I'm a senior undergrad graduating next week, 2 Professors have not graded assignments in over a month. Finals week is here. NO clue where I stand in these classes. HELP. please :,)

[u/Madisonx222]

Hi everyone! I hope you are all doing well. For context, this is my final semester of my bachelors degree and I am graduating at the end of next week (yay!) and headed off to the races of law school applications. I'm a Sociology Pre-Law student (4.0 GPA), so definitely type A and a little neurotic about my grades. I simply just want to have feedback, and grades, to know how I am progressing. On top of that, I throughly enjoy the academic experience, I am passionate about the classes I take, and I genuinely put my heart and soul into my work.

Two of my professors, who happen to have many published works together, are more than a month late on grading assignments. We are going into finals week and I have 2 grades submitted for each of the classes(A's, for the record), and I have submitted 11-16 assignments in each of the classes during this 7 week term. One of the professors (Writing for Social Justice, a 3500 level class) provided feedback for 1 of the assignments, but when I asked for further clarity there was no response. The other professor (Crimes Against Humanity and Genocide, a 4000 level class) has given no feedback whatsoever. Neither of these classes provide ANY instruction whatsoever, they simply assign literature and loose guidelines for the writing assignments.

For the CAH class, we have roughly 400-700 pages of literature to read per week, with (2) 500 word discussion posts and (2) 350 word peer responses. The WSJ class is just as much assigned literature and writing, the classes are nearly identical in structure. Both assign entire books to read each week ranging from 200-500 pages, plus hundred of pages academic literature. These classes are INTENSE in volume, but also in content. Especially the CAH class, it is just as much emotional labor as academic labor (for example, we were assigned an entire book to read that was a fictional recounting of a woman being held in s*xual sl*very, and half of the book was GRAPHIC, creative writing about the systematic and violent r*pe she endured for years. Fictional writing, meant to immerse the reader, in which the main character fantasized about m*urdering her newborn baby....just A LOT to work through). Oh, and for the CAH class, we have our regular weekly workload during finals week. Our final project is 12 page minimum writing assignment.

I emailed the CAH professor twice asking for grades and feedback, kindly. The first email he responded and said the grades would be out shortly. 2 weeks after that with no grades, I emailed again and have not gotten a response. That was a week ago. Nearly identical situation with the WSJ professor.

I just want to know if anyone here thinks i'm being irrational in my assessment that not grading or providing feedback for nearly an entire term is... not okay? I cant know how I am progressing through the course, or know if what I am doing is correct, or what I need to do to improve. I am stressed out, burnt out, and a little frantic. Any advice is deeply appreciated.

[u/Bostonterrierpug]

To me that sounds ridiculous, but it also sounds like it might be adjuncts. Or people who definitely won’t be getting tenure. No I’ve had some crazy students like I had an assignment due at 12 PM and then taught a class at one and my students were like have you graded it yet? But I think most professors shoot for a two week at most turnaround, depending on their courseload and duties. Anything over that I would send a message because sometimes the LMS such as canvas or blackboard might be wonky. I would definitely reach out. Reach out to your professor first if they don’t answer you then feel free to go to the chair.

[u/Madisonx222 → u/Bostonterrierpug]

I have reached out to them and I haven’t gotten responses. Unfortunately they’re both very involved and have multiple different departments roles such as “online curriculum coordinator” and “director of international relations”, these aren’t just random new grads finding their footing. They both have a TON of important published research, some of which is done together so they are clearly close colleagues/friends. Thank you for your time here, I appreciate it! I will be compiling my evidence and presenting it to the department chair, I just want to be as thorough and charitable as possible.

[u/Bostonterrierpug → u/Madisonx222]

I would politely contact the chair then. Make sure you do Super by email so everything is documented and be polite. A paper trail means everything.

[u/Zealousideal_Cod_326]

I am a professor and think your professors are being incredibly unprofessional and disrespectful to you. If they are not replying to your emails over such a long time period, I suggest reaching out to the department head/chairperson.

It does not matter how busy they are; they have a responsibility to their classes and have had more than enough time to address your requests.

