Does my daughter stand a chance at all?

[triff123]

This is a copy of her reddit post:

My dissertation was due today at 12 and the university’s policy is that any work submitted 1 hour after the deadline will not receive any penalties, so I submitted my work at 12:58. After which I went on my email to let the course leader know that I’ve submitted it and saw the email she sent 6 weeks ago that said because this is a resubmission, work must be submitted by the deadline or they won’t be marked and the assignment failed. I don’t know what to do, I’ve not emailed anything to the course leader because I’m panicked, scared, angry, sad and can’t think straight, and I’ve also not received an email form anyone. This was my last piece of work. I don’t know what to do

Is there anything she can do?

@HopelessatHousework could be right.

In any case, I think people are being really harsh about your daughter here. She is young. We all make mistakes and we learn from them. Its better to think of people as learning rather than labelling them as stupid. This was a simple mistake. She needs to explain asap. She should say everything you have said here. She was even trying to ensure they knew she had submitted on time!

I hope it all works out ok for your daughter. Our extremely well respected Director recently announced she lost our small organisation £20k by missing a submission deadline. We all mess up!

I am really sorty

She took a big risk and it backfired, unfortunately. It sounds like anxiety might play a part in the excessive tinkering? However, there has to be a cut off point and an hour's grace is already generous. It's hardly fair on those students who didn't get a, resubmission and kept within the deadline.

Definitely worth speaking to someone at the department's office but I'd be preparing her for the worst.

@whereverwhenevernone

Wow - would people really fail someone for handing their dissertation in 58 minutes late? I wouldn't! I would give them a real talking to, and tell them I should be failing them, but I wouldn't do it. Its' so harsh to fail a three year course because of a missed email! We've all made mistakes where we have missed or misread something. It's common.

She absolutely needs to phone./email to explain. Ignoring the situation will make it look worse - at least if she fesses up that she has realised she made a mistake they may listen and make an allowance.

This attitude exemplifies why we are raising generations of disorganised children with no sense of self-discipline. "Remember Bobby, homework before 5pm or no football tonight!" "OK mum" "Bobby it's 4.30pm, have you started your homework yet?" "No, I'll get it done in a minute" "It's 5pm Bobby, where's your homework?" "Oh no, I forgot... Can I still go to football?" "Awww, I shouldn't, but yeah, off you go..."

I think she needs to speak to someone and they may be lenient because of the strange year it’s been.
I was the university queen of procrastination but I did always get things in by the skin of my teeth. It would be a shame if she’s cocked three years up for the sake of not reading the instructions properly. It’s not much different to not making sure you’ve read the entire exam paper. As I say, they be lenient but I wouldn’t blame them if they stuck to the rules that everyone else has managed to abide by.

@EvenMoreFuriousVexation

Are you the Titania McGrawth of Mumsnet? A spoof character?

I teach at a university.

I can't think of any of my colleagues who would not accept this honest mistake. It is 58 minutes overdue - not days or weeks.

We are being as lenient as possible with students because of the stress of COVID-19 and all the consequences such as being unable to use university resources etc.

A quick courtesy email with an apology and explanation should be enough.

[quote whereverwhenevernone]@HopelessatHousework could be right.

In any case, I think people are being really harsh about your daughter here. She is young. We all make mistakes and we learn from them. Its better to think of people as learning rather than labelling them as stupid. This was a simple mistake. She needs to explain asap. She should say everything you have said here. She was even trying to ensure they knew she had submitted on time!

I hope it all works out ok for your daughter. Our extremely well respected Director recently announced she lost our small organisation £20k by missing a submission deadline. We all mess up!

I am really sorty[/quote]
Thank you for this. This happened yesterday and she has heard nothing from the university so far. I am pushing her to email today. Since she realised yesterday she has been in her bedroom crying, she has not showered or eaten anything. I think her depression is making a comeback. She has a tendency to lock everything and everyone out in these situations and just be alone, including turning her phone and laptop off.

