I didn't realize it going into this second foray into schooling, but apparently there is a little controversy behind extra credit. I've read quite a few articles from the perspectives of professors and students alike that voice a negative opinion of the practice of extra credit: from the student's perspectives, we are already busy with life and work, and having to take time to do yet one more project is just too much (it never is too much from my experience), and from the perspective of professors, they dislike having to grade extra stuff and coming up with ways to boost students' grades.

Many professors see extra credit as enabling students who are too lazy to work hard for regular credit. I, however, am a student who puts 100% of my effort into school. I mean, why bother going to school if you are not going to be committed? It is a waste of time and money, and I would not get either of those back by lack of effort. However, sometimes my 100% of hard work and effort does not give me 100% of return. There is where students get frustrated and stop working so hard. No one likes to be reminded that their best just isn't good enough.

That is why I like extra credit and I treat extra credit opportunities like regular assignments. I have to do them. They are related to the curriculum (I've yet to run into EC that isn't) and they help boost your grade. Yet, even when my grade does not need boosting, I still do them. Here's why:

Extra credit allows you to explore outside of the syllabus.

One of my favorite extra credit assignments was going to a Buddhist temple for Philosophy: Intro to Religion. A school buddy and I went to a temple and took a cassette tape tour of a lovely temple and monastery, and got to discover philosophical and religious practices that we were not familiar with. I spoke with a few monks, and actually learned a philosophical lesson that was preached that day. We spent a few hours there, and wrote up a paper for about 10 points.

If we had not done that extra credit, we would have been restricted to the content of the class as far as learning opportunities go. I mean, we could have always went, but I doubt many students would if a professor did not suggest it. In fact, we were some of the few people who did take part in this EC.

Many students, especially those fresh out of high school, don't realize that education does not just occur in a classroom. We are trained to accept that what the teacher tells us is truth, and to follow the syllabus as if it were law. But there's more to the world than just what the teacher presents. EC sometimes can be freeing...after all, there's a whole big world out there waiting to be discovered.

Extra credit allows you to tailor your education to your own interests.

Lets face it: if material isn't relevant to you in some way, it isn't as interesting. This is a big concept that most teachers kind of lose sight of...if they consider it at all. You're going to get more results from a student when they're engaged and can relate the info taught to their personal lives. Its just how it works, but unfortunately we are trained that the students should come to the teacher, not the other way around.

Extra credit may give you, as a student, the opportunity to find a way to make the class subject relevant to you. For example, a professor gave us the opportunity to write a report about children's issues, and I wrote about how schools, for the most part, do not consider the developmental needs of adolescent girls when designing schools and curriculum. I was able to explore things that mattered to me, things that have always bothered me (i.e. there being no pad/tampon dispensers in the high school I went to, bathrooms not being designed for use of menstrual cups, etc.) and my instructor was so impressed he had me talk about it during class discussion.

Extra credit can let you have a bit of fun.

My astronomy teacher offered two extra credit opportunities. One was to take part in a Star Party at an observatory, and the other was to try our hand at photographing the moon through a telescope. Both opportunities were fun, allowed us to get out of the classroom, and exposed us to the wonder of what we were learning. Everyone was happy to talk about their experience, and we compared our moon photos.

I know of professors whose extra credit included trips to see movies, hiking trips, and more. These sorts of opportunities help break up the monotony of school, and help you see school as more than a chore you have to get through.

Extra credit helps you connect with your community.

Oftentimes, extra credit requires you to get involved within the community, meaning, getting involved with a charity or event that helps people. One professor organized a food drive across all his classes, which was then donated to a food bank. I've seen opportunities that require students to explore the inner workings of charities, work face to face with people who need help the most, and come up with ways to make the world a better place.

You can use VolunteerMatch.com to find volunteer opportunities near you.

