as a senator on the academics committee i want to know what some of you guys want to see changed as far as this field goes....or just topics related to the school in general.

thanks guys hope to make NCSU a little better.

4/27/2006 4:35:17 PM

I think it is total BS how you can only replace a grade from your Freshman year. Other schools allow up to three any year. I have > 3.5 GPA and have mostly A's, B's, and a few C's but this semester I cannot hack one of my classes and will probaly fail it...even though I have A's and B's with the rest of my courses.

I understand its for freshman to adjust to the University, however, there should be a blanket policy becasue chances are , circumstantially you will not click with a professor or just drop the ball on a course or two.

ANyone else agree ?

4/27/2006 5:00:48 PM

I don't think you should be able to replace grades at all. The constant catering to the slackers and the mediocre cheapen the market value of my education.

4/27/2006 5:07:59 PM

yea... I don't mind the freshman retake rule.... but you shouldn't be able to get better than a C in the class the second time.

4/27/2006 5:13:39 PM

Quote :

"I don't think you should be able to replace grades at all."

Maybe so, it just seems giving freshman the opportunity isnt exactly the way to go

Quote :

"The constant catering to the slackers and the mediocre cheapen the market value of my education."

If you feel a grade or two replacement cheapens the market value then you aint doin something right to give yourself an edge. We all know a degree is only a piece of paper

4/27/2006 5:51:17 PM

i don't like that the ability to change to credit only ends long before many professors haven given out a single grade.

4/27/2006 5:59:39 PM

good stuff guys, keep it coming

freshmen retakes is HIGH on my list right now anyways.

4/27/2006 6:02:18 PM

plagarism should be allowed and encouraged.

4/27/2006 6:19:28 PM

I, too, would like to be able to change to credit only much later in the semester.

4/27/2006 6:19:38 PM

^agreed

4/27/2006 6:20:56 PM

agreed on the credit only

4/27/2006 6:26:11 PM

actually enforce the "get a grade before drop/add date" policy

4/27/2006 7:16:38 PM

freshman retake is a totally legit policy.


Not everyone grew up in Wake County.


Some people arent prepared academically for college-level work. It's not fair to penalize someone just because they grew up driving tractors instead of BMW's.

If they put Wake & Mecklenburg counties in the middle of a field all summer they'd be begging for more than just a freshman retake.

4/27/2006 7:19:16 PM

the not getting grades back before the credit only time passes is bad, but other schools are even more slack, i just heard back from one of my grad schools today 2 or 3 months after all the others got back to me (i applied in Nov).

4/27/2006 7:48:53 PM

Quote :

"Some people arent prepared academically for college-level work. It's not fair to penalize someone just because they grew up driving tractors instead of BMW's. "

Take THAT shit somewhere else....

your feshman year is WAY more about how hard you're willing to work than anything else.... I had people who I smoked on the SAT, get WAY better grades than me in my first year just b/c they put the time in....

If you're gonna feel sorry for yourself you're never gonna get anywhere in life.

I have no problem letting freshmen retake a class... but it's not fair to let someone get a C in Calc 1 and let someone else fuck off and get a D and get to retake and get an A b/c they've heard half the material before... simple as that.

4/27/2006 11:24:09 PM

^^^ I grew up in the middle of nowhere and I did just fine. I excelled in fact. Privledge doesn't fix stupid and lazy. In fact, growing up in working class environment give most people the work ethic required to do well in college.

^ This guy has got the right idea.

[Edited on April 28, 2006 at 12:52 AM. Reason : can't type]

4/28/2006 12:51:45 AM

freshman year was CUPCAKE... it's more a matter of learning to do stuff for yourself and not because your HS teacher was collecting it for hw the next day

4/28/2006 12:55:04 AM

rally needs to stick to sports.

4/28/2006 12:58:25 AM

The "dead week" policy needs to be better worded. No more loopholes. If it's not on the syllabus from the beginning, they can't assign it to you period. If they're poor at planning, that's not your problem, that's theirs.