Cutting it so fine is ridiculous. Even if she had been right about the 1pm deadline, submitting it TWO MINUTES before that deadline show very poor decision making abilities. What if the internet had gone down, the servers were busy, some other hitch. You are leaving yourself absolutely no time at all for problem solving.

The University might be lenient, who knows. If it's the end of a three year pattern of late submissions I'd say that was far less likely than for a student who had never missed a deadline before.

When I was at Uni dissertations were typed and bound rather than submitted electronically. Deadline was 12 midday but we were always told to aim for between 9am and 10am to allow for the unlikely scenarios which might delay you on the way in.

@Beenaboutabit

I teach at a university.

I can't think of any of my colleagues who would not accept this honest mistake. It is 58 minutes overdue - not days or weeks.

We are being as lenient as possible with students because of the stress of COVID-19 and all the consequences such as being unable to use university resources etc.

A quick courtesy email with an apology and explanation should be enough.

Hi thank you for this. This happened yesterday and she has heard nothing from the university so far. I am pushing her to email today. Since she realised yesterday she has been in her bedroom crying, she has not showered or eaten anything. I think her depression is making a comeback. She has a tendency to lock everything and everyone out in these situations and just be alone, including turning her phone and laptop off. I assume Explaining the situation beforehand would be better than waiting for them to email first, right?

I work in a University and if it reassures you, I think we can often be a bit “too soft”! Providing my seniors were in agreement, I would let this go through, especially if there was a risk to life documented.

We are being more lenient this year than ever and the focus is very much on supporting our third years to graduate on time. However, today is one of the busiest days of the year and most of our academic staff are involved in manning the Clearing hotlines. Your DD needs to try and remain as calm as possible.

She should still be able to access Well-being services at the University on the telephone but if you really do have grave concerns over her mental health contact your local Crisis Team or take her to A&E to the Psychiatric Liason.

It won’t help her to tell her now but this really was a very silly move on her behalf. Leaving it not just right to the last minute but right to the last minute of the extra time allowed (which is there really for technical problems!) on a resubmission was not wise. However, we all know that and it’s unhelpful advice now. I’m so sorry to hear that she’s got to the end of university and not had the support to learn time management etc...it sounds like she has been failed perhaps? Our students have free workshops on time management, productivity, procrastination etc as well as the free mental health services offered.

No matter what, the three years have NOT been lost. She has academic credits and can still graduate in future albeit a little later perhaps. There’s every chance it won’t come to that.

Whatever you do, try and distract her today. Get her out the house if possible...do something nice that doesn’t involve her checking emails constantly and worrying. Academic staff will have a busy long day and are prioritising A-Level students, many of whom are also having mental health crises due to the current situation. Do everything you can to help take her mind off of things and if she deteriorates, seek medical help ASAP.

Anyone who deliberately submits their work after the official deadline is ridiculous.

Thank you for this. This happened yesterday and she has heard nothing from the university so far. I am pushing her to email today. Since she realised yesterday she has been in her bedroom crying, she has not showered or eaten anything. I think her depression is making a comeback. She has a tendency to lock everything and everyone out in these situations and just be alone, including turning her phone and laptop off.

She really needs to get in toucb with them, this problem won't resolve itself and in the time she wrote the reddit post she could have sent her course leader an emial.

I appreciate you say she has battled with depression but in situations like its so important to get her to understand that by ignoring the situation the outcome is going to be a million times worse in her head than speaking to someone and knowing exactly what the next step is.

@SockYarn

Cutting it so fine is ridiculous. Even if she had been right about the 1pm deadline, submitting it TWO MINUTES before that deadline show very poor decision making abilities. What if the internet had gone down, the servers were busy, some other hitch. You are leaving yourself absolutely no time at all for problem solving.

The University might be lenient, who knows. If it's the end of a three year pattern of late submissions I'd say that was far less likely than for a student who had never missed a deadline before.

When I was at Uni dissertations were typed and bound rather than submitted electronically. Deadline was 12 midday but we were always told to aim for between 9am and 10am to allow for the unlikely scenarios which might delay you on the way in.

