Summary, advisor advises student to fail courses (or rather stay in courses) instead of using a Q drop so student could remain on parents health insurance and take advantage of A&M's policy to drop as many as 3 bad grades. Student was not informed "Fs" would not be looked upon favorably in case of transfer. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/6656252.html
I think she'd have a stronger case if she had told the adviser she was planning on transferring and the advisor told her to fail the classes because they wouldn't be on the transcript. Besides that, I'm not sure what the counselor or school could or should be liable for.
Interesting. I'm wondering if Ms. Temple told the adviser that she was planning on transferring. I'm not absolving the adviser of everything in this case and if that erasing 3 bad grades off your A&M record is a recent thing (I could have taken advantage of that ) I've been out of A&M since I graduated in 2004, so I don't know what new things they've added to their policies. If this adviser did her job correctly then the responsibility falls on the student.
I can't imagine any advisor advising a student to fail 3 classes. Call me crazy, but I'm thinking there's more to this story.....
Doing a lot of advising, I can attest that students hear a lot of what they think they want to hear. It's no knock on students -- that's probably true of people in general. "Well, if you really don't like Math, I'd say you really should reconsider a career in Physics. M'kay?" "So you're saying there's a chance."
you are crazy. I attend A&M, we have 3 q-drops and 3 "freshman grade exclusions". Q-drops have a deadline (November 6th), while FRESHMAN grade exclusions can be done after the final grade has been formulated. Freshman grade exclusion allows you to basically drop the class if you got a D or an F, and you have to retake it again eventually (ie: you don't get credit for it, hence the fact that the term "grade exclusion" is misleading). the 3 Q-drops can be used anytime in your 4 (or however many) years at A&M, so you better save them, which is why the counselor advised the student to use her Freshman grade exclusions, because, well, once you're not a freshman anymore, you can't take advantage of them (so why waste Qdrops when you can freshman exclude) This Jennifer girl is an idiot. She's gonna cost her parents several grands for her (and their) stupidity.
like I explained in my earlier post, they don't allow you to "not count 3 earned grades", they allow you to drop the course if you're a freshman and earned an awful grade in the end. So you basically have to retake the class again if you want credit for it, so it doesn't really "help" your gpa, it just allows you to essentially go back in time and "untake" the class you failed miserably at. Considering the number of freshmen who end up changing majors after their 1st year, this policy is excellent as it prevents the system from penalizing undecided students who got stuck in the wrong major and gives them the chance to get a fresh start in their new major
Bingo. If you are at a major University you should have the tools necessary to not be an idiot. I advised myself my entire duration at TAMU, its not hard to figure everything out on your own, its all there in writing, including that Fs will screw you if you try to transfer. Kids get dumber each year.
Well said. That rule technically looks bad to people judging TAMU scholastically but it is has an honorable purpose.
What's the difference between the exclusion where you take it down the road, and just taking it again? When you retake a class (or at least at my school) only the last grade counts, so really, a freshmen exclusion, to me, doesn't matter. If you're going to retake a class, why give it a fancy name. About the article. She's an interior design major. She probably didn't understand. Plus, why not just go ahead and try hard in the classes and pass them?
A&M allows you to "drop" your 3 worst grades? What kind of crap is that? Even at UH a fail is a FAIL.
Here at Arkansas State, you don't necessarily get to drop your lowest grades but you can take the course over and do fill out recompute paperwork. You can only do this for 3 classes (9 hours) and I'm pretty sure all colleges have something like this in place because I know it is a huge moneymaker for Arkansas State.
'Um, so what? My friend's wife cheated on him and he had the choice of failing and not paying back the government for his classes or Withdrawing from all his classes and paying them back. I'd go with the E's even with the GPA hit. It's actually pretty common place that advisors advise students to fail, especially if they still have GRO units available.
