Lost my addmission because of a bad teacher!

Colleges & Universities University of California - Davis
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<p>I cant believe that this even happened. I am really mad at UCD right now! I fallowed my admission’s kept everything good, but i dropped my bio class at community college because of medical reasons (even have note) then Davis told me to take it in summer. I decided to take the course during summer, only to find out that 1 teacher held the fate of my admission in his hands. About 140 students took Pro, applemen’s Bio course, He teaches Bis2A and only teaches it during the summer. He normally teaches upper division bio during the regular year, but summer he does not. </p>

<p>This teacher was Horrible! He didn’t care about his students, 62% of the class got 69% or below. He wouldn’t curve. His tests were based on stuff we didn’t learn in lecture, nor was the information present in the book he assigned us. In 2007 the book, was a major bio book over 800pages, The book assigned us was actually a preliminary edition and was lacking lots of information, was 316 pages and missing lots of information. I confronted him about this and he told me to use outside sources. How do i use outside sources if i have no idea what i’ll be tested on. I even asked for his help, and he said go to office hours. I did and it was useless. I attended my T.A office hours because she was more helpful! </p>

<p>in summer 2007 class he tested his students on 1 organism, This year 08, he tested us on 3 organisms on every test. He also gave his 2007 class a take home final, We did not get a Take home final. I know all this because he gave us the old exams and old take home final to study off of. But they were 100% useless as his tests were majorly different and the information tested us on was not in the book. This course has no prerequisite and i know that the only people who did good, had some kind of background knowledge on this. </p>

<p>I contacted the dean of biology and he ignored my e-mail, yet he replied to 2 of my classmates. I forward the e-mail to the chancellor but i doubt she’ll see it for a while.
I seriously have no idea what to do next. This teacher is horrible and he should have curved. With a curve i could have gotten a C, that would have not dropped my gpa as bad is it did to cause them to reject me. </p>

<p>The admissions counselor told me to up my gpa, and appeal for winter. I explained that I’m stuck in a huge ass Loop and she had no suggestions for me. What kind of help is that. I’m in summer session 2 now, I cant drop the course’s because it’s past the drop date. I cant enroll in community college since they started last week. I cant retake Bis2a anywhere but at UCDavis since i just took it there. So i cant take it elsewhere to get the credit for the course, and i cant take it at Davis because I’m no longer admitted! They should have at least let me stay for fall on probation this is ridiculous. I get one bad teacher (only teacher who wont curve either) which is my 1st teacher at Davis and i get screwed. </p>

<p>What kind of school keeps bad teachers around, doesn’t help students stuck in a loop, and can’t give any advice because they have no idea how to get me out of it! </p>

<p>WHAT CAN I DO? How do you appeal when you cant take the recourse anywhere, and i cant take it at davis because they revoke my admission???</p>

<p>I’m thinking of getting legal help and suing the teacher for cheating his students of an education and discriminating against his 2008 classes (because of the harder tests, weaker book, no take home exam, refused to curve even though the average was a 62%) We pay thousands for higher education, i think its time for school’s to offer that! Give us teachers who want to be here!</p>

<p>Sorry for the long rant, or if i seem like a jerk. I just found out today and i know anger is within this post. Not trying to offend anyone or attack anyone, or ucdavis.</p>

<p>Avoid this teacher at all costs! Look at his recent review, Its someone from session 2 that has already started noticing the same thing! </p>

<p>[Jeremy</a> Appleman - University of California Davis - RateMyProfessors.com](<a href=“Jeremy Appleman at University of California Davis | Rate My Professors”>Jeremy Appleman at University of California Davis | Rate My Professors)</p>

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<p>Why is it that your review on Ratemyprofessors is the only bad review?</p>

<p>I could be wrong but, from what it seems, the string of negative reviews all sound like your rant here.</p>

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<p>I am with purest on this one.</p>