4/28/2006 3:21:00 AM

explain in more detail please

4/28/2006 4:56:38 AM

dead week justs needs to be renamed Death Week

or perhaps

THE END OF ALL WORLDS.



I agree about the freshman retake policy. Freshman year was a fucking joke compared to my sophomore year. Youth is wasted on the young.

4/28/2006 6:46:42 AM

The teacher shouldn't be allowed to assign anything for that week. The way it's worded now, as long as they assign it before that Monday, they can get away with it. The way I read it, nothing new can be assigned at all.
I had a huge programming assignment given to me 2 weeks ago and it's due tonight.
http://www.ncsu.edu/policies/academic_affairs/courses_undergrad/REG02.20.14.php

4/28/2006 9:30:57 AM

Instead of having a retake limited to the freshman year, I feel that if any retakes should be given, it should be a set number for your entire academic period (1 is sufficient imho).

also, while i've never had a really killer dead week, i do agree that the policies need to be reworded and clarified, even if they are to stay the same - ensure that both parties know which end is up so to speak.

4/28/2006 10:56:10 AM

Dead Week -> Wish you were dead week

4/28/2006 10:56:38 AM

they should average the grades for retakes

D+ and A counts as B-
F and A counts as C
F and C counts as D

4/28/2006 1:11:22 PM

Quote :

"your feshman year is WAY more about how hard you're willing to work than anything else.... I had people who I smoked on the SAT, get WAY better grades than me in my first year just b/c they put the time in.... If you're gonna feel sorry for yourself you're never gonna get anywhere in life."

I have a friend who cam to this school from thousands of miles away and knew no one. College was a HUGE adjustment for her, and she needed those freshman retakes. Some people react differently (for better or worse) than others when thrown into a completely new situation, and you'd do well to remember that.

4/28/2006 1:38:08 PM

freshman retake is still retarded as-is though.

(similar to situation described above)
say student A struggles to adjust to college, but tries as hard as possible and gets a C
student B struggles, and may or may not try as hard as they can, and end up with a D

student A is stuck with a C, while student B can retake the class and end up with an A after becoming acclimated with college as well as the entire course syllabus.

basically they should just let freshmen retake apply to any grade below an A or B. still limit the number of retakes a student can get, so everyone doesn't end up with 4.3333 GPA's going into their sophomore years, but if a freshman gets 2 A's a B and a C, and they want to retake the C, let em.

4/28/2006 1:57:13 PM

freshman clases are cake, the retake rule should apply to the 200/300 level courses you start to take in your 2nd/3rd year when you actually have to do something difficult.

4/28/2006 2:32:08 PM

what about gettin rid of the minus system on the grades

such as just have A+ A B+ B C+ C D+ D F

4/28/2006 2:50:27 PM

Quote :

"say student A struggles to adjust to college, but tries as hard as possible and gets a C student B struggles, and may or may not try as hard as they can, and end up with a D "

You assume they are on equal ground. Let's say student A lives 1.5 hours away from home and goes home every other weekend to do laundry, see his family, see his friends, etc. His high school gf comes up to visit all the time and his parents visit him as well.

Now say student B lives 1000 miles away and at most, sees her family 3 times that first year. She has not yet made any "real" friends.

Who has the leg up?

4/28/2006 3:02:55 PM

student B because she has no life other than academics

i fit into student A perfectly

4/28/2006 3:13:43 PM

^student b opted to go to a school 1000 miles away, who's fault is that?

4/28/2006 3:17:00 PM

Quote :

"what about gettin rid of the minus system on the grades such as just have A+ A B+ B C+ C D+ D "

I like it
I'm also a fan of enforcing the rule about getting a grade back before the drop date. I had a class this year where my first grade didn't come until 2 weeks after. I wasn't concerned, b/c I knew I did well, but that's not always going to be the case.

