Interviews Not Being Excused - Advise Please

[CaliforniaPreDental]

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Hello everyone, I am seeking a little bit of advise or peace of mind, just let me briefly explain my background and situation.

I am currently a 4th year student at a large public university studying Biology. I submitted my AADSAS this cycle and have received 5 interviews so far. Right now I am enrolled in an honors reading & writing class that is required for me to graduate from my honors college. I specifically put it off until my senior year because the grading can be subjective or unreasonable based on the professor who teaches it. The grade is based 40% upon participation via in-class discussion and 40% essays.

I'm the type of student that doesn't like missing class for no reason. I normally don't even leave during the weekends in order to study for midterms and keep up with my major's course load. That being said, I was able to submit my AADSAS with an ogpa and sgpa of 4.0 . With my 5 interviews and the passing of my grandmother, I have been forced to skip a few class sessions. I just found out my honors professor doesn't count interviews or grieving as an excused absence, and voiced that my participation grade will not be an A.

I'm trying to figure out what to do because I was under the impression that they would be excused, especially based on how my other classes have been. Should I just surrender the GPA I've been working so hard for since I've already made it to the interview phase? I know people relax their second semester after gaining acceptance, but although I'm somewhat confident Dec. 1 will go ok, I don't know if I should be so concerned. Hopefully my thought process made sense, I appreciate any advise given!

 

[Quinque]

Have you been telling your professor about your interviews as they have been going? Or did you already go to all 5 and then tell them? If it is the latter, she might just be being unreasonable because she is irritated you didn't tell her in advance?

 

[Faefly]

I understand what you mean, it's so hard to lose that 4.0 gpa status. It's sad and hard to give up on.

I think Dental school wise that won't be a big problem if any. I mean they already decided they will either let you in or not.

Now my advice is to not give up, prove to that professor who doesn't care about his student's problems! ( Sorry about your grandmother)

Prove to him that you will work hard to prove him/her wrong. Go to his office hours, try your best to make it up and get that A you deserve.

It's not over until you say it's over. you still have a month left!

but if you got a B!
Oh well, it's gonna be 3.95 or something! You'll still graduate with
Summa Cum Laude honor

Not the end of the world!

 

[oralcare123]

Go to whoever is above this professor, because he/she is just being a pain

 

[Conflagration]

Does your university have a policy about attendance? Or is it solely up to the professor?

If you didn’t notify them of the absences ahead of time, I could see why they may not be that receptive to you. However, if you gave them the head’s up and they know you’re trying to be a dentist, then I don’t know why they’re being such a stickler about you trying to get to where you want.

If you think you can do so civilly, I would try to talk with the professor. Tell her that you appreciate the class, but life got in the way of attending some of the lectures. You could offer to take on an additional project or something if it’s project-based, or see if they will loosen their grip once they realize that you’re only going to miss the classes you tell them about in advance. If you think they would be open to it, tell them that the only classes you’re missing from here on out are the leftover interview dates and keep your word. Other than that, you could try going over their head, but I would at least try to have a come-to-Jesus first with the professor.

 

[Michael_Scott]

If, I were you, I would want to keep my 4.0!!

You should have informed of them before absence but still they should be considerate unless you are a pain to deal with in real life and professor is retaliating.
If she still does not approve, I would talk to the dean or whoever is above her because this is certainly a valid excuse. although sadly I am not sure grandmother passing is a valid excuse because I was once told that my uncle passing is not valid since he is not an immediate relative. cold world.

 

[Incis0r]

This is a sneaky move but, depending on your school, you can P/F the class if it'll still count towards the honors college requirement. That way, you get credit, and your gpa stays intact (since passing grades don't factor into GPA).

 

[deleted480308]

Your participation doesn’t appear to be an A because you aren’t there much. It stings but it’s the opportunity cost of interviewing. If you still graduate, just take it

 

[Typical Average Student]

Undergraduate GPA is temporary. No one cares for it... especially in grad school. Just go on your interviews take a lower grade.

