What to do

What Should You Do? Trying To Get Into A Closed Course

Jonathan Golding Dealing with Faculty, Overrides, Selecting Classes, Uncategorized, What to do , , ,

One of the biggest bummers at the start of the semester is realizing that you need a course, but finding out that the course is closed. You might think that if you need the course, you will find someone (Dean, Professor, Advisor) who will simply let you into the course (i.e., give you an override). However, as the expression goes Think Again! It is not a lost cause when you need a closed course, but getting an override into the course will require a certain way of approaching your dilemma.

Here are some pieces of advice:

1) Keep in mind that in most cases the only person who can let you into a class is the faculty member teaching the course. That means, at some point you are going to have to have some communication with this person. It is very rare that the faculty member will let you in to a closed course simply based on the recommendation of another person (e.g., an Advisor). For the rest of this post I will assume a faculty member must give an override into a class, but it may be another person (e.g., chairperson, advisor) who makes this decision.

override1-university-105709_12802) I feel that you should talk to a faculty member in person. Contacting them initially via email is OK, but for something like this I feel a face-to-face meeting will work to your advantage. For one thing, I believe a faculty member will be more impressed with your desire to get into the course when you show up in person to talk compared to reading an email from you. I’ll be honest, in my close to 30 years of teaching it is doubtful I ever gave or would give an override to a student I did not talk to in person.

3) Be persistent. Getting an override for a course can be hard work that takes some time. Don’t try once and then just give up. In my view, you should try several times. You need to realize that ultimately you may not be successful, but I feel that if you really want the course you need to keep going for it.

4) Have clear in your mind why you need the course. This is critical for when you talk to the person teaching the course. Don’t just say to the faculty member that you need the course to graduate. Lay out in a very systematic manner why you need this particular course at this particular time. For example, maybe you need the course right now because your plan to graduate does not allow you to take this course during a later semester. Or, you need the course now because it serves as a pre-requisite for other courses that you need to graduate on time.

There are two quick things to keep in mind when you talk about why you need to take the course. First, needing to take a course immediately versus needing to take the course at some point in your college career are of course two very different things. Be prepared to answer why you need the course right now. If you do not have a good answer to why you need to let into the course right the Instructor may not be swayed to give you an override. They will simply say you can take the course later. Second, a faculty member may ask you why you did not pre-register for the course. Again, you need to have a good answer. Just saying you forgot or were not really sure you needed the course are sure ways to have a faculty member say no to your request.

override-school-book-1560339_12805) Be civil. The worst thing you can do is to approach your discussion with a faculty member in a combative manner. If a student did this with me I would tell them to come back when they have calmed down or simply deny the request for an override on the spot. Before you talk to a faculty member it is important to calm down and be prepared to talk about your request in a mature manner. Getting angry will not help your cause at all.

6) Don’t beg. In my opinion, having talked to hundreds of students needing an override, I do not feel any student should be begging (cajoling or whatever you want to call it) to get into a class. You need to approach your situation in a mature manner and be prepared for the outcome—good or bad. I just do not see any place for begging, and quite frankly I can see it work against you in most situations.

My hope is that all of the advice I have just given you will get you the override you want. However, if there is just no way to get a faculty member to budge, keep in mind that you might need to (a) take another course at your school, (b) consider taking a summer course (c) try to take the course at another school (including online), (d) find out if there is any way to have another course substitute for the course you want, (e) keep checking to see if a slot opens up for the course—during the first week of the semester there is usually a drop-add period and someone may simply drop the course, leaving a slot open for you, and (f) put your name on a wait list if your school uses one. With regard to the wait list, that can work. However, I feel you should still see the person teaching the course regardless of whether you are on the wait list.

As always, good luck as you continue to navigate the ins and outs of college life!

Please note that the comments of Dr. Golding and the others who post on this blog express their own opinion and not that of the University of Kentucky.

Smart Move—Take a Summer Class!

