Should colleges offer grade redemption?

[Kaido]

On the college debt discussion.......I have some friends who are incredibly proud of the prestigious institutions they attended. They mention to me how much more accredited and that you need more requirements compared to a CSU to attend. Every time they mention how good their UC was compared to my CSU I also remind myself at how much more they paid for what amounts to a stamped paper to start ACTUAL career-level learning. It's even worse when these same people criticize students for going the community college route instead of blindly going into a 4 year university.

A degree at the end of the day is just a paper showing you're able to do things related to your major. Networking is a much large portion of career establishment.

Yup. I think the networking aspect & being able to both socially integrate with other people & work on team projects are sometimes more important than the education itself. To an employer, a college degree is usually the golden ticket to being hired because even if the interviewee is a lame-brain, the fact that they finished college shows that they can stick with something and do the work it takes to finish projects.

Also, I think the government should pay for all college expenses. Or at least heavily subsidize them. It can cost $100k to get an education for a job that pays $40k a year now, and if you get out of school strapped with a grand-a-month payback (as a lot of my friends are) for the next zillion years, that really hinders your integration into adult society - the number of kids getting out of college & moving back home are crazy! I'm not usually heavy on politics, but this is one area where I think we are super failing at - we need to invest in our future instead of shooting ourselves in the foot by putting the next generation in heavy debt before they even get started 😛

 

[Zenmervolt]

W's are also an issue in my opinion. If I paid for my classes, why the heck should I receive a penalty for dropping a class late in the semester?

Because there's a bloody big difference between deciding that you're not interested in a class because of a poorly-written description during the first week or two and bailing at the end of a quarter to avoid a C, D, or F because you couldn't cut it.

Withdrawal is intended to allow students to get out of a class that turns out not to be relevant. It's not there for the purpose of avoiding a bad grade because the student couldn't be bothered to do the work.

ZV

 

[kyrax12]

Because there's a bloody big difference between deciding that you're not interested in a class because of a poorly-written description during the first week or two and bailing at the end of a quarter to avoid a C, D, or F because you couldn't cut it.

Withdrawal is intended to allow students to get out of a class that turns out not to be relevant. It's not there for the purpose of avoiding a bad grade because the student couldn't be bothered to do the work.

ZV

All of that shouldn't matter on the basis that I already paid for the class. I don't care that I am not getting a refund.

Don't penalize me for it. I already paid, why should it really matter?

 

[Meghan54]

Sure, repeat a class and replace the grade, except for classes in your major. In those, you should be doing as well as possible and no excuse for anything.

 

[ralfy]

They can probably offer students to retake the final exam (containing different questions, of course), with both grades appearing in the transcript.

 

[KeithP]

So free re-tries don't make sense to me. Put in the effort to get it right the first time, or pay for your mistake when you re-take the class.

This. You could potentially displace another paying student so taking the class again and not having to pay for it doesn't seem to make sense.

Maybe I could see an argument that if the class wasn't full on the first day a repeating student might be allowed a discount but the administration on such a system would probably be a pain.

-KeithP

 

[Cappuccino]

University do~
HOWEVER! Retakes are always capped at 40% So if you aced the paper, you will still get an overall score of 40%

In GCSE, it's different. You get 1 chance to retake, then you have to pay.

 

[Greenman]

There aren't any "do overs" out in the real world. Do a crappy job and there will be repercussions.

 

[jagec]

There aren't any "do overs" out in the real world. Do a crappy job and there will be repercussions.

Tell that to Wall Street.

 

[Zenmervolt]

All of that shouldn't matter on the basis that I already paid for the class. I don't care that I am not getting a refund.

Don't penalize me for it. I already paid, why should it really matter?

Because a degree means something. It's important for future employers to know that the kid they want to hire isn't the sort of lazy cheat who'll run away just because he didn't bother to put the work in.

Life doesn't let you just run away from something you've screwed up with no consequences and the inability to drop a class late in the quarter reflects that.

ZV

 

[TallBill]

Because a degree means something. It's important for future employers to know that the kid they want to hire isn't the sort of lazy cheat who'll run away just because he didn't bother to put the work in.

Life doesn't let you just run away from something you've screwed up with no consequences and the inability to drop a class late in the quarter reflects that.

ZV

Lol, I've worked 100 times harder at real jobs than for school work.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

Lol, I've worked 100 times harder at real jobs than for school work.

Yeah, Bouncer Studies 101 may teach you all the theory and history, but that doesn't get you very far in real-world application.

 

[Zenmervolt]

Lol, I've worked 100 times harder at real jobs than for school work.

Exactly. And if school work is so difficult that you need to drop a class at the end of a semester to escape the grade you deserved, then those "100 times harder" real jobs aren't going to be your thing.

If a student can't handle a class, and can't figure that out before the end of the overly generous add/drop period that most colleges have, then the bad grade has been earned and potential employers need to be able to see that on a transcript. It does no-one any good to let a lazy student simply wipe the grade away by dropping the class a week before the final.

ZV