^you're assuming they had a choice. If Susie lives in Boise, but desperately wants to major in textiles, she's GOT to head east or south, just to go to school for it. If they don't want to go to just any old school, but want to go to one with a good program, they may have to travel further. This second instance is pretty plausible for lots of fields of study. It's one thing to choose to live 100 miles away and major in psychology, and another to have to go to school far away just to attend a decent program.

[Edited on April 28, 2006 at 3:32 PM. Reason : lkj]

4/28/2006 3:28:38 PM

I like the freshman retakes. I'm doing one now for a math class that I got a D in. In my situation, I didn't take it seriously and didn't know how much getting a bad grade like that would affect things later on. I think that some freshman realize that getting good grades is important, but only after they do badly in one or two and choose a major they are really happy with. The ones who are serious about their grades will retake the class, thus putting themselves a little behind in their overall hours, to make up for their laziness in previous semesters. I could be taking a class that would actually count towards graduating, but instead I'm taking the time to go backwards and make sure stuff is straight.

That said, I like the ideas about having a set number of retakes per college career. Three sounds good. Sometimes you'll have a professor that you don't learn well with, or have other really hard classes that force you to sacrifice the grade in one class.

Also, yeah Dead Week sucks. My boyfriend had a project due every day Monday-Thursday this week. How is that dead week? Dead week should really be for finishing up class topics and review. Professors don't need to cram all these huge projects into the last week; they've had all semester, and could easily move it up a week to prevent students from being way stressed out during the week before exams.

4/28/2006 5:27:42 PM

Quote :

"In my situation, I didn't take it seriously and didn't know how much getting a bad grade like that would affect things later on. I think that some freshman realize that getting good grades is important, but only after they do badly in one or two and choose a major they are really happy with. "

i say we give each adviser a bat. the first week of class all the freshmen line up. (WACK)..."this is real life. your grades matter. show up. do your work. dont be a dumbass. NEXT!"

4/28/2006 6:06:31 PM

I dont think you guys understood what I meant at all.


You probably went to a school that had competent teachers and offered AP classes.

Some people didn't.


It's not their fault that their advisor told them they could hack it in PY 205 or MA 141 when they clearly didnt have the background to do well in those classes.

Why let them ruin their chances at switching to a major they want because their GPA got fucked up right out of the gate?

When you first come to college you don't dream of failing out your freshman year. To someone who has made A's their entire high school career it can be pretty discouraging to make a 63 on your first test and emotionally they may not recover in time to succeed in the class.

I'm not even talking about myself here... I went to a good school. But not everyone did, give them a break.

In the long run it is not putting you at any competitive disadvantage to let someone have a second chance to pass MA 141.

If you're truly a better student than them then you have 116+ other credit hours to prove it.

4/28/2006 6:59:15 PM

The awesome "Guilty until proven innocent" way that academic integrity violations are handled under.

[Edited on April 28, 2006 at 7:09 PM. Reason : .]

4/28/2006 7:08:45 PM

^^

Eh...fuck that. It's all in the person.

4/28/2006 7:17:31 PM

Quote :

"what about gettin rid of the minus system on the grades such as just have A+ A B+ B C+ C D+ D F"

i disagree, if you're going to get rid of the +'s get rid of the -'s, overall, i'm for keeping them both. don't think the "get rid of the one that might drop your GPA slightly but keep the slight boost" would float really well anyway, but thats just my opinion.

4/28/2006 7:37:43 PM

^^ That's not true.

If you didnt have precalculus then why would you be expected to do well in Calculus 141?

Some people come to NC State thinking they had precalculus in high school. They didnt know that they were gettnig a 2nd rate education in high school and had learned nothing.

4/28/2006 8:03:59 PM

i think a policy should be made that if you post nude pictures of yourself on the internet you cant file a false police report or you will be fired

4/28/2006 8:06:55 PM

^^Who has to take Calculus 141 if you hadn't taken precalc in high school??

I took Calculus in high school and the highest math I had to take was MA121 (yeah yeah...business major).