Jonathan Golding Summer Break, Summer class, What Should You Do, What to do ,

I know what you’re thinking. The semester has just ended and the last thing you want to hear about is taking a summer class. But, hear me out on this one. I want to make the case that taking one or more summer classes may be a great move if this option is available to you.

teacher-702998_1280In making my arguments I realize that some of you will be unable to take summer classes due to financial considerations. Also, your summer schedule may be really busy and you just do not feel you are able to commit to taking a class. Keep in mind however that you might be able squeeze in a summer class with a busy schedule if you take an online summer class. Finally, a summer class may not be ideal for you if you go away to school and you would have to take a class at a different school near your home. For example, say you go to the University of Kentucky, but live in Chicago. You could take a summer class at the University of Chicago. Taking this class at Chicago would be great, and you can usually earn credit hours toward your degree as long as Kentucky has a similar existing course. However, the actual grade you earn at Chicago will not be included into your Kentucky grade point average. A related situation occurs if you go to a smaller school that does not offer summer classes. You can take a class at a school that does offer summer classes—you earn the credit hours, but the grade does not get worked into your grade point average at your smaller school.

I also want to state that, in general, my thoughts about summer class hold true for face-to-face and online class. Although I typically favor the former, if you can motivate yourself to do the work in an online course that’s great. In fact, taking an online course may be a real advantage if you have other things going on this summer (e.g., work) and need greater flexibility.

 Now to what I see as four big advantages to taking summer classes:

1) Summer classes are usually much smaller than classes during a regular semester. This means you will typically have more contact with the Instructor and your classmates. For example, when I teach Introduction to Psychology I have 500 students in my class. That same class in the summer may have between 25 and 40 students.

2) The logistics of summer classes allows you to focus more attention on your classwork. In general, summer classes usually last only 4 to 8 weeks. What this means is that you can only take a small number of courses. For example, at the university where I teach students can only take one course during a 4-week session and two courses during an eight-week session. Of course, this is way less than the number of courses taken during a typical semester. It is true that you get the same amount of information in a shorter time frame, but you are able to focus so much more on this information. I will add that because the courses are short, they seem to fly by.

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3) Summer courses allow you to play catch-up with your courses and credit hours. Although everyone would like to move through college taking the exact number of credit hours each semester in order to graduate in 4 years, this doesn’t happen that often. Things take place during college that may set you back. For example, you may have stumbled with a course and now have to repeat it. Whether you repeat it in the summer or during a regular semester, repeating the course means you will get a new grade but you do not get the additional credit hours. Just to clear about this, when you take the same course two times, you only earn credit hours one time. That means you essentially “owe” credit hours, and need to earn back these credit hours somehow. Taking a summer course allows you to earn back these hours, and get right back on track as far as completing your credit hours.

4) It is my experience (probably 25 years of teaching summer class) and that of colleagues and students I have spoken to that summer class have a more laid-back atmosphere compared to a typical semester. It is the summer, and everybody seems just a bit calmer about things. I can’t say this is always true and clearly my “study” is unscientific, but this is my impression of summer classes.

These big advantages will work in your favor as you navigate your way through your college career. I hope you will consider taking a summer class–there’s a good chance it will benefit you!

Please note that the comments of Dr. Golding and the others who post on this blog express their own opinion and not that of the University of Kentucky.

 

Is Repeating a Course a Good Idea? Definitely!

Jonathan Golding Repeat Option, What Should You Do, What to do

In thinking about writing this post I had to do something that I had not done in a long time—think back 35 years to when I was an undergraduate at Temple University in Philadelphia. Overall, I had a really positive undergraduate career, but I remember one time period when there was a course issue that left me totally clueless and stressed to the max. The short version is that I done relatively poorly in my statistics course in my major of Psychology and was in a frenzy about what to do. I probably should have dropped the course soon after the semester started—I think I was a freshman, the size of the class was relatively large (over 50) and the Instructor’s teaching style (don’t worry, I still remember the Instructor’s name!) was just not best for me. I thought I could just plow ahead and get an A or B, but in the end that wasn’t going to happen. In the end I got a C, and spent a number of sleepless nights trying to figure out what I should do top deal with this grade. Luckily, I started doing some reading about university rules and realized that I could repeat the course.

