A relative of mine is applying for grad school in the engineering department. The are scheduling a cruise with their family the day before finals start.

Now I would think this would be a problem, but do ya'll have any experience with grad school flexibility with professors on this issue? I assume since you are taking classes, that you still have final exams that week?

I can't speak for engineering but we did in my MBA program. While my professors were nice (and mostly flexible), they weren't "sure, take the final whenever you want" nice. I'd be careful if I were in their shoes, I wouldn't book the cruise until I had confirmed documentation (signed by the professor(s) and in writing) that I could take the final early. Otherwise, it's a waste of money or a failed class.

And let me re-iterate getting it in writing! Having them verbally agree to it at the beginning of the semester doesn't mean they'll remember when it comes time to actually take the final.

-S

[This message has been edited by sellis2003 (edited 8/7/2009 9:29a).]

we do in Mays

Final exams .. unlikely, final course projects that are presented during final exams week, highly probable.

Engineering profs dont grade anything in grad school, some lackey does who the prof is paying, but exams would have to be graded by a RA (research assistant) who isnt taking that class and is almost done with their PhD, or doing postdoc stuff.

For them to grade an exam in like 2-3 days would be a lot of work and honestly wouldnt bring much. The point of grad school in engineering is to unlearn that all the crap you thought you "knew" in undergrad, you really didnt know crap. By your PhD you hope you actually know something.

BS = You can figure some **** out, but it had better be ideal cases, because you really dont know any deep theory. Mostly what a BS in engineering shows is that you are smarter than 90% of the other monkeys that graduate college and that someone can later train you to do complex things with less headaches.

MS = You know some theory and realize that it only applies about 10% of the time to real life situations and the other 90% of the time you need to make empirical corrections.

PhD = You actually learn how to make those empirical corrections based on deep understanding of the theory (you dont learn this **** in class, you learn it through your research). I am doing my PhD in Germany and there are NO classes, I do my research and have to know my stuff, if I dont know it, its up to me to learn it, of course Im getting paid to do my PhD here so yeah. However, classes dont teach you anything, I have learned more in 1 year of my PhD research than I learned in 2 years of ELEN BS tech courses and 2 years of MS tech courses ..

[This message has been edited by Randy03 (edited 8/7/2009 9:23a).]

Based on my experience as an engineering grad student you can definitely expect final exams (sometimes the only exam in the class) and/or term projects due at the end of the semester, at least in the first year or two. If I were a first-year grad student I would definitely not book a vacation during finals.

yeah, almost all of my engineering grad courses had finals

Schedule the cruise for another week?

In law school, the only course grades are final exams. There are a few exceptions -- first year legal writing, most practicum courses, and upper level courses by profs that don't want to bother with the exams.

I tell you what I do when students do something like that . . . tell them that it is their choice to take or not take the final. It will not be offered early and you cannot take it when you get back.

BTW, this is also the time when students ask if a 78 is close enough to a B- or if they can do extra credit because they missed quizzes or assignments earlier in the semester.

I had finals in every class in my MBA program. Reschedule the cruise.