This is beneficial because many students want to do this sort of thing anyway but don't know where to start. And sometimes they may be intimidated. It helps when someone is leading them into their first tries at helping people, especially if a person has never experienced situations that require them to work to the benefit of others with little reward. Hopefully the experience will be one that will empower students to continue with these sorts of efforts, even when not required for a grade.

Extra credit can seriously save your grade...and can often be a great tool in the learning process.

Before I get into this no-brainer, I want to dispel that extra credit is a freebie given to students who otherwise wouldn't work as hard for regular credit. From what I've seen, students who don't work as hard for regular credit most likely will not take advantage of extra credit anyway. The extra reward of points won't mean much to a student who doesn't value points in the first place. I've seen these students get excited for the prospect of EC...but then always fall through in actually delivering.

For students like me who actually care, extra credit can help us achieve the goal that we are already working towards. I consider myself an A student, and I like to think I give A student effort. But sometimes my A student effort gets me a B, or even a C. Maybe I misunderstood the parameters of an assignment. Maybe I just didn't understand parabolas as much as I thought I did. Maybe something came up...like a kid got sick or I got sick, someone died, or technology failed me. It happens. We are only human after all. Some things are beyond our control.

So when extra credit is offered, it is like a stepping stool to a goal we are so close to reaching, and capable of reaching, but the technicality of points keeps us from reaching. We know we're good enough, and the professor usually does too. Numbers, sometimes, doesn't take our dedication and hard work into account, and we shouldn't necessarily be punished for it. If you're thinking points aren't about punishment or reward, you grossly misunderstand how some students motivate themselves.

Learning from your mistakes is kind of the whole point of learning, and learning is the whole point of school sooo...

I take advantage of all extra credit because I know that despite my best efforts, sometimes I make mistakes. I plan to learn from those mistakes, but the mistakes are what gets recorded in the grade book because they are quantifiable. Extra credit helps me to learn beyond those mistakes and recoup those points, and not be forever punished because of a natural process of learning.

For example, my Statistics for Social Sciences teacher allowed us to come up, in groups, with statistical scenarios to prove that we more or less understood the material when most students made a mistake on a test. He realized that if most students made this mistake, then there was a disconnect between his teaching and his students learning, which does not denote fault on either party. Instead of just going, "Oh well, if you had been better students I wouldn't have to put up with this," he said, "Hey, here's how we can drive home this concept and get back those points, especially since it seems like everyone seems to have missed this important concept that is part of the curriculum."

I also had made that mistake, and was able to recoup 10 points I missed on the test because of it. My grade is no longer suffering because of a simple mistake, and I have also learned this concept in a way that I don't think I will forget in the final.

So the next time you are faced with Extra Credit, think of it as an opportunity beyond the value of points. You are in college for you, and these opportunities can only make your experience better! If you think you do not have time for EC, be sure to check out my posts about making an Assignment List, Planning Assignments, and Project Timelines. Also check out how to plan a semester when you work full time, too! It can be done!

What are some memorable extra credit assignments you took part in? How has extra credit helped you?

The light at the end of tunnel can be seen! I am nearing what is to be the last semester I will spend here at the Junior College level, meaning that I can apply for graduation in March 2018 and participate in commencement with my degree in tow as long as I pass all the remaining classes in Spring 2018.

I am very keen in participating in commencement, mainly because I have worked so hard to get to this point. Having to change majors twice during my time here at Chaffey has only driven me to want to succeed more. I know I am worth more than that degree, and yet, the signpost of my achievement is necessary to show future me that I have come this far despite my struggles, and I can go even further.

That being said, when it came time for registration, I found myself facing two more dilemmas. The first was a lack of registration priority, which I have written about here (as well as how to get around it). The second came from needing to take Psych-80-Research Methods...and every single class offered for Spring 2018 was only offered during the day.

Here's a brief background in case you are new to my blog: I am a 35 year old non-traditional student who works full time from 7 to 4 weekdays, who also goes to school full time, and who now commutes 1 hour to and from home and work/school daily. My options for school are limited to online, evening, and weekend classes. So Psych-80 wasn't going to work for me.