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Repeating a course is just what it means—you take a course a second time—and there are some real advantages to using this option. Keep in mind that almost all schools have some type of repeat option. Of course, some options are better than others, but the fact that you can deal with a grade you were not happy with in a positive manner is a real plus. With this in mind, it is critical that you read through the official policy of your school to make sure you understand exactly what the policy allows. In addition, make sure you understand what steps you need to take in order to use a repeat option (e.g., filling out a repeat-option form).

Also, if you are going to use a repeat option, take it very seriously and make sure you are prepared to put maximum time and effort into improving your grade from the first time you took the course. My point here is that if you are just going through the motions and do not think you can improve your grade it might not be worth using a repeat option.

With all of the above in mind, here are 4 primary advantages to a repeat option:

1) Not only do schools have repeat-option policies, most schools allow you to repeat more than one course. But you have to repeat a course that had a letter grade for the same course with a letter grade. That it is typically not the case that you can initially take a course for a grade, do poorly (e.g., get a D) and then you can repeat the course on a Pass/Fail basis. The repeat option is designed to keep things equal with regard to the re-taking of the course.

2) At many schools only the grade and credit hours for the second completion is used in computing your GPA and credit hours. This is HUGE! It means that the first low grade you earned is wiped from the calculation of your GPA. When you are talking about going from, for example, an initial grade of D to a new grade of A the impact on your GPA can be significant. It is important to keep in mind, however, that not every school follows this rule. Some schools will calculate your GPA based on BOTH grades. Of course, this is not great, but it beats the alternative of having only that first grade worked into your GPA calculation.

repeatcourse23) A repeat option offers you the chance to overcome any obstacles that you encountered when you originally took a course. This might have included medical issues, personal problems, difficulty managing your classes, difficulty managing work and school, not being mentally prepared to take the course, not realizing you should have dropped the course, etc. Regardless of your past situation, a repeat option allows you to show that the problem(s) that may have been present when you originally took a course will not impact you now, and you can be free to do really well in the course this second time. I will add that in my 28 years of teaching I am pretty sure that every one of my students who did a repeat option improved their grade. This likely the result of students having already had some experience with the course material (even if their grade was not great), but also due to students being highly motivated to prove that they could do better.

4) Repeating a course makes a positive point to those who may evaluate your record that you are a highly motivated individual. You make clear that there were problems with a course in the past but you were committed to earning a higher grade by taking the course again. I personally do not believe repeating a course makes you look “weak” in any fashion.

I am sure you can tell that I am very big on repeat options, but I want to close by discussing a few points that should think about before moving in this direction. First, if you take a course over you must decide whether to take the course over with same Instructor or someone different. The same instructor gives you maximum overlap but you again dealing with someone who you likely did not mesh well with. A different instructor gives you less overlap, but their style may work better for you. My advice is to find out something about the different instructor before you make your choice. Second, it is almost always the case that when you repeat a course that the original grade still appears on your transcript. It will show the original course and note that it has been repeated. Your transcript will typically make some mention of how the original grade is not calculated as part of your GPA. Then the repeated course will appear with your new grade. Third, when you repeat a course you end up paying for these additional credit hours. It is not as though your school is going to let you repeat a course for free. Fourth, if you repeat a course someone could argue that you wasted time the first time you took the course. I disagree with this position, but you will have to decide exactly what value the original course had for you. Finally, keep in mind that you must repeat course at the same school to have it count toward GPA–if your school allows for the repeated course to be calculated in some manner into your GPA.

In the end, I feel it is well worth using a repeat option if you need it. I think you will find it is an option that has a greater benefit than cost.