Professor hasn’t posted final grades (what to do?)

In college, there are few things that are more frustrating than a professor who isn’t doing their job.

If you are patiently waiting for your professor to post a grade, like your final exam grade or dare I say it, your final grade in the course, I will give you some tips.

I know that it can be very difficult to have to wait to find out your grade and you might actually need your final transcript for something like an application for a job or scholarship.

As a former professor, I will tell you what your options are and what is expected of professors.

You probably want to know what the college’s policies are regarding grading, and if you’re promised your grade in a timely manner. Surely it cannot take THIS long, right?

If you want to learn more about how long it takes professors to grade, read about that here, otherwise read this article to find out when professors should post final grades and when you should expect to see those grades on your transcript.

Professor hasn’t posted my grade on my transcript

If your professor hasn’t posted your final course grade on your transcript, and the semester is over, you should wait at least 48-72 hours after the last day of the semester. Then you should contact the registrar’s office to inquire about your grade.

This is especially true if all your other grades are already visible to you.

Most professors will be required to post their final grades for their courses immediately after the end of the semester. Now, don’t confuse the end of the semester with the last day of class. They are two separate things.

In my college, I always had to post grades with 24 hours after the final exam, but no later than the day after the semester ended. Let’s say the semester ended on a Sunday. I had to get all my grades entered by that following business day by 5:00pm.

And then after I sent my grades in, the college would not release them to students for another day or two. Therefore you aren’t going to see your grade as soon as your professor submits it anyway.

But if you have looked at the academic calendar, and the official last day has passed, and more than three days later you still don’t see your grade on your transcript, you can start contacting the university.

It might even be best to look in the student catalog, or wherever your university’s policies are located, to see if they talk about grades and the timeline for posting.

Finally, if you can search your college’s website for a faculty handbook, you can likely find your professor’s responsibilities for grade posting too.

But if you can’t find that information to settle your nerves, you probably want to start reaching out to your college to get some answers.

Your professor might not have posted grades yet because they forgot or are experiencing an emergency. Even worse, they could be grading outstanding work and be behind too.

Regardless of the reason, you want to make sure you get your grade sooner rather than later. And it probably makes you a little anxious waiting to find out if the grade posts.

Honestly, I don’t know if I would waste time by contacting the professor since it might be a reporting issue with the college. I would go straight to the registrar to see if grades are delayed or postponed.

Maybe your college has a different policy and grades will take a little longer to be visible to students. Or there was an error and they can start fixing it for you. Either way, they will let you know what is going on and what to expect.

Skip the email and call them instead so you get a quicker response. But avoid doing this until you have waited, as I suggested above.

What happens if a professor doesn’t post final grades

If your professor doesn’t post final grades, and the semester is over, their Dean is going to know that there are missing grades. At our university, if we didn’t post all of our grades by the deadline, the registrar’s office would have a report sent to all Deans who would then start contacting the professors to figure out what is going on.

It is VERY unlikely that missing grades are just going to be ignored. There are processes to ensure that every student’s grades are posted and when they aren’t, it is typically pretty easy to solve.

If a professor doesn’t post grades, their Dean is going to call them. They will have to explain their circumstances and get them submitted right away. Late grades really impact students and colleges don’t like it when professors don’t post grades in time.

It will get done, even if someone else has to post them. If a professor still doesn’t comply, they will likely face some discplinary procedures.

Finally, most colleges have professors use online gradebooks. If they do, their Dean can get access and post grades for them. But if your professor uses a handwritten gradebook, this is going to be a lot harder for their Dean to solve without the professor’s help.

I have known professors who didn’t get their grades in by the deadline and their Dean called them and the professor entered them shortly after so it will hopefully be handled quickly.

FEATURED POSTS YOU’LL LOVE