The grades you receive at the University of Mississippi Medical Center School of Medicine (UMMC SOM) make all the difference in your academic and professional career. There may be no other field more competitive, and you need to do everything in your power to set yourself up for success. Having a low or failing grade isn’t an option. UMMC SOM students and medical students nationwide aren’t tolerating low grades stemming from a lack of transparency and unfair grading practices. Throughout the country, more medical students are filing grade appeals than ever.
If you’re a UMMC SOM student considering filing a grade appeal, you need the support of the LLF National Law Firm. The grade appeal process is a delicate one, and you need to ensure you’re presenting the strongest case possible – your education and career are on the line. Get started with our Education Law Team today by calling 888-535-3686 or reaching out online.
Trust Your Gut
UMMC SOM has just released your grades, and you’re blindsided by one of your grades. Maybe you were struggling in the class, or you may have thought you were doing ok. Either way, you didn’t think this grade was in the realm of possibility. Something about this grade isn’t sitting right with you. If you’re feeling this way, you need to trust your gut.
Sitting idly by isn’t how you got accepted to UMMC SOM. You worked hard and advocated for yourself through every step of your education and application process. Now isn’t the time to take a passive approach. This grade matters, so you need to ask questions to determine whether it was baseless, an error, or a violation of UMMC SOM’s grading policies.
The people entering your grades into the system, your professor, clerkship director, or UMMC SOM administrative staff, are human – they make errors. It is possible that a grade was mis-entered, there was a mix-up between students, or that there is some other harmless explanation. You won’t know until you reach out to your professor or clerkship director.
If you’ve confirmed there is no administrative or typographical error with your grade, it’s time to start asking more complicated questions. You need to sit down with your professor or clerkship director to get an explanation of where you erred or where you did not meet course expectations. Ask for concrete examples of where your performance or work product strayed from expectations.
Clarify that your interpretation of expectations was consistent with those outlined at the beginning of your course or clerkship. You may even want to ask why, if the professor or clerkship director saw you repeatedly making mistakes, they didn’t initiate a discussion with you.
If you don’t receive satisfactory answers and still believe the grade is inappropriate, you should follow your instinct and consider filing a grade appeal.
When It’s Appropriate to File an Appeal
Receiving a low grade doesn’t automatically entitle you to a grade appeal. In fact, grade appeals are only accepted in limited situations. These situations are generally limited to:
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Lack of transparency in grading calculations
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Inconsistent evaluations between different instructors or preceptors
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Subjective or unclear grading standards
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Discriminatory practices
If you believe one of these factors is at play, then filing a grade appeal may be the smart decision.
The Grade Appeal Process at the University of Mississippi School of Medicine
UMMC SOM is intentionally tight-lipped about its grade appeal process; it doesn’t allow the policy to be distributed beyond its medical students, faculty, and staff. To view the full Grade Appeals Policy document, you will need to go to the UMMC Intranet. The school does give an overview of the process on its UMMC School of Medicine Policies webpage. If you pursue a grade appeal at UMMC, you can expect the process to look as follows.
Once your grade is posted, you will have 14 days to file your appeal. UMMC SOM prefers that students reach out directly to their professor or clerkship director with their concerns to resolve the matter informally. If you need to do this immediately to ensure that you can still meet the filing timeline requirement. Most likely, you’ve already completed this step and were unsuccessful in reaching a resolution.
Grade appeals are filed with the chair of the department that sponsors the course. If you are appealing a conjoint course grade, you will file your appeal with the assistant dean of academic affairs. While you are filing your appeal directly to a specific department or the assistant dean of academic affairs, you will also need to notify the UMMC Office of Medical Education. This office is not involved at this stage of the appeal.
UMMC SOM students have the burden of proof in grade appeals. This means that your professor or clerkship director’s grading decision was appropriate, and you need to prove why that is not the case. While everything is moving very fast, you need to contact the LLF National Law Firm immediately. You cannot afford to present a less-than-strong, well-supported defense of your grade change request. You need our experienced Education Law Team to have the best chance of succeeding in your grade appeal.
The department to which you filed the appeal will have 14 days to respond to your appeal. The response will state whether a grade change is appropriate or if your grade will remain as is. If you aren’t satisfied with the department’s response, you may have the right to a higher-level appeal, but not always, which is why it’s important to have an LLF National Law Firm attorney on your side.
Even if you haven’t retained an LLF National Law Firm attorney at this stage, it isn’t too late. Your next level appeal will be made to the executive faculty through the Office for Medical Education. You will need to file this appeal within 14 days of receiving your lower-level appeal outcome from the relevant department. If you haven’t filed your appeal within 14 days, you have waived your right to an appeal.
If this appeal also does not go in your favor, you may have another opportunity to appeal. This is only in cases where you are appealing on procedural grounds. Essentially, you are appealing because there was a procedural error somewhere in the appeals process, such as the department or Office of Medical Education failing to follow established UMMC SOM grade appeal protocol outlined in the Grade Appeal Policy.
This type of appeal has a different timeline. You only have five days after receiving your appeal decision to file the next-level appeal with the associate vice chancellor of academic affairs. The outcome of this appeal is final.
Deciding if Filing a Grade Appeal is the Right Choice for You
In medicine, whether it’s the classroom or the hospital, confidence is pretty much built into the culture — and UMMC SOM is no different. Professors and clerkship directors are used to being the authority in the room, so pushing back on one of their grading decisions can feel daunting. You may even anticipate being belittled or disrespected.
While the way medical school works is changing, some faculty still think, “Well, that’s how it was when I trained, so it should be fine now.” The reality is that transparency in grading matters, and you have the right to ask questions when something doesn’t add up.
A big worry for many students is what happens if the person whose grade you’re challenging is someone you’d hoped would write a letter of recommendation. As you know, when it comes to residency applications, those letters can matter just as much as your grades. One lukewarm line or offhand comment can put doubts in a program director’s mind about how dependable or easy to work with you are.
Even if you never planned to ask that professor for a letter, your relationship with them still matters. Anyone who’s supervised you could end up giving input on your MSPE, and faculty talk to each other. If someone decides you’re “difficult” or “argumentative,” that label can follow you into the next phase of your professional career.
That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t file a grade appeal; it just means you should go in with your eyes open. Try to get a sense of what this process looks like in practice and what typical outcomes look like. You can achieve this by talking to other UMMC students who have filed grade appeals and getting advice from your mentors. Take some time to reflect on these questions:
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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?
Lastly, consult with an LLF National Law Firm attorney. Our Education Law Team will help you think through the risks, the benefits, and the best way to approach the situation before you file anything formal.
Considering a Grade Appeal? Your Best Resource is the LLF National Law Firm
Deciding to file a grade appeal at UMMC SOM isn’t an easy decision, but you never have to go into the process alone. At the LLF National Law Firm, our attorneys are well-versed in the UMMC SOM grade appeal process and will do everything in our power to ensure you are prepared with a strong defense. Learn more about how we can help by calling 888-535-3686 or by contacting us online.