Unless you are engineering...why would you have to take anything higher than 121?? They start math's A LOT lower than 121. Do Chemistry majors have to take 141??

I'm just saying, that if you're majoring in something difficult, then you've probably taking at least precalc in high school.

My high school had 3 AP courses...3. I aced my first year at State, and I definitely don't have the best study habits. A girl from my hometown that went to our local private school with a graduating class of 15 (schools is rrriiddiiculously easy)...highest math was precalc...is going into her senior year at State with a 4.0 (and she's smart, but nowhere near genius status). These are all isolated cases...but the bottom line is that you either have it or you don't. Some kids might take a little longer than others. Either way, suck it up. It's also not fair for kids who work pretty hard and get a C...then there's Steve Slackass who drinks his way to an F in freshmen English, retakes the class and gets an A or a B.

4/28/2006 8:27:56 PM

^Those kids that get Cs can retake it if they're not happy with it (if they're a freshman..). My D in math counted because the course wasn't C walled, but I knew I could do better. I had AP classes in high school and graduated with a 4.25, and thought I could breeze through my first semester at college. I was wrong, now I know better, and because of the freshman retake I can make up for my mistake. Those people who aren't serious about getting good grades either won't do the retakes, or will use them up freshman year but just do badly in the following years, so really it all works out anyways.

But I'm still for 3 retakes all throughout college. Sometimes you just do badly for some reason.

4/28/2006 8:35:57 PM

^ exactly.

the point is some people didnt take precalculus in high school.


They THOUGHT they were taking precalculus but what they were actually taking was a watered down course called "precalculus" and taught by an incompetent high school teacher.


Advisors recommend people to take classes like MA 141, PY 205 all the time.

And there are tons of majors that you need MA 141 for not just engineering.


Also there are a lot of people who get admitted to Engineering that cant hack it and need to transfer out.

COM doesnt like poeple without 3.0's.... IF you have a D in MA 141 and PY 205 its really tough to get your overall up to 3.0 after a semester or two...

4/28/2006 9:11:15 PM

^ma 141, 241, and py 205 are the biggest reason i couldnt get into business school

4/28/2006 9:20:22 PM

Quote :

"My high school had 3 AP courses...3. "

Yeah, my high school claimed they had AP courses, but they really just stuck you in regular classes. The teachers were supposed to give us extra work or something. It never happened.

4/29/2006 12:50:06 AM

There should be a rule that if a student is falsely accused of something, and the professor turns out to be wrong, the student should get straight A's for the rest of his academic career.

Not tryin to call anyone out :ahem:dr.flick:cough:

[Edited on April 29, 2006 at 2:38 PM. Reason : .]

4/29/2006 2:37:49 PM

Things that are good:
-4.333 for an A+
-Registering for Classes/Course Catalogs
-Mandatory Plans of Study
-Only having to pay for 12 credit hours per semester

Things that need improvement:
-Freshman Orientation ... no idea if its changed since I did it, but I was forced to waste $100+ and six hours of driving just to get my PIN.
-Financial Aid Website ... they are in the process of hiring somebody, but the information there needs to be presented much cleaner / more organized.
-Tuition surcharge for those with more than one major should be more carefully scrutinized. It should be based off the hours for each of the individual majors, not just a percentage.

Overall, (IMHO), the academic policies in place are fair and well thought-out.

[Edited on April 29, 2006 at 3:11 PM. Reason : .]

4/29/2006 3:09:52 PM

Quote :

"^^Who has to take Calculus 141 if you hadn't taken precalc in high school??"

While I didn't have to, I jumped from Algebra II to MA141 and passed without a ton of issue.

Though I can see why a lot of people might be unable to.

5/1/2006 5:06:48 PM

it needs to be easier to switch out of engineering. i realize im not gonna be able to cut it in engineering but am having a hard time switching to business since my gpa took a hit in engineering when i could have gotten into the college of management out of high school easily.

5/1/2006 5:25:41 PM