<p>He has mostly positive reviews except for a recent one that has intriguing parallels with your rant thread. No one is going to be on your side when the professor obviously has fine ratings except for the occasional negative ones because he is too hard. Everyone in your section ‘failed’ the first midterm. Right. </p>

<p>I am sure you can check his class statistics online or through UC Davis and you will find the grades of your class follow a bell curve. This means ~ 15% of the students receive A’s, 20% recieve B’s, 30% C’s, 20% D’s and 15% F’s. This is how it works at the UC level. </p>

<p>Most of your complaints are the ones I hear students saying after a ‘hard midterm.’ Stuff like “HE TOTALLY DIDN’T TEACH THAT” or “HOW DID HE EXPECT US TO KNOW THAT.” I walk by with a chuckle since not only did he lecture about it, but he also brought the point up in the homework and required reading. If you want us to believe that he truly just puts random ***** on your midterm without any way of you knowing the information, surely more reviews would touch on this and his rating would be lower.</p>

<p>I think you should wake up a little bit and realize you have some fault in this situation also. You had 2 years to take this class, and you waited until the summer before your transfer. Also, getting <C in an under division bio course does not really tell me that you tried really hard. It sounds like you coasted through the class expecting it to be like Community college bio and just expected your teacher to curve your straight D’s on tests to C’s because that is what you were used to. </p>

<p>So you are saying the class average was a 62%. I have a feeling you are exaggerating that number since much of your post sounds a bit like b.s. to me. Even if the class average was a 62%, as far as I am aware, he is not forced to curve that up to a C-. I took a Bio course last quarter in which everything was worth points and the professor said straight up during the first lecture that she would not curve under any circumstances. The class average was a 65%, and she kept it like that. </p>

<p>Good luck getting a lawyer to take this case :)</p>

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<p>Actually Cali trumpet, If you would read all 18 pages of his reviews you would notice the same trend through his reviews! He is to hard! you cant be that hard. If you have more than half the class failing it shows that the teacher is at fault no matter how you look at it. Yes he could be a good lecturer, but he could also be a bad test writer, as well as a not giving all the information you may think you gave.</p>

<p>I have all his lectures on my pc from the recordings. I would re listen to them after getting my test. I looked at it, and never heard any information regarding the test questions. I checked the book and again not there either. If he wanted us to use outside resources and expect us to learn on our own without telling us anything to learn then hes a bad teacher. He should use a known reputable book. Not some cheap binder preliminary book. Second. I know there is no requirement for curving, but his class failed to fall under those bell curve stats anyway. </p>

<p>you said “15% of the students receive A’s, 20% receive B’s, 30% C’s, 20% D’s and 15% F’s.” in our class we had a total of 135 students. 76 fall under 70% and 59 are above 70%.
He has definitely failed to many students.</p>

<p>DID you actually read all those comments!! NO! First off if you would have read my post correctly the first time you would have read that i said that I TOOK IT SUMMER SESSION 1. I wouldn’t retake it with that teacher EVER! As for taking him to court, I have stacked up all the proof i needed. I have his old tests, his old grades, his recent grades, recent tests and i will get summer session 2 grades when its finished from a friend. Last year he failed more than half the class as well. If he does it again, its showing a continuous problem that he wont adjust for. Its just as much the teachers responsibility as it is the students. What holds a case in court is his discrimination against our class. Again the previous year he gave a take home test. This year he did not. I know teachers can change there mind about that, but he shouldn’t flaunt it to us, and tell his students that’s what is previous students got. </p>

<p>He needs to be held accountable for his actions. We pay teachers thousands of dollars and its about time that students take the power back. We pay for GOOD teachers, not crappy teachers who think there better than everyone else and try to wean people out of majors. </p>

<p>A good teacher is a teacher that actually teaches students, and the students actually learn! This is shown by the grades given out. A bad teacher, fails to get students interested, in gauged, or even learn the material.simply presenting the information is not teaching, leaving information out is even worse. A bad teacher is a teacher that fails more than 50% of the class. Its obvious theirs something wrong. </p>

