Hi everyone. First up, I am Australian so this isn’t about me. I fell in love with a woman I will call B when we were about 26. I want to move to America to be with her. She has had some bad luck in life and is studying a Bachelor of Science at a University in Virginia. I don’t know if it is all right to say which college.
She is having a world of trouble getting this degree. In the past, some very difficult circumstances lead to her failing a semester’s worth of subjects. She tried again and was able to pass them all except this one Chemistry subject. She tried Chemistry again, and …again and again… and we are getting desperate.
I want to move to her, but she needs to pass this subject first and have her degree complete for financial reasons. On a marriage visa I won’t be able to work for a year, so she needs to be done with study and able to support both of us during that time.
A pass in this subject is 70%. Last time she got 67% overall. We were both devastated.
I am pretty useless here. Unfortunately I don’t know much about America, or what services might be available or what options.
And as for my partner right now she can barely think. She is working non-stop right now to get enough money to survive and pay for the next time she takes the class, she intends to take Chemistry (or the one alternative which is Analytical Chemistry) in the semester of Jan to May. She has never tried the Analytical one before. A pass in either of these subjects is a required part of her course. And as for the Chemistry subject she has taken before, the teacher doesn’t do extra credit, and last time she took the class (which was the summer school short version which she found harder) she had a tutor.
Is there anything that can be done?
The class average on the final test is reportedly a fail (around 40%).
What would you do? What can I do? What can she do? Could she do it through another univeristy, even externally? Would it be easier to pass somewhere else? Is analytical chemistry recommended to try instead or would that just create more problems? Is there anyone that can help us make sure the next sign up is the last time?
Thank you in advance to any replies…
Just adding: she has been in touch with the student advisors but respectfully speaking they are very busy and it is very hard to get an appointment with them, and when she has she has more than once been turned away because appointments didnt register in the system etc. They weren’t able to tell her much information last time apart from the fact that Analytical Chemistry was an alternate subject to get the 3 credits at this university
There are two many unknowns for people here on CC to be helpful. In general, it is possible to take a course elsewhere and have it transferred (the usual way is at a Community College over the summer), but every university has it’s own policies. And, if it is a specific, required course (especially for a major) that may not be allowed- we don’t have that info. .
This is something your partner needs to handle, by going to her Chemistry prof and/or talking to her advisor. If she has taken, and failed, the same class 2? 3? times already, including once with a tutor, there is a fundamental problem in how she is processing (or rather, not processing) the information. Talking to her most recent Chemistry prof and asking for advice as to 1) what she could do differently next time and 2) the profs advice on which Chem class she should take.
Your partner does have an advisor- one she should have met with rather often by now, if she is nearly done with her degree. Persevering through bureaucracy is never fun, but it is an essential life skill, and being put off by appointment mix-ups or having to wait for appointments only hurts her.
Your GF needs to work with her faculty advisor about whether or not an advanced chem course could be taken elsewhere to satisfy degree requirement. Sometimes a faculty advisor has leeway to approve alternates but we don’t know.
If she takes Analytical, your Gf could reach out to Prof. Venton if that’s who will teach Analytical Chem in spring. Is your gf going to do research with her? There may be grad students to tutor her, too. https://3c.virginia.edu/faculty/bjv2n
Or see this resource for ideas for study aides. Someone in Chemistry Dept. Can help her.
Thank you very much collegemom3717, Hippobirdy and Publisher for replying!
I have now passed on all the advice in this thread, it is very much appreciated. She has now emailed her professor to ask what she can do better next time, and her advisor to ask whether her course requirements can be satisfied somewhere else, hopefully there will be a response soon. She is leaning towards doing Organic Chemistry (again) over doing Analytical at the moment based on her own research.
Being Australian I haven’t heard of a community college, so I am a bit out of my depth here. Is there any disadvantages for my partner to take Chemistry at a community college instead of at one of the big name universities?
The reality it sounds like she needs to pass this one class and move on. Shouldn’t really matter where,she takes it.
I know many successful people that had to pass a class and had to take it multiple times. Life happens… Crap happens… Sometimes you just need to get through it.
She should be going to office hours daily /weekly. Let the professor spot where she is not getting the material. She needs to be very upfront with them about her goals. Old tests might give her a clue of what she is lacking. Taking the class and making the same types of mistakes will get her nowhere
Thanks knowsstuff, that is a great suggestion and i hope that when she is taking the class her professor will help.
She messaged her most recent professor to ask what she can so better and he never responded. It has been about 2 weeks now. It is a bit discouraging
Her advisor is on leave and will return on the 21st. She was linked to a new advisor for the meantime and the new advisor just told her to wait for the old one to come back so we havent made much progress here on asking whether the course can be transferred to a community college.
It sounds like you are putting an awful lot of pressure on her to graduate and immigrate you.
I would suggest that you stop wanting to be stateside immediately.
I would also suggest that you work and make and save as much money as you can because living in the US is VERY expensive. It’s really unfortunate that you are placing this kind of pressure on her.
If she is going to have to find a job and support you, for a year, she’s going to be under a lot of strain.
My partner and I are both hard-working women, and both of us strongly believe in education. The one difference is that I have had much luck on my side education-wise, and I have been able to obtain an internationally accredited master’s degree. My partner in contrast, has had exceptionally bad luck in completing her study. Regardless as to whether I am/was a part of her life or not, it is still certain that she would need to complete this degree as she herself feels she needs the accomplishment, and furthermore I doubt there is many out there who would be satisfied with leaving a degree a few mere credits from completion after so much hard work. I will continue to support her with this. We have mutually decided that it would not be possible for us to begin the next chapter of our lives together until she has finished her study, as she needs her entire focus to make this happen.
I came to this forum to ask those who know, about (a) any possible strategies for passing organic chemistry that may have been overlooked by us and also (b) to educate myself on the American education system as in many ways it does differ from my own. I am pleased that I reached out, and I am very grateful to those who have been kind enough to give up their time to advise a stranger on these matters. This is clearly a wonderful forum, and I will continue to periodically check this thread for any new replies.
However, I did not seek advice on my personal life, and I will respectfully say to aunt bea that I find elements of her comment inappropriate - though I like to hope that it was meant well. He/she is correct in the fact that it is ‘unfortunate’ that my partner’s wage will be the only new money coming in for a year. Yes, I will bring savings, however the Australian dollar is significantly weaker than the US dollar and (even without this conversion) it is a fact that savings do not last forever.
We (my partner and I) have made a joint decision to take the visa-by-marriage path, and to have our union be in the USA. We do not have to disclose our reasons for this, but I will say that this decision was made at least in part due to the fact that her chosen career path is better suited to living in the USA, whereas I am not locked into Australia for mine. I will be very proud to eventually have US citizenship, but I will be even more proud to be her wife, without meeting her I would never have chosen to move overseas.
It is true that for my first year in the US I will not be able to work and we will be on one wage, however unless visa rules can be waived, this is inevitable. At the end of that year I have a good chance to find employment with my accreditations and experience. My partner and I will continue on this path, and we will continue to work together, as we always have.
