Missing class for interviews

[Hopkins2010]

My school has a strict attendance policy which all of my professors are enforcing.

One of my most important classes (senior engineering design, for which I'm the project manager) only allows 3 authorized absences. After those 3, any absences take a full point off your final grade in the class.

That class, with all the others, requires that I not miss more than 11 days in any 1 class. If I miss 12 days in one of these classes, I will get an automatic F, regardless of test scores and current grade.

Now, if I happen to be blessed with a lot of interviews, I'm caught in a dilemma. I'm applying to 31 schools, and if I get 10 more interviews than the ones I've already got, then I'm going to fail at least one of my classes.

Failing the engineering design course and another engineering course I'm taking are not an option, because I MUST have them to graduate. However, I'm also taking a pchem course and a math course for 2 minors I'm working on. If I fail them because of absences, it wont cause me to not graduate but it will of course hurt my current GPA (3.8).

Although I'm currently not in danger, what happens if I get alot of interviews, especially for MD/PhD programs which often take 2 or even 3 days?

Should I just forsake my classes and risk failing because of absences so I can go to these interviews? Would med schools rescind any acceptance for me if they found out I was failing 2 classes this semester? I dont want to screw up my GPA (3.8) but then again my best chances for success are to go to EVERY interview, whether its only 5 or whether its 10. Its possible (although unlikely) that I would get that many.

I have to take these classes because I'm required to take 12 hours for my financial aid package.

I'm wondering if other people are facing a similar situation. Does everybody just restrict themselves to going to a certain number of interviews (i.e. 10 or so) and then just declining any other interviews they might get?

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[Amy B]

I think I would start with the Chair of the school and explain the stituation. You can't be the first person this has happened to. If you really can't work things out with the professor, then go to the top, make an appointment and discuss the interviews. I can't imagine that they are so strict that they would refuse you the opportunity to stay in the class and interview for med school.
If this doesn't work then I would talk to the school that invites you and explain the situationa and the steps you have taken to make things work out. They may be able to help you out by changing times or days or maybe even calling your school.

I hope you do get 31 interviews, that would be a nice probelm to have. Good luck

Amy

 

[moo]

I know that once I get accepted to one school, I will withdraw the majority of my applications, except for the top schools. I think that is the way you HAVE to go, because unless you are extremely rich, you won't be able to afford to fly to all those places

 

[Hopkins2010]

Originally posted by moo:
•I know that once I get accepted to one school, I will withdraw the majority of my applications, except for the top schools. I think that is the way you HAVE to go, because unless you are extremely rich, you won't be able to afford to fly to all those places•

Yeah thats the good thing about rolling admissions. So far, however, my only 2 interviews are at places that wont notify me of acceptance/rejection until February at the earliest.

 

[spacecadet]

I agree with Amy Beth. Talk to your professors about your situation. If you can't get resolution with them, go up until you find somebody who can help you. I think these policies are made to be a general rule, and they will usually make exceptions if you really have outstanding circumstances. No way should you fail even one class because of this. No way!

Good luck and let us know how it turns out!

Pam

 

[lilycat]

hey b21,

If I remember correctly, I think you've mentioned before that there is a premed committee at your school, which you had to interview with, get a rec letter from, etc. I would start there -- they must have had to deal with this in the past, and in a way, it's in the school's best interest to make sure you do as well in the admissions process as possible, because they can brag about your accomplishments to future students. From there, go to your profs. If they aren't helpful, go to the Dean of Student Affairs, etc. Like previous posters have said, you surely aren't the first person at your school to be faced with this dilemma, and I'm sure you won't be the last. They must have something in place to deal with these types of situations.

My final question is, how do they deal with the athletes, or do they just get a special exemption because they're athletes?

 

[jbfuq]

I would imagine that they would HAVE to excuse you from missing these classes.....since you are furthering your education, i can't see where they would have the authority not to allow you to miss class for interviews. I agree with the other posters though. First talk with the professors, then if they give you a hard time then i would go higher (i have found that most of the professors really hate it when you go above their heads without first consulting them!!).

In terms of athletes, they are given excused absences and the teachers pretty much are in charge of letting them know what they went over in terms of subject material (most just tell them pages in the book to read, if that). Lots of schools athletic programs have note-takers for many of the more popular classes too.

 

[Dave2K]

I don't think that schools have to excuse you for anything! Personal tragedy, illness, death in family, you name it and you can still suffer administrative consequences...It's unfair, but it sometimes happens. As for athletes, that is an ENTIRELY different story, and most big-program schools cut their athletes unbeleivable slack.

I would suggest attempting to coordinate some of your interviews. Often times, schools will accomodate your needs, and you can schedule a few interviews in one geographic area (New York/Boston comes to mind for many schools in a small region) to coincide, often on the same day! It's worth a shot...

 

[Hopkins2010]

I'm going to ask the premed committee first and see what they say. My school has a very large premed population so I'm sure some superstars from the past have had to deal with this problem.

I also have another issue on attendance. So far, it seems like 90% of all interviews are on Fridays. For my senior design class, we have design reports due on most of them, which are very important. Technically I'm not allowed to miss any of these, but I might be able to work it out with the prof.

So is my assessment correct? This must be freakin incredible misfortune for me that so many schools will only schedule interviews for Fridays.

I graduate this December, and plan to work full time after that. Did any of you have problems taking so many days off work for interviews? How did you handle this?

 

[lilycat]

Actually, I had the opposite problem with the Friday interviews -- it seemed like all the ones I was getting were scheduled for the middle of the week, which meant I had to miss more work.

If you have these big reports due on Fridays, just reschedule your interviews. Many schools will try to discourage you from doing this in your interview letter, but I think they just do this to try and avoid having hundreds of students call the office all the time to work around their schedule. I had to reschedule three of my interviews from the day I was given, and it was never a problem. You may get a date that is 2-4 weeks later, but if you are interviewing this early, that really shouldn't be a problem. Conversely, you might also get an earlier date -- one of my interviews moved up a month because I needed a Monday or Friday interview.

When I applied last year I was working full-time, but my employer was well aware of my plans to attend med school, and was very encouraging and didn't have a problem with my missing work. But, like I said, I often tried to get Monday or Friday interviews to minimize the number of days missed. Mondays are ideal so you can travel on the weekend. Also, I would usually just work extra on the days and weekends I was in town to make up for the time I missed interviewing. It really just depends how cool your supervisors are with this, and how upfront you have been about your future plans.