This problem did have a solution, however. Actually, it had more than one. I want to share them with you because what worked for me is probably not the solution that is best for you if you find yourself in this position. But let me break it down for you so you can successfully navigate this sticky situation and not lose hope in graduating on time:

First, contact your counseling department about it.

Chances are, if they are anything like Chaffey, they can't help you much BUT you want to start the line of communication here and have record of it, so email them if you can. They will most likely refer you to someone else (which I will tell you about below), or even say they don't know the answer to your problem. If they refer you to someone else, call/email those people. If they give you a non-answer in the form of an "I don't know," reply to them asking for communication information of the people I will talk about below. This process is going to take a lot of follow-up and you need to decide if the hassle is worth it. No one else is going to make that decision for you or do the work for you.

Ask your employer if you can rearrange your schedule for this class.

My employer knows I also go to school full time, so me asking this sort of question doesn't come as a shock. I keep my work and school life pretty well managed, so they don't "rob time" from each other, which also helps when I make requests like this. And it doesn't hurt! They can say yes or they can say no, and if they say no you're just back where you started, so you haven't lost anything.

I did ask but I could not change my schedule. And that is ok. Like the commitment I made to school, I also made a commitment to work. My employer counts on me to be here, much like how I count on them to pay me. So it is only fair. My solution would have to come from somewhere else, but for you, it may be a different story.

Before you go any further, ask around if any of your fellow classmates are also having this problem.

You will most likely find a few. Ask them to ask their friends too. Get as many people as you can, but you don't need to go full-on political campaign to be successful. Exchange emails and keep each other apprised of the steps you take. Why? Because one person complaining about not having a class available is not going to motivate administration to take care of your needs, important as they are. A group of people complaining about the same issue? Administration will start to listen.

Now, look to other colleges to see if they have a class that is comparable.

This was a suggestion of my counselor. I used this website to see if the colleges around me had comparable courses to Chaffey's Psych-80. If you are not in California, as your counselor for a link to a website like this if they tell you to search for a comparable course (my counselor told me to go find a comparable course but did not give me a link...don't be afraid to reply and ask them to do a little more legwork!).  I was able to find a few courses, and applied to the respective colleges. I then took these courses and emailed my counselor about them...

Only to find they were not comparable. Why? Chaffey requires a lab with Psych-80, and other community colleges do not. That isn't to say that this step won't work for you! It just means that I had to take my search for a solution a step further.

Next, contact the Program Coordinators, Department Heads, Faculty Advisors, or even the Dean of the Departments if you have to.

Yeah. I'm pulling out the big guns with this one. So when your counselor goes, "I don't know" or "you need to come in so we can discuss this" or "those classes won't work (and doesn't give you another step to follow up with) reply with this: "Could you please get me into contact with a person who can assist me with this information? I.e. the Program Coordinator (the person who helps coordinate classes for the semester for your major), Department Head (the person who sort of directs the faculty in some schools), the Faculty Advisor (this may be a special "counselor" type person who also mentors students who have ins with the other people on this list...if your counselor can't or won't give you the email to the Program Coordinator, maybe the Faculty Advisor will), Dean, etc.?"

This is what had happened to me. After I had emailed my counselor and searched for classes, and had talked to a few students who had the exact same problem, I asked my counselor for the email of someone who could assist me. She said she would email the Program Coordinator...and then I heard nothing back.

This is where talking to other students paid off for me. Another student had somehow managed to wrangle the email of the Program Coordinator from her counselor, and shared that email with me and all the other students with the same problem. We all contacted this Program Coordinator...who then said that after the influx of emails that she would talk to the dean to see about getting a new class added.

While you wait for all these people to get back to you, or while you are emailing back and forth, contact the admissions departments of the places you are transferring to.

Why? Because