For most graduate students, the diploma itself is enough, but when you’re a medical student, every single grade and every single relationship with a professor matters. A low grades or bad reputation can threaten your entire medical career at the Louisiana State University Medical School (LSU SOM) and beyond. After a lifetime of succeeding academically, handling a low grade may be completely out of your comfort zone, but fortunately, at the LLF National Law Firm, medical school grade appeals are right in our wheelhouse. Our Education Law Team is familiar with LSU SOM’s grade appeals process and will do everything we can to ensure you reach the best solution in your case. Let’s talk about your case; call us at 888-535-3686 or reach out to us online.
Don’t Doubt Yourself
Whether you struggled throughout the semester or you’re completely shocked by your low grade, if something doesn’t feel right about the grade you were given, don’t fight the feeling to ask questions. Everyone makes mistakes, even professors and clerkship supervisors. Typos, misremembering, confusing a student by accident – it happens. You won’t know if your grade is the result of a simple slip of the finger, miscommunication, or something more until you ask about it. There is nothing to be ashamed of just by asking for clarification as to why you received a lower grade than you were expecting.
If you’ve learned that the grade you received was no mistake, you might still be feeling like something isn’t right. Especially if you’re early on in your medical school career, it might feel like the easy option to let what feels like an unfair grade go. You think that you’ll bring up your GPA later by excelling in all your other courses. But you can’t guarantee future excellence, no matter how hard you try, and even if all goes according to plan, this grade might be the one that makes a difference come time for residency placements.
When every single grade matters so much, more and more medical students are filing grade appeals. You aren’t alone in feeling that something is amiss with your grade. It isn’t just an LSU SOM issue. There are many reasons students at LSU SOM and students all over the country are filing grade appeals. A few common reasons for filing include:
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Lack of transparency in the grading process
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Variability in evaluator assessment or grading
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Subjective grading practices
If your gut is telling you one of these factors is at play in your grade, it’s time to listen.
The Grade Appeal Process at Louisiana State University School of Medicine
Students are given two methods for grade and evaluation appeals at LSU SOM, but students must act quickly to have their grade reconsidered.
Informal Grade Appeals
The first method is an informal appeal. If you’re seeking an appeal, the informal route is the most likely first step. In this case, you will go directly to the professor or course director to explain why you believe an appeal is appropriate.
Formal Grade Appeals – Level 1
If your professor does not agree that there was a mistake or miscommunication resulting in your unsatisfactory grade, you can file a formal appeal. You must file your formal appeal in writing within 10 days of receiving the grade or evaluation. If you don’t file within this time frame, it is presumed that you have accepted the grade uncontested.
You will send your formal appeal to your course director. The appeal must include the grounds for the appeal and supporting evidence or documentation. This may seem straightforward, but having an LLF National Law Firm attorney there to assist means your strongest and most effective defense is put forward from the start.
The first level of the appeals process moves quickly- it all happens within five business days, and you will be playing an active role. Once your course director receives your appeal, they will review your appeal with the department head or the administrative head of the teaching unit.
They will also immediately schedule a meeting with you and the department head or head of the teaching unit. At the meeting, you will share your side of the story, present your argument, and answer questions from the course director and head of the department. Ideally, you will be able to reach a solution that works for all parties. Following the meeting, the course director will draft and send you a written response to the appeal.
Formal Grade Appeals – Level 2 (Final Appeals)
Hopefully, after receiving the response from your first-level appeal, you are satisfied with the outcome, but that isn’t always the case. Many LSU SOM students aren’t satisfied after a first-level appeal. One reason is that the outcome of a level 1 appeal is decided in part by the same person who issued the original grade and denied the student a satisfactory resolution in the informal appeals process. But at the Level 2 appeals, you get to go over their head and have people who are further removed from the situation evaluate your case.
If you aren’t satisfied with the outcome from the level 1 appeal, you have five business days to file a final appeal. To do this, you will send a written appeal document to the Associate Dean for Undergraduate Medical Education (UME). The written appeal will look similar to your level 1 appeal; it must include the grounds for your appeal, support of your argument, and any relevant documentation to support your case. You can also detail the appeals process to this point. Your LLF National Law Firm attorney can point out if LSU SOM officials have made any errors in the appeals process, and if so, those should be included in your appeal.
Once the Associate Dean for UME receives the appeal, they will compile an ad hoc committee for your case. The committee will comprise three faculty members, none of whom are members of the department, subject to your appeal. After reviewing your case, the committee will decide on two specific issues:
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Whether the evaluation or grading procedure applied to you was the same as all other students in the course
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Whether there is evidence of sufficient bias or error to support the department reassessing your competence
The committee has five business days to complete your appeal and provide you with a final grading decision.
The Risks of a Grade Appeal
There is no shortage of big egos in the medical field, and LSU SOM is no exception. Neither professors nor doctors have reputations for enjoying criticism in rooms where they are the bosses, so accusing your medical school professor of making a mistake can be a risky endeavor.
Perhaps this was a professor you were relying on for a letter of recommendation, and when it comes to residency programs, letters of recommendation carry a huge weight in the residency admission committee decision. Even the smallest criticism in a letter of recommendation can be seen as a big red flag.
Even if you weren’t planning to use this specific professor for a letter of recommendation, you still need to be careful about burning that bridge. Any professor you’ve taken a course or clerkship with can comment in your Medical Student Performance Evaluation (MSPE). And even before its MSPE time, professors may talk amongst themselves about perceived “difficult” students, leaving you defending your reputation before you’ve entered your classrooms next semester.
The risks of filing a grade appeal shouldn’t scare you away from filing an appeal. At the LLF National Law Firm, we want you to look at the entirety of the situation before diving into the appeal process.
Deciding if Filing a Grade Appeal is the Right Choice for You
Unfortunately, having only 10 days to file a grade appeal means you may not have as much time as you would like to weigh the pros and cons of filing a grade appeal. Especially if you were caught off-guard by the grade, you likely haven’t thought much about scenarios where you would even consider an appeal.
When deciding if it is worth it to file an appeal, you might want to ask yourself a few questions, for example:
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Is the poor grade in question important to the specialty you want to pursue?
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What evidence do you have to back up your grade change request?
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Does requesting a grade appeal call your instructor’s integrity into question, and if so, how much? Or is the poor grade a result of external factors?
There are countless other people who have been in your exact same place – your professors and mentors. If you feel comfortable, talk to them about your situation and ask for their advice. If you are aware of other students who have filed appeals, ask to pick their brains on the pros and cons.
First and foremost, use all the resources available to you – including the LLF National Law Firm. Our Education Law Team attorneys are here to help you. Once we review your case, we can give you details on the process and our advice in your case. You don’t need to be alone in making this decision. We’ve worked on countless medical school grade appeals at LSU Health New Orleans and throughout the country, and we can tell you what a strong case looks like.
Your Best Resource is the LLF National Law Firm
If you’re considering a grade appeal at LSU SOM, the LLF National Law Firm needs to be your first call. We know how delicate grade appeals at LSU SOM can be. It’s our job to ensure your rights are protected while fighting for your future medical career. When you retain the LLF National Law Firm, we support you every step of the way, from weighing the pros and cons of your appeal to preparing you for written appeals and meetings with LSU SOM officials. Call us today at 888-535-3686 or contact us online to learn more about how we can help you.