Heh. I'm too rule abiding. Usually my profs had some kind of "turn the paper in late and it's half a grade a day" or somesuch..and I'd be like "Well, do I think I can write THAT much better a paper by tomorrow, is it worth the grade hit?". But those weren't classes in my major or anything. (And, heck, it's not like I was ever earning less than a B in anything that wasn't Chemistry...unfortunately, chem WAS my major...)

I asked for one extension and didn't get all the time the professor promised. I still ended up with a decent grade, but I was a little peeved that he reneged on the deal. Otherwise, I pretty much accepted that whatever grade I got was what I deserved under that professor's grading criteria. The problem was not always figuring out what intangibles a particular professor may be watching for that factor into the overall grade. Those folks, I usually did poorer than I expected.

I am Kristin WRT students who want to renegotiate their writing grade and/or bargain for extra credit, grade based on effort not output, etc.

The only time I ever went to a prof to ask for a grade change was the quarter I had a really bad respiratory flu. I managed to catch up with the work in the class, Calculus as I recall, and then get docked a letter grade due to numerous absences. I went to him, and said, "Look, you know I was in fact sick, you hated it on the days I did actually show up because of all the coughing, and the day I told you I was going for a chest ex-ray to rule out pneumonia, you said you hope it is, so they can actually treat it." He gave me a ridiculous amount of Calculus! Story Problems! and said if I completed them, he would let me have my C.

Never did finish 'em.

See, now WindSparrow's story is silliness. I understand requiring attendance because you don't want kids to flunk ad then be all "but I didn't GET it!". And when it's French or English and you want discussion (many of my classes like that had a lecture session and a discussion section, and it was really annoying when no one showed up for discussion. Though I slept through French discussion waaaay too many times). And so that you CAN pull out the "but you skipped every class!" thing. But not the kind of thing to enforce if you don't need to. Yeesh.

I won't give an extension without a good reason -- and I won't give one if the student waits until the last minute if s/he knew there would be some kind of conflict. (e.g. a student once asked me the Mon the paper was due because the weekend before she'd attended her sister's wedding. Answer was no, but had she told me earlier [it was on the syllabus from the 1st day of class] I might have cut her a break).

These are law students who are going to face time limits in practice that are not flexible, so I've never felt like it was unreasonable for me to hold the line on due dates.

I turned in grades yesterday. He now wants to know what he can do to pass my class. Seriously?!

Um. Whoa. Wicked whoa.

So, the quest to get a new nebulizer hasn't gotten any easier. And my poor PCP is trying to coordinate this while she's doing a rotation in the ICU. So, she asked one of the nurses in the clinic to help. That nurse made *one* phone call, then called me and said, "I'm sorry. We can't help you."

So, I made some phone calls and tracked down a place that contracts with MassHealth then called her back with the number. I said, "Please call and order me a neb through them." She's like, "Which one do you want?" I said, "One that works." She's like, "There's over 45 different versions." To which I responded, "You've never been on MassHealth before, have you? Because if you had, you'd know that we'll be lucky if *one* of those versions is part of the contract. Why don't you get me that one?"

I may be losing my patience with today. And now I have to go into a job interview. Blech.

I found my inhaler! I had an asthma attack during trapeze last week, and I had to borrow someone else's because mine wasn't in my backpack where it always was. I thought I was going to have to go to the health center to get a prescription for a new one, but I just found it in my jacket pocket.

I never, ever thought to ask for a grade change. I'm meara, I think. (Hi, meara!) I asked for extensions on papers sometimes, but usually not even that.

With regard to the patient advocate issue, it's HUGELY important. You do have to be your own best advocate, whenever possible, especially with an unfamiliar doctor. My mother learned this the hard way several times over, because her condition is complicated and doesn't follow the usual course of lupus.

Even when I was pregnant, and had gestational diabetes, my doctors were always kind of amazed I knew so much about blood sugar and insulin, etc., which shocked me. It's my body, and I'm going to be the first in line to take care of it. Especially when, during one hospital stay, the kitchen kept sending up juice, despite the huge DIABETIC note on my chart. ::rolls eyes forever::

I had an appointment once which turned out to be a "consult". That is, I missed three hours of work for the doctor to give me less information about the procedure she was going to do (at some future date) than I had already gotten from the Web. I was STEAMED.

Especially when, having taken the additional three hours on another day to have the procedure done, I showed up to find that the doctor had called in sick. Okay, that one wasn't her fault. Nevertheless, I found another specialist and wrote a long letter to her, my HMO, and my PCP.

The one time I asked for an extension, I got screwed. There were 3 papers in the class, prof had been super slack about late papers, so I decided, in the midst of a show, that I would turn the paper in late and take the hit. I had a thesis, had marked my quotes, just couldn't motivate. Go to class the next day, go to the prof afterwards to ask whether the late policy is per day late or class day late (with a tues/thurs class, I either had to write it that night, or would have the weekend). He says "I'm not taking late papers. If it's not in my box by 5, I won't accept it". It was 1:15 PM.

My BFF who was in the class with me, started saying "you can do it, if you turn SOMETHING in, it's better than an F" etc. I said "I need some lunch." She stared at me and said "okay". So, I had some lunch, calmed down, then went to the lab and started writing the paper at 2PM. At 4:45, I printed off 11 pages (didn't even read it over), left all of my shit in the lab, and Flo Joed it across Grounds to turn in the paper. I came running/falling into the English office at 4:58, gasping. Secy told me to calm down, and initialed the paper for 4:59. End of story, right? No.

Next class, prof says "there are 90 people in this class, I only got 45 papers. Any late papers will be heavily penalized" I was LIVID. I was actually too pissed to talk to him. I went to see him the next day, but he'd been hospitalized for some surgery, so I talked to the TA, explained the situation, and asked for the opportunity to do a rewrite. He said I could, and I got an A-. Which pissed me off, because I could have gotten an A!!!