You are absolutely right. My daughter behaved stupidly. All we can do is hope for the best, which may be futile

Jesus people, have a heart.
I’d follow up with the course lecturer today and if she has a tutor group contact that person too. All in writing. If there’s a welfare officer at the uni in your shoes I’d contact that person too on her behalf to explain the situation and ask for advice.
I really hope they’ll make an exception for her.
I sympathise because I made a mistake on an important piece of work at uni and got a fail for that assignment which cost me my first. My advice would be to follow all appeals processes available to you, do everything in writing and be persistent.
Best of luck to your DD OP.

why is it a resubmission? has she previously failed to meet an earlier deadline or failed the dissertation? does she have a good reason for that (health, mental health)? I imagine from the experience i have of marking for a university that resits cannot be given extensions because otherwise there wouldn't be time to mark them before the exam board meets to ratify results... however an hour late wouldn't affect that. she may get away with it, she may lose penalty marks but still be ok, but she MUST get in touch with the course leader or tutor with pastoral care responsibility. we can't do anything for students who don't communicate.

I dont get why she waited till the very last minute to submit, what did she do at 12.47 that as going to add significantly to her dissertation? I imagine the hour's grace is to allow for technical difficulties in submitting, not to add an hour of work time...

Also when i did my dissertation it needed to be bound and physically handed in, is that not the case any more? Was only 5/6 years ago! (I feel old now...!)

the advice my tutors gave (i studied with the OU - deadline was usually 12:00 but there were 12 hours grace, so up to midnight) was that you should submit whatever you have ready on the actual deadline, just in case. Then upload the one you want to be marked when it's ready but within the margin for error.

Frankly, after 3 years it was rather daft to take that extra 58 minutes. But it is what it is.

I think I'd give up on hanging about waiting for an email reply and pick up the phone to show willing and that it was an honest mistake.

Look on the positive side OP - she won't ever cut it so fine again! Hard way to learn the lesson though.

@quizqueen

Anyone who deliberately submits their work after the official deadline is ridiculous.

You are right. I know that and she's realised that, hence why she is in such a state at the moment.

@Gogogadgetarms

Jesus people, have a heart. I’d follow up with the course lecturer today and if she has a tutor group contact that person too. All in writing. If there’s a welfare officer at the uni in your shoes I’d contact that person too on her behalf to explain the situation and ask for advice. I really hope they’ll make an exception for her. I sympathise because I made a mistake on an important piece of work at uni and got a fail for that assignment which cost me my first. My advice would be to follow all appeals processes available to you, do everything in writing and be persistent. Best of luck to your DD OP.

Thank you for this

Anyone who deliberately submits their work after the official deadline is ridiculous

Anyone who says this about an extremely distraught young women with a history of depression and suicide ideation, who seems to have been motivated by anxiety to 'perfect' things to the last minute, has emotional intelligence of a tapeworm.

@museumum

why is it a resubmission? has she previously failed to meet an earlier deadline or failed the dissertation? does she have a good reason for that (health, mental health)? I imagine from the experience i have of marking for a university that resits cannot be given extensions because otherwise there wouldn't be time to mark them before the exam board meets to ratify results... however an hour late wouldn't affect that. she may get away with it, she may lose penalty marks but still be ok, but she MUST get in touch with the course leader or tutor with pastoral care responsibility. we can't do anything for students who don't communicate.

Thank you, I am trying my best to get her out of this depressive mode and to take action of the situation

@ScottishStottie

I dont get why she waited till the very last minute to submit, what did she do at 12.47 that as going to add significantly to her dissertation? I imagine the hour's grace is to allow for technical difficulties in submitting, not to add an hour of work time...

Also when i did my dissertation it needed to be bound and physically handed in, is that not the case any more? Was only 5/6 years ago! (I feel old now...!)

It is all submitted electronically now. Plus the university is closed due to covid.

Jesus people, have a heart.
Exactly, my god there's some uppity people in here, well done if you got everything done and in early throughout your whole entire life. OP says her daughter is crying over this, it's not like she said 'eff it, who cares' or is days late. Hope you talk to someone who can help (make sure she tries to make contact as much as she can by phone preferably) and hope your dd feels better soon