) if he/she doesn't assume: (1) that they know they're doing A(wesome) work; (2) that they deserve an A because they have scholarships, which is irrelevant; (3) that the professor is unprofessional; (4) that the professor is out to get them. Those attitudes--if they are perceived by the professor--can have toxic repercussions for one's reputation and future. #1 and #2 are more likely to come across because professors can sense entitlement from a mile away, and #4 just looks paranoid.

Edited December 16, 2014 by lewin

[C&C]

Since this forum is still fizzling, I will add this as a final post:

 

A classmate from this course works in one of the university's professional development centers, and shared what was happening with a boss that works closely with professors. This individual was shocked by the specifics of the class, and believes that there is a strong case against this professor for unprofessional conduct in the form of verbal harassment/abuse for repeated actions since the beginning of the semester. (This happened to a number of other students in this class too, and in past courses as well. I was warned by most everyone in my cohort when I arrived to university.)

 

I'm not interested in pursuing it AT ALL, but that is the one detail I will provide to show that perhaps I am not entirely crazy, paranoid, or grade mongering. (Again, there are others, but this one was the most important.) This course weighed me down all semester and negatively impacted my mental health, and I'm sorry for letting that shine through in the OP without relevant details (and for posting).

 

Mea culpa gradcafe. Thank you for the insights nonetheless!

Edited December 16, 2014 by C&C