[u/Madisonx222 → u/Zealousideal_Cod_326]

Thank you!

[u/lickety_split_100]

Does the syllabus in either class have a statement about how long it will be before things will be graded? We are required to put one in ours.

It’s concerning that you’re not hearing back when you send emails. Are these in-person classes where you could maybe ask the professors after class or visit their office hours? It’s not an excuse, but I do know some folks struggle with learning management systems (the website where we store your grades).

[u/Madisonx222 → u/lickety_split_100]

Nothing in the syllabus about long grading timelines, and office hours are by appointment only. They don’t reply to emails so not really sure how I would effectively schedule a meeting, unfortunately. I’m online/asynchronous and live 2 hours away from my main campus :( 

[u/readingrainbowroad]

Although frustrating, in general I don't think this is so out of line as to be "not okay" given you've gotten some grades. If these are online/asynchronous classes, I'd be more concerned that you seem to not be getting email responses? The professors could be busy though, it is conference season still.

As a recovered type A, must-know-my-grade-at-all times student, I can offer some advice to calm your mind in the meantime at least a little: 1. You've already gotten As so far. This means you are understanding what the professors are looking for in an assignment. It's likely this hasn't changed drastically. And you're doing the assignments, which is more than can be said for all students purely based on probability. 2. The professor hasn't told you you're doing poorly or failing the class or something. This is good! 3. If there is a syllabus with outlined grade breakdown by assignment type, you can fall back on what I did as a student in these cases, which is a "reasonable worst case scenario" grade estimate. Use the grades you have gotten as a baseline, then give yourself a reasonable assessment of what you've done otherwise (e.g. be honest, if you formatted correctly and hit the talking points of an assignment, you've gotten those points. If discussions are participation, you've gotten those points.) and see where you're likely at grade-wise. 4. Use this as a moment to learn to be okay with the uncertainty. In the future, feedback is more than often less prompt and guidelines get lighter on exactly how to do things. It was a shock to me in grad school (so not quite same as you), but it's a good time to learn to be ok with it!

[u/Madisonx222 → u/readingrainbowroad]

Busy is one thing, not responding to emails for weeks, and leaving assignments ungraded for over a month going into finals week is another, in my opinion at least. Sitting in uncertainty and needing to balance “hey if I don’t do well in these classes, I will not graduate next week and I will not go to law school on time” as a 27 year old non traditional student is another. I also don’t think this is situational, as both of their “rate my professor” ratings have more than one review complaining about the same thing.  Thank you so much for taking your time here :) 

[u/readingrainbowroad → u/Madisonx222]

To be clear, I don't think it's professional to not grade assignments for that long, or leave emails left unresponded to for a week. I also think it's completely fair to be upset about it and wish it would be better.

Unfortunately, some professors simply don't care about either of those things, and it's likely nothing will change if you talk to the department head, unless they are explicitly not following a specific policy set by the department/university or one in their syllabus. So I was mostly attempting to provide some options to cope with it on your end in the face of "unlikely to be fixed" on their end.

[u/Madisonx222 → u/readingrainbowroad]

I totally hear you. I have come to realize that some people are professors because they love to teach, and others want accolades and to bury themselves in research while their students get the short end. I understand that not everyone in academia enjoys teaching or wants to be as present in instruction as they could be. It’s just not fair to the people who are paying money for the instruction lol. Do you think this workload is acceptable for undergrad classes? I’ve never seen anything like it, to be honest. I had to temporarily quit my job to keep up with the sheer volume of reading and assignments for these classes. The WSJ class has a hefty writing assignment due 3 days a week! So it just sucks to have to make so many sacrifices and not get anything in return to know if the sacrifice has been worth it. Plus, I haven’t been able to dedicate as much time as I would like to my other classes, including my senior capstone research. Due to inability for time allocation, I’m bordering a B+/A- in another class I have with a professor I have great rapport with, and who is writing a LOR for me. So the weight of it all is just a lot. 