 

[wu_53196]

I had a professor like this for one of my gen-ed classes this semester. I told him like a month and a half ahead of time but he said that there was nothing I could do to make up the participation. I ended up P/F the class so It doesn't hurt my GPA. I would talk to the professor again and maybe someone above them but if they still don't understand just P/F the class. Its a writing course not in your major so it shouldn't matter.

 

[Vicviper]

It sucks, but unless there is a specific policy in place, the professor has no reason to excuse you from a syllabus mandated part of the class. Most professors will be reasonable about it, but if the class only meets like once a week, say over a 10 week quarter, and you miss 3 classes, you should earn a 70% maximum in the participation section.

If I were you, I would ask the professor if there was some extra work you could do, or some sort of project you could do to make up the difference. If not, it is what it is. No one really cares what your undergrad GPA is, but I can understand the frustration of having worked so hard.

 

[ncide]

Talk to whoever is in charge of student affairs or even the dean. Get the water boiling under that professor if s/he is unreasonable.

That said, your undergrad GPA would only come into play if you were interested in an MD OMFS program. Otherwise, it will become irrelevant moving forward in dental school. You would still have a high GPA regardless.

 

[schmoob]

I really don't understand what the fuss is about.

OP, you've worked hard in college and your grades show. But you don't deserve an A in this class. It's 40% participation, and you didn't participate much on account of you not showing up. The loss of a family member is understandable (I'm truly sorry for your loss, btw) but missing class for 5 interviews and expecting an A for attendance when you weren't even there is not reasonable. Do you think it's fair to your classmates who actually did show up that they get the same grade? I'm sure they all could have been doing things that would benefit their future during that time as well.

Let's do some math:
For the sake of simplicity, say it's 120 credits for your undergraduate degree. On a 4.0 scale, that's a maximum of 480 quality points. You're on track for all of the points, except this one class. Let's say you get a B. That would bring you down to 477 quality points.
Calculating your new projected final GPA- 477/120 = 3.975

You've already submitted your application with a 4.0 anyway, and you're projected to graduate with a ~3.98GPA. Seriously, what's the big deal?

 

[CaliforniaPreDental]

Thank you all for the valuable input. To me, the fuss lies upon the fact that my professor pointed out that officially, absences due to school-sponsored events like athletics are considered a reasonable excuse when all other departments are understanding enough to see that grad interviews are basically mandatory to attend and are also important. Each professor has the liberty to excuse as they please here.

That being said, I have given her adequate notice before each absence, and she has even said that it's "no problem." Go figure what no problem means. I agree that I don’t deserve an A for participation compared to the students that did show up more. But it's disappointing to think that in this person’s eyes if I was a student-athlete I would be allowed the absences without it hurting my grade. The participation is based on the (heavy) reading done at home, which I have completed thoroughly. Of the 30 class sessions, I will have missed a total of 6 sessions of this Wed/Fri class.

Thanks to all who suggested taking the class P/F, I’ll look into if it's still an option. I hope a B or two wouldn’t hurt an MD OMFS application too much in the future as stated above if that's the route I choose. I should still be able to pull off an A- if I can’t get the P/F option, but hopefully, I can try to reason it with the professor or other faculties. If not, that sucks because it's out of my control, but oh well ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[ProspectivePostPreDent]

I hope a B or two wouldn’t hurt an MD OMFS application too much in the future as stated above if that's the route I choose.

I don't think there's a single grad program/residency/etc in the world that would decide not to interview you for one or two Bs. For some other reason, sure.

 

[PhansterZ]

I hope a B or two wouldn’t hurt an MD OMFS application too much in the future as stated above if that's the route I choose.

I’m currently enrolled in an MD OMFS residency. Can confirm that a couple of Bs in undergrad will not impact your application significantly.

 

[FeralisExtremum]

This really affects nothing, aside from being able to say you graduated with a 4.0. It's a waste of time to worry about - your GPA regardless of the outcome will be looked at as a significant achievement.

 

[OrphanageCaretaker]

Get a B, 3.98 vs 4.00 means nothing. Better to get a B and go to 5 interviews than to dwell on the fact that you couldn't get an A because you went to 5 interviews.