<p>If this was in oakland and the class was full of white/black students i would say that it may not be the teacher, but its DAVIS and the class is full of SMART ASS Asian/Indian people and if they are failing it shows the teachers at fault. </p>

<p>As for having 2 years to take this class, Your totally wrong! If you actually went through community college you may know what its about. You cant just enroll into a bio course. It requires a year of chemistry for it. Davis does not require anything. You also needed to have to be at a certain english/math level. By the time i was there, i finished 1 1/2 years of school. I took it at Community college, but got very sick and had to drop most my courses (via medical reasons) Then davis made an exception to allow me to take it in summer. They wouldn’t have allowed that without a medical excuse. I did everything else needed to get into davis. I lost my admission because of the F. 1) i didn’t have the class, 2)that F brought my gpa below a 2.9 min. I only got rejected because of that 1 class.</p>

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<p>Why would I read all 18 pages of his reviews when you can get a sense of the teacher from two pages? He got a lot of “really good teacher but hard tests” which were maturely written probably from students who did well in the class. Then there is a lot of “*** HES SO HARD AND DOESNT TEACH OMG” which were written in improper English and are likely written by students who failed the class like you. There was a common opinion that if you went to office hours, completed the extra credit, and went over practice test problems, you did just fine. So in other words, if you try hard, you at least pass. I am sure you are going to tell me that you did all of the above and still failed.</p>

<p>I would want to look at the actual statistics before making an opinion about the number of students who got <C. Even if the teacher posted final grades online, it is very possible that he bumped up grades when it came down to turning the grade sheet in. Also, if you received an F, I am not sure how you see yourself passing if he did curve. </p>

<p>Professors, especially those with tenure, can pretty much do whatever they want. Students have the option to take the class or not and can drop the class or take it pass/fail if they choose. Most professors perform research and teach because they have to. I think we both know that you are not going to get anywhere with perusing this matter further.</p>

<p>All and all, I still believe that you either slacked off and coasted through the class or you do not have the intellectual ability to handle UC level biology undergrad. Ultimately, you were competing against your peers for a grade and you did worse than half of them. When considering that ~25% of the class don’t show up to lectures, from my experience, this should tell you that it is not the teacher’s fault that you failed.</p>

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<p>"If this was in oakland and the class was full of white/black students i would say that it may not be the teacher, but its DAVIS and the class is full of SMART ASS Asian/Indian people and if they are failing it shows the teachers at fault. "</p>

<p>Maybe Asian/Indians are not so smart… We should not stereotype people… White/black people are just as capable as anyone in the world.</p>

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<p>Wow. I actually thought you may have had a case until you said this.</p>

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<p>Blanca… Welcome to College level courses… or maybe not in your case at the moment.</p>

<p>Btw, we DO pay for good professors. We DON’T pay for grades.</p>

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<p>Sorry to hear that blanca, keep emailing and hope it works out, talk to a counselor IRL if you can.</p>

<p>And yeah, classes are a lot harder, but that professor’s rating does seem quite poor.</p>

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<p>I like the fight here, but I think I have to go along with CaliTrumpet.</p>

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<p>Wow. Did you just explicitly say that “Asian/Indian people” are smarter than “white/black” people? I think I speak for a lot of Davis students when I say f*** you. Stay out of Davis. I don’t sympathize with you, your racist viewpoints, or your sh**ty study habits.</p>

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<p>Seriously blanca? You come on here, insult a large swath of people, and want us to listen to your story about how you failed a class (probably due to your laziness and/or lack of intelligence)? Who do you expect us to believe - an anonymous, racist, bitter individual, or a professor who teaches at a world-renowned university?</p>

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<p>Wow. Get a grip Blanca… Discrimination based on what?? I don’t think its worthwhile to pursue this case… You are better off trying to resolve your status in a 4-year university.</p>

