Can prof FAIL student for personal reasons? (one answers)

Are you in a situation where you are worried your professor might fail you for personal reasons?

You might be thinking that they just don’t like you but you don’t understand why.

It can definitely be an awful feeling wondering if your professor can sabotage your grade just because of personal issues they have with you.

I am going to tell you if professors can give you a F just because they want to and what to do if you are in a situation like this.

It it not as straightforward as you might think. There are a lot of things to take into consideration.

But I will walk you through everything so you leave here knowing how to deal with your professor that is trying to fail you.

You will leave here more prepared to deal with this situation.

Can my professor fail me for personal reasons?

No, a professor cannot fail a college student solely for personal reasons, at least not ethically. But if the personal issues are related to the method of evaluation, there could be some flexibility here.

When I think of students who are worried that this is happening to them, I immediately think of students who have a professor who dislikes them. Maybe you’ve had a disagreement with your professor and you are worried they are out to get you.

These are all going to be hypothetical examples because I have not personally known any professors who have failed students just because they didn’t like them.

But I know there are lots of professors out there and some are surely unethical and unfair. But I like to think that the vast majority of professors do NOT want to fail their students because it can reflect poorly on them.

Read More : Find out how to deal with a professor who is grading you unfairly here.

There are a few ways your professor can fail you for personal reasons. I will tell you how professors could accomplish this.

First your professor can be a tough grader.

Grading can be subjective, depending on the type of assignment. They could choose to grade your assignments more harshly which would result in a failing grade.

This would be harder to prove because you don’t know their reasoning behind their tough grading. It could be that professor’s grading scheme.

You see, professors have something called academic freedom and this allows them to have the ability to teach how they want to teach and grade how they want to grade. It can be argued that the grade they awarded the student is protected by this principle.

Or your professor could just change your final grade to a failing grade even though you really earned a higher grade. This would be much more difficult for your professor to do because they can’t really hide the fact that they altered a student’s grade purposefully.

Most of the time, professors are required to make their gradebooks accessible to administration and it would be easy to catch this type of behavior if students started alerting their supervisor.

Now, I want to tell you that in my profession, I never saw any professor give a failing grade to a student because of personal issues they had with the student.

Universities don’t allow professors to give students a grade arbitrarily or without cause as it can be challenged by the student.

Now, if a student plagiarized or committed some scholastic dishonesty, it is possible that you could fail the course but I wouldn’t classify that as a personal reason.

Professors aren’t typically going around trying to fail students on purpose. There isn’t some unwritten code that professors are following where they try to weed out certain students to keep them from graduating.

But I mentioned that professors could fail you for personal reasons if their method of evaluation aligned with their grading.

For example, some universities might measure personal and social responsibility. So, your grading could be personal.

Check your professor’s syllabus and see how they are assessing your performance in their class. Is it personal in any way?

I find that this is uncommon but it could happen in some instances, and if the professor was creative with their grading scheme, it could get very personal.

Other than those logical reasons, professors cannot simply fail you just because they don’t like you. They better have a solid reason to back it up.

Otherwise, if they do this without a valid reason, it is wrong.

Can a professor give you a bad grade just because they don’t like you?

No, professors are restricted from assigning bad grades to students just because they don’t like them, and the student could appeal their grade to the college if they think that the grade they received was capriciously given.

Universities do not give professors permission to give students a bad grade just because, at least not any university that I am aware of in the United States and most other developed countries.

The grades should be given based on the professor’s method of evaluation.

A telltale sign of unfair grading is when other students, with similar work, were given an entirely different grade.

It is going to be hard to prove on your own, but if you honestly feel like this is happening to you, I would first visit with your professor.

I will outline how to have this discussion later so keep reading to find out how to deal with a professor like this.

What to do if your professor is trying to fail you on purpose?

If your professor is trying to fail you, students should try talking to their professor about failing, figure out how the rest of the class is performing, switch professors, or appeal their grade, among other solutions.

As a former professor, I know exactly how you can deal with this situation professionally.

Talk to your professor

If you are failing, you need to immediately talk with your professor. You might think that you are failing because they don’t like you but they might be able to explain your grades when you meet with them.

If they can’t explain it, then you have a better case if you appeal. And some colleges will want you to talk to your professor before you appeal anyway so you might as well do this now.

When you go talk to your professor, I want you to ask them to explain how they are grading your assignment. I wouldn’t be confrontational but inquiring.

And keep good notes of your conversation like dates, times, and specific topics discussed. This way when you improve according to their feedback, and you are still failing, you will have more evidence to present if you end up appealing.

If you are making bad grades, you might be able to recover.

Ask to see the class average

You should also ask to see the class average because you might find out that your other classmates are doing just as bad as you are. If the average is low, it might be normal fluctuations for the professor’s course.

At the very least, this question will alert your professor that you are focused on learning about other people’s performances and are in tune with your bad grades.

If they are doing it for personal reasons, they might stop because they know that they won’t be able to get away with it.

Talk to your classmates

If you are comfortable doing this, you might talk to your classmates and ask them how they are doing in the course. You could compare assignments and feedback and see if they are similar.

If you find some serious differences in how you are being graded compared to your classmates, it could be personal. But again, this isn’t case closed.

You need to talk to your professor and get their side of the story.

Keep your distance

When a professor is targeting a student for personal reasons, it might be best to keep your distance and focus on the course but avoid any contact with the professor.

Can you just go to class and do your thing without interacting with them? See if this helps your performance in the course.

Switch professors

Maybe you can get out of the class and go to a different course. Some universities might offer a lateral transfer if you can make a good case for it.

Depending on how far you are into the semester, this could be difficult to do though but something to explore.

Withdraw

As a last resort, you could potentially withdraw from the course instead of failing. And then retake the class with another professor.

Read the entire guide about withdrawing here because it might not be for you.

Appeal your grade

If you are very confident that your professor failed you ONLY because of personal reasons, you should appeal your grade.

You will need to collect any evidence that you have first.

If you followed all my other steps, you should have strong evidence to support your appeal.

Check your university’s policy and find out how the appeal process will go first. Most often, you have to wait until the final grades are posted and then you can appeal.

And if you end up failing after all, read my post where I help you deal with failing a class. I want to help you get through this.

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