Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Happy Graduation Day to Me...

Theoretically, today is my graduation day.

Of course, I still have my thesis to finish- but today is the day that I could have walked.

I found out today that the requirements for my thesis have changed AGAIN. So while I originally thought I had a year from now to complete this, and then found out I only have six months- now I find out that until I finish it, I will have an "F" on my transcript. Or an "NC" which means No Credit (polite F)- which can be changed to a grade after I finish the thesis. All of this extra work has to be done by the professor who has made it clear that he doesn't think I will be able to complete this project at all.

When I emailed him in February, asking for an "Incomplete" until I'm done writing- per his current syllabus (!)- he didn't bother to tell me that it couldn't be done. He didn't bother to respond at all. Which doesn't make me hopeful that he's going to be bothered to change the automatic "F" that I'm going to get since there's no way I can write my thesis in the 2 days or whatever it is until grades are due. (or, I could pay another $700 to enroll in a one credit class to keep my student status active. Thanks for NOT putting that in the syllabus or informing us of the changes!)

[sigh]. Did I mention that neither of my thesis advisors has responded to my (albeit rather disjointed) requests for input thus far? And that I really want to change my topic, but need approval from them to do it? Of course, approval would require that the RESPOND TO MY EMAILS!

Did I mention that the person in charge of my future is convinced that I'm going to fail at this whole process? This is not an encouraging feeling... Can they do that? Can they change course requirements for a current course (thereby making the syllabus invalid/inaccurate)?

Happy Graduation Day...

1 comment:

Holly S. said...

Oh, Kate. I wish I had something really encouraging to say about how it'll all be okay. Let me just say then that those island profs are jerks and you're a very sweet person and a fabulous knitter. I hope tomorrow's a better day.

- Holly