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<p>Discrimination b/c your Bio professor was too hard? MLK Jr. and Thurgood Marshall are both turning in their graves right about now. Your best bet is to get in contact with your campus ASI rep and have them petition the UCD administration on your behalf. Please stop with the ridiculous “discrimination” lawsuit talk.</p>

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<p>I don’t think blanca wants to sue over discrimination - re-read blanca84’s 8/26 post. He/she doesn’t feel discriminated against. Instead, blanca wants to sue because the professor was “too hard.” And then she made an offensive, racist comment about “asian/indian” people being smarter than “white/black” people, and how the class was filled with asian/indian students. And because they’re supposedly smarter than white/black students, they should have done well in the class. But they didn’t, so it must be the professor’s fault. </p>

<p>That is the most offensive argument I’ve ever heard. BLANCA, YOU’RE A DISGRACE. You really believe one group of people is inherently more intelligent than another?? I really hope Davis doesn’t let you in.</p>

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<p>I think this professor did the university, student and faculty, a favor.</p>

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<p>First of all before we become an angry mob, lets step back and be proper about this… Meaning: </p>

<p>Lets not attack the person, If we do then we are no better and ad Hominems are not </p>

<p>college level arguments. </p>

<p>If you are going to find flaws with her argument, point them out in a polite manner…</p>

<p>We should try to better the attitudes of College confidential so that that the quality of </p>

<p>help improves, and thus improving the quality of life for people. </p>

<p>I truly hope that as future University of California Graduates we walk out of school with </p>

<p>more than a degree but, with proper values, good manners, and best of all good </p>

<p>social skills. So we can then demonstrate that the university of California had done</p>

<p>more than just given us a proper education, but rather the skills to improve our </p>

<p>community. </p>

<p>excuse my grammar, I’m an Art major…</p>

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<p>Indeed. The responses to this thread are pretty amazing, and not in a good way.</p>

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<p>in defense of Dr. Appleman ,I thought he was a great teacher. I took BIS2A the same time as you (this summer). Thing is, I was also shocked by the amount of people failing the class who just couldn’t make the cut. But point of the matter is, he was fair, the tests took logical thinking(which imo is lacking is some of the easier classes) as well as background knowledge of the subject matter (shallow understanding resulted in you failing to answer most of the questions right from my experience). I ended up with a B, and I tried a reasonable amount to get it. Plus he had extra credit which he added onto the final grades, he isn’t so heartless :&lt;/p>

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<p>To all the people who think i’m raciest, you got it all wrong. If you would have looked at the meaning of the sentence vs what the you see the first time you read it you would have noticed. I mentioned about it being in OAKLAND. I know dam well, blacks, whites, asians and all others are smart people. I was referring to the effort part. People in Oakland don’t put effort towards school, and we all know by statistics Asians put all effort towards school because of there parents influences. Not everyone is lucky enough to grow up with there parents paying for everything and not having to work. Davis classes are about 60-80% Asian. I wasn’t being raciest, just stating the facts about who’s in the classes. I highly admire all black, Indian white, ect… that got into Davis. Its not easy and i know they worked extremely hard. Again i was referring to the location not the race</p>

<p>Weirdhobo, thats great that you got a B in that class. I got 42 points extra credit and it didn’t help. The teacher is heartless. I had a 59% and he gave me an F, didnt bother to up that 1% to give me a D. Like i mentioned he didn’t care. he favored his students who went to office hours, which in this case is discrimination, but of course unprovable. If he did bump someone up a grade and failed to do so to someone else, proves in the court discrimination. Again its probably unprovable.</p>

<p>His test’s required to much critical thinking, Its pretty sad that the teacher who wrote that book, that he used CURVES. This teacher wouldn’t curve no matter what, yet all teachers who teach in FALL DO!! That book sucked and had missing information. I confronted him about that and he told me to use google or go to the reserve and get a more advanced bio book (which he should have had us by in the first place) . How can you instruct a student to use google, without giving some kind of study guide to go off of. You cant expect a student to randomly learn new information on there own without being directed to what information needs to be learned.</p>