is breaking up with a girlfriend sufficient ground in itself to...

College Life
1

<p>justify delaying an exam, or taking an exam late?</p>

<p>This post motivated the question of mine:</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?p=2513341&highlight=girlfriend+farm#post2513341[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?p=2513341&highlight=girlfriend+farm#post2513341&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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2

<p>I guess, that wouldn’t fly at most schools though, just because it can’t reasonably be proven. Most professors could care less.</p>

3

<p>Yea, I don’t think you would be able to justify that to a professor. I’ll be astounded if that’s allowed by a professor.</p>

<p>Bren</p>

4

<p>I had broken up with my girlfriend and forgot to do my homework that night, which was due the next day. This was a pretty important homework assignment that I completely forgot because I was depressed and upset all night. I had dated this girl well over a year and she broke up with me very suddenly. I went to the professor after class to explain. He wasn’t angry or anything, but he sat me down and said that he would like to explain something to me. He said something along the lines of, “This is college, David. You’re not a kid anymore and in real life, most excuses just aren’t going to fly. Think about it. If you have a job and you have a deadline, will that deadline be pushed back unless the circumstances were incredibly extenuating? You must understand that these don’t constitute extenuating circumstances. Life isn’t always easy. Sh***y things happen all the time, but we need to pull through em. So I’ll tell you what, I’ll give you half credit if you turn it in tomorrow.” </p>

<p>So I got a half credit break, but I doubt you will find a professor with sympathy like that too often.</p>

5

<p>No. It is not considered reason enough to delay an exam.</p>

<p>When I taught college, the morning of an exam, one of my students came and and told me she’d have to delay taking it because her father had just died of lung cancer that morning and she had to fly home. That is an example of the kind of reason that is acceptable. She took the exam after she returned from her dad’s funeral. She aced the exam (which, incidentally, was different than the one that I gave the rest of the class because I never gave the same exam twice).</p>

<p>In the recommendation that I wrote for her to go to law school, I also wrote about how she handled that, giving it an example of how responsible she was. She got into her first choice – Georgetown and now works for a major law firm.</p>

6

<p>It’s not that professors “could care less,”; it’s that they cannot afford to allow students to hand in assignments/papers or take tests whenever the students feel “good” about the day. One student isn’t usually a problem, but an ongoing slew of them throughout the semester is. I always tell my students at the beginning of the semester that all excuses require a letter from the Dean. If they are very sick, the Dean will know and get in touch with me. If a family member or close friend is hospitalized or dies, same thing. If a girlfriend breaks up with you . . . I feel sorry for your circumstances, but it’s not going to get you an extension. </p>

<p>I like my students, and I hate to see them deal with some of the stuff they do. I <em>do</em> care. However, I’m not going to write another exam or deal with the complaints of classmates unless the circumstances are truly extenuating.</p>

7

<p>The only excuse for missing an exam is your own death. :)</p>

8

<p>I’ve had professors who wouldn’t allow any late papers even in the case of family death…
and this was in a community college.</p>

<p>but then I had professors who would take pretty much any excuse.
so it can go either way I guess.</p>

9

<p>“Contrast that with a guy I know at Princeton who had issues of a personal psychological nature. In each case, the profs were willing to reschedule his exams, drop classes, give him Incomplete grades (so he could complete the work at a later date), and so forth.”</p>

<p>To return to my original post, I’m sure that this guy’s professors were notified of an unspecified health problem and were asked to give this student extra time to complete his work. There’s never a requirement to do so, however. (My daughter missed a test because she was taken by ambulance to the emergency room, and her prof still docked her make-up test by ten percent.) </p>

<p>Unlike high school, colleges rarely have a policy that cover all professors and classes. Some required classes have policies, and some individual profs do.</p>

10

<p>it depends on whether or not youre in good terms with that professor and how much he/she likes you…if that is the case then just go up and start crying and show that you really care and he/she should delay it (not for full credit).</p>

11

<p>“if that is the case then just go up and start crying and show that you really care and he/she should delay it (not for full credit).”</p>

<p>I was a professor and wouldn’t have delayed giving a test for the above reason. I would, however, have a lower opinion of the student, who would seem to be attempting to manipulate me, and also to lack the strength of character to handle the type of ordinary (though painful) losses that everyone goes through.</p>

<p>What I’d do is to refer the student to the campus counseling center, and tell the student that the counseling center could give the student advice on how to handle the test and other responsibilities that the student would need to handle in a timely fashion.</p>

12

<p>Apparently at MIT - they still allow people to take exams late for the mere reason of sleeping in:
<a href=“http://www.mitadmissions.org/topics/life/workplay_balance_at_mit/advice_youve_heard_before_and.shtml[/url]”>http://www.mitadmissions.org/topics/life/workplay_balance_at_mit/advice_youve_heard_before_and.shtml&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

13

<p>A friend of mine slept through his electrical engineering exam this morning, rushed to the room with 20 minutes to go on the exam, and the professor polled the rest of the class to see if he should allow my friend to take the test. the rest of the class was sympathetic and he got to take the test (with the original amount of time) in the professor’s office, and the professor even got him coffee and popcorn (random but very nice!)</p>