Dear Campus Advisor:

I have just completed my first year of college and in a couple of weeks I will be entering my second year. Everything seems OK except for one thing – I failed to meet certain deadlines and I received incomplete grades for the final semester. Due to this blunder my GPA has spiraled down to suspension level. I have to retake these courses because I need them to complete my freshman year. I decided to try to take on a job in the summer on campus to make some money to pay for summer courses. By the time I had enough money I had missed registration for summer courses. My hard times have driven my enthusiasm about education to an all time low. I still have yet to tell my parents about my last semester incomplete grades. I keep telling them that I owe some student fees or something, and when I have enough to pay the bill I will mail it home. Final registration for fall semester begins in almost a month. How can I save the last semester and salvage enough credits to advance to the next year, and make registration in time for fall?

Sincerely,
The Struggler


Well “Struggler” the challenge of obtaining a degree in higher education probably seems a bit clearer to you now, right? You can now probably remember the times you were supposed to meet those deadlines, and for whatever reason, it didn’t happen, right? Times when you slept in instead of attending a lecture. Maybe you even skipped classes on test days because you were not prepared to pass the tests, right? Whatever challenging situations you have allowed yourself to get into, the real education will now come in addressing these challenges. I’m going to be totally honest with you.

Procrastination and deceit are dangerous paths to choose. You have been fooling yourself by your denial and your failure to recognize your own irresponsibility and lack of follow through. You need to see this in yourself and rid yourself of these bad habits immediately, if you truly want to be successful in college.

Given your situation, if I were you, I probably would not have wanted to tell my parents about last semester either. I’m a firm believer in; if you have some bad news to unload, you’d better also have some good news to go with it. If it makes you feel better, a lot of college students fail to make deadlines or turn things in when they are due and accumulate these dreaded incompletes. However, irresponsibility is curable, with effort. Have you ever noticed how the students who do well, maintain communications with their professors? This is where you need to start to improve your situation. Try to set up appointments to talk to the professors who gave you incomplete grades. Carefully analyze why you did not perform well or meet the deadlines. Be honest with yourself and the professors. There is no real value in making up some elaborate tale. Professors have heard them all. You simply need to convey to them your genuine desire to make up your grades. Your task is to convince your professors that your attitude about classes has changed and that you are worth the extra time they will have to devote to you out of class, to get you back on the right track.

Consider yourself fortunate if your professors are willing to work with you to help you get out of this situation. If your professors are willing to work out an arrangement with you, keep this between you and the professors. Diligently apply yourself to the make up work. Meet all agreed upon deadlines--no excuses--and do quality work. At the same time, keep track of next semester’s registration deadlines. Get organized. Buy and use a daily planner. Be sure to circle important dates on you calendar. Turn in the work to professors on time as arranged. And show appreciation for the extra time your professors invested in you.

Hopefully you will at least receive full credit for some of your courses. When you receive your new grades, inform your parents that originally the grades were incomplete, but now the problem is corrected and send them a copy. Register for fall and use whatever remaining time you have preparing for fall semester. Make a resolve to start the new academic year with a new attitude and a commitment to hard work and academic excellence. Most importantly, never, never make this mistake again.

Linda Bates Parker is your Online Campus Advisor. She has authored the Campus Advisor column for THE BLACK COLLEGIAN Magazine for over 13 years. Parker is the director of the Career Development Center at the University of Cincinnati and president of Black Career Women a national organization.

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