How to convince professor to let you make-up a missed exam due to out of state job interview?

Question

My daughter was to graduate college in May. She missed one of four exams in a class due to an interview arranged by prospective employer. Professor will not allow her to make-up exam and, therefore, she will have to retake that class only, in order to graduate. There is a scheduled date for makeups for athletes. She is an excellent student, 3.8 gpa. Just found out she will not graduate due to this Prof. not allowing her to take one exam. She has worked the last 4 years to get this degree, and a career in business/marketing. Why should athletes be allowed to makeup an exam and not a student trying to get a job. That is why we send our kids to school. The interview was arranged by prospective employer, out of state, and was the third and final interview with a great company? Please help - thank you. Signed, frustrated mom trying to pay for 2 in college.

Answer 1

I have to agree. I missed a handful of tests in college due to job interviews - I was allowed to make them all up because I notified my profs immediately upon scheduling the interview, and then stayed in communication with them up to, during and after the interview, so we were on the same page regarding the missed exam. I was allowed to make up all of the tests, but the profs made it very clear to me that it was ONLY because of the upfront and professional way I handled the situation. I also made sure that I did not place any demands on the profs, retaking the test on their schedule, and at their location of choice. Ask your daughter some more questions - might be more to it then you think.

Answer 2

I suspect that the problem is that your daughter didn't arrange for the exam beforehand, but instead went to the professor to ask for a make-up exam after the interview. Most of us won't let students take make-up exams for any reason, other than documented illness, if they don't tell us about it before the exam is given. The student athletes give us a schedule on the first day of class to tell us when they will be away, so we can plan for it.

Realize that each time a student asks us for a make-up exam, we have to spend hours writing a new exam, otherwise word of the questions could leak and give an unfair advantage to some students over others. These are some of the excuses I've gotten on a regular basis:
"I was busy at work, so I didn't have time to study."
"I had an exam in another class, which was more important to me, so I need you to give me a make-up exam."
"My family was on vacation, and I couldn't get back in time for the exam."
"I was helping my boyfriend with his term paper for another class, so I couldn't study for your exam."

You get the idea. If exams could be taken at the will of the student, I would have no time to do anything BUT write exams. I have a clear policy on my syllabus, but I still end up giving quite a few make-up exams. What I won't do is give a make-up exam for something like an interview UNLESS it was arranged for with the student beforehand.

I suspect your daughter isn't telling you something. As an undergraduate, one exam may drag down her GPA a bit, but it shouldn't keep her from graduating. Many students get sloppy in their senior year. Has she let other things slide, so that the one exam made the difference between passing and failing that class?