Background

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Graduate School Triumphs/Woes

Today I just took my first graduate school midterm, and despite my professor's best efforts I nailed it! Well, if nailing means getting a 91%. The jury's still out on that one.

Anyway, let me take a minute and vent on how ridiculous this teacher is. First off, this course is meant to provide a means for people that work full-time to attend remotely if necessary. The class normally meets at noon on Tuesday & Thursdays, which as you can imagine is rather difficult for the working professional. Fortunately I have an amazing boss, and am able to attend most of the lectures.

There are, however, times where I just need to get things done at work, and I rely on the recorded lectures to keep up with the lecture. When I started the semester, I thought this was a great option.

However, I only found out about this test on Thursday in my other graduate class because someone happened to be talking about how many tests she had next week. Had this girl not been talking about that, I would not have known about the test, and would have planned to stay in Tahoe with my family for the day.

So I emailed the professor to see what the exam was on, and to politely point out that she had not mentioned this piece of information to the distance students. I also asked if there was somewhere else I should check for this information. She asked if I received an email about next Friday's test.

I didn't even bother telling her that wasn't the point.

Oh, and we can also submit our resume's for extra credit. And attend the Sacramento State Career Fair for extra credit.

The long and short of it is, I don't think this professor realizes she's teaching a graduate course. She treats everything like you're an undergraduate student. (For example, travel is not an acceptable excuse for missing a test.) And especially for a school that advertises how friendly they are to working professionals, that's just unacceptable.

Needless to say, I'll be having a word with the Dean at the end of the semester. Because if all teacher's are going to be like her, I may have to rethink my decision to continue my graduate studies at Sacramento State.

...But until then, nothing shall stop the Jessica Success Train!

1 comment:

  1. Hey, congratulations on the test and thanks for the comment about the boss. Obviously you know “the boss” is reading your blog while your teacher isn’t. ;-)

    I hope this is the only teacher with the wrong mentality about working students. It’s clear that she assumes that because you’re going for the Master and since you can make it to a lunch time class twice a week you probably are unemployed, laid off or any other non-working situation.

    I hope they correct this mentality and wrap around the needs of working professional schedules.

    ReplyDelete