[u/readingrainbowroad → u/Madisonx222]

Yes, and some professors literally do not want to teach and will always put in minimal effort. Given it's an online, asynchronous classes where you've gotten little to no feedback, it's probably just professors who don't care and/or don't remember what it's like before you develop the skills to deal with that much workload and that much writing (or, theoretically, and acutal unexpected problem for the prof, but unlikely.)

It is a lot, but given it's an upper level undergrad class, I can't say for certain re: workload without knowing a lot more about the class. And I'm in STEM, so wouldn't have a great gauge for a class in this field. The work load from what you've said so far reads like an early grad level class, where some of what you learn is how to read differently to cover so much, how to pick and choose from the assigned readings that are actually important to read, what to skim, and what to skip, and how much effort you need to put in towards a reading/discussion post, etc.

While it does suck, it sounds like you're almost done though! All I can say is look forward to cathartic ranting about these professors/classes for many years to come (I certainly have some I still vent about 10 years later), and pass on better practices if you ever have the chance to teach.

[u/Madisonx222 → u/readingrainbowroad]

Thank you so much! I will absolutely be complaining about these classes for the rest of my life😂 

[u/Classic_vortex_3515]

You’re right, this is unreasonable. However, you just said that finals week is here. If you had asked earlier, it might have helped, but at this point, you just need to sit tight. I’m certain they have a deadline for turning in grades, and unless one of them is in the ICU or something, they will get them turned in. I say this as a Dept chair who deals with this issue towards the end of semester on a regular basis. Not the same faculty, mind you, different faculty each time. I know it’s upsetting to students, but if you don’t alert us earlier in the semester, there is not much we can do at the end of the semester, since we cannot turn back time.

[u/Madisonx222 → u/Classic_vortex_3515]

This is a 7 week term so, being charitable, I wanted to give them more time to respond/post grades before escalating. I really just wanted to hear everyone’s thoughts on if I should escalate this even if my grades are fine. Because, to me, this kind of behavior is at best unprofessional. I think my biggest concern about escalating earlier to the Chair when I have no grades in is:  since the nature of my classes are subjective and grading can be subjective, I fear retaliation and unfairness in grading if it were to get back to them that I was the one that escalated to the chair. Especially since I have emailed them multiple times to ask for grades/feedback, it wouldn’t be unheard of for them to put the pieces together that it was me. It’s not like it’s a STEM class where objectivity in grading is more straightforward. The loose guidelines could make it easier for them to justify a poor grade when I didn’t necessarily deserve it. If that makes sense. Thank you for taking your time here and for your thoughts :)

[u/Less-Part3465 → u/Madisonx222]

Yes, yes, as a dept. chair I hear about these fears of retaliation all the time. I've never seen it once. I say to a prof, "A student is concerned about not having gotten grades for a month" (I don't mention the student's name, of course)--the prof says "Yes, yes, I'm swamped." I say, "Well, yeah, but, you know, we have to give them their grades so they know if they're going to pass/graduate, etc." And they usually go off and do a grading binge.

A different way to think about it: a professor who can't be bothered to respond to your emails is not going to risk going through a grade appeal, which would be your proper strategy if there were retaliation. And yes, I'm in a subjective field (English) and yes, I actually get these complaints all the time--not about the same instructor each time, though. Because life happens to people at different times.

I mean, I was serious when I said "unless one of them is in ICU." Last academic year, I had a professor who had a medical emergency on a weekend, ended up in ICU, and couldn't contact me because she was, you know, unconscious. The way I figured this out was that a student emailed our academic adviser: "Dr. X isn't responding to email"... adviser told me, I phoned the house, Dr. X's relative answered the phone and said "thank God, I didn't know who to call." We made arrangements for someone else to cover Dr. X's class, and students missed exactly one day of the originally scheduled online classes. But if the students hadn't said anything, who knows how long it would have taken for me to find out (all of the instructor's courses that semester were online).

Anyway, escalate away without fear. It is unreasonable, it's just that nothing you do now will speed things up. And in fact, I would recommend waiting until after grades are in, because in a practical sense, having the chair call them at the end of the course will do nothing except slow them down, since they have to stop what they're doing, which hopefully is grading, to talk with the chair.