<p>OK so here is the story.</p>
<p>I deferred my physics final because of a major migraine. Three weeks before my rewrite day I had a car accident. The accident was major (my car was totaled) and I had some minor neck injuries. These neck injuries turned out to cause my migraines to be more frequent and worse. By my exam date my neck injuries were not healed, and I was still getting my migraines. So I emailed my prof the night before the exam asking if it is possible to postpone my exam. He responded saying that I must speak to the registrar. I didn’t go to my exam and instead went to the doctor and got him to due an examination on me to confirm my migraine problem so that I could have proof. I emailed the registrar and they told me that it is not up to them and it is up to my prof if I can rewrite the exam. So I emailed my prof again and he said he’d talk to the department head. He got back to me a week later and told me that I had to speak to the associate dean. So I made an appointment with the associate dean. When I saw the associate dean, he was not very understanding of my situation, and told me that all he can do for me is give me a late withdrawal. I was not pleased with the way the associate dean was speaking to me. He made small comments that made me unsure of what he was trying to say. Stuff like “you didn’t come to me on ur own, and if u had I may have considered letting you write the exam” and then I apologized to him but he said something like “it’s ok, I’m just reading your body language”. I had no idea what he meant by that. But at some level it felt rude. He also said that if I wanted I can speak to my professor because he has the power to let me write the test still. So immediately after I emailed my prof asking to arrange an appointment with him. However, it’s been a week and he has not replied yet. i emailed him again today but still no reply. I feel like he may be ignoring me?
I’m so confused as to what to do because I really need this grade to get into the psychology program and I had no idea it would be such a big deal and hassle to postpone my exam. This was the first time I’d ever deferred a final and I was not aware of all the rules and regulations. I just don’t know what to do anymore. My prof isn’t replying. If a student speaks to an associate and doesn’t like the way he/she resolved the issue, is there someone higher that they can speak to to try to appeal ? and are profs actually allowed to ignore their students ? is that something i can complain about ?
I’m just so confused as to what my rights are as a student because I’ve never been in such a situation. I’ve tried speaking to academic advisers and office people about it but they don’t give me much time and they just cut me off and don’t really tell me my options and rights. </p>
<p>Sorry if this sounds more like a rant, but I’m just so frustrated with all of this. The stress is giving me more migraines! Can someone please help me by explaining to me what rights and options are??</p>
<p>Thank you!</p>
<p>I can’t give you any real, genuine advice but only some consolation - it’s extremely likely that everything will solve itself as you had an excellent reason for not being there (you weren’t partying/hungover) and have been trying to get the situation solved from the get-go.</p>
<p>Can you call a dean of a higher degree? And additionally - I’m not by any means saying that this is your fault - how you present yourself and your situation can garner a lot of sympathy and get you pretty far. Also if somebody criticizes your body language…just say “Yes, well, I was in a serious car crash and I haven’t physically recovered yet.” :)</p>
<p>The makeup exam was almost certainly set at a time that would give the professor time to grade your work and get your final grade in to the registrar. Professors don’t have a whole lot of time to get that done, and registrars take it seriously when they don’t turn in grades when they’re supposed to, because students and their parents get really upset when they have to wait for grades. The reason you were referred to the registrar is probably that to have postponed the exam a second time you would have needed to arrange to get an Incomplete instead of whatever grade it was that you’d earned with a score of 0 for your final exam. Now you’ve got that grade on your transcript and you’re asking to have it changed, which is very likely not something that the professor has the power to do.</p>
<p>The professor might have been unable to arrange to give you an Incomplete, or he may simply have been unwilling to set it up for you on top of the other extra work you’ve already created. I don’t know. You’d need to check the rules on Incompletes at your school.</p>
<p>But giving you a makeup in the first place might have been a big deal or it might not. Rescheduling the makeup would have been a bigger deal, but not necessarily a huge deal if you’d done it in advance. But he scheduled a room and cleared part of his schedule and probably wrote a different exam just for you or for a small group of people, and you didn’t show up. (And yes, I have taken exams with migraines. It’s not something I recommend. But I’d recommend it over skipping the exam without already having arranged something. Even with a migraine I can usually get a grade better than 0, and if I no-show I’m probably getting a 0.) Which means that you’re asking him to schedule another room, clear more of his schedule, and – if you weren’t the only one scheduled to take the makeup that day – perhaps writing yet another exam. And that’s a huge deal, especially if you later approached him in a way that suggests you think you are entitled to a third chance to take the test.</p>
<p>My understanding is that you don’t have any rights here. It is well established that disabled students do not have to be accommodated retroactively, meaning that when you skipped the makeup exam without having gotten permission to do so, you set yourself up to need someone to do you a big, big favor. And given that it was already a makeup exam and that you didn’t skip it for some My guess is that the professor will not be inclined to do you any big favors. Doesn’t sound like the registrar is, either. </p>
<p>You could try the department chair. You could try a dean. You could get your parents to donate millions of dollars to the school or you could get compromising photographs of important administrators. If you have a good relationship with your advisor, she might try to help you convince someone. You could even try disability services, although the “no retroactive accommodations” rule is observed at every school whose disability services office I’m familiar with. Whatever you do, though, I would recommend being as nice as possible about it and trying hard not to be an annoyance even though you want this resolved fast. Because when you want a favor, it doesn’t help to be bothersome.</p>
<p>My grade isn’t on the transcript yet. It still says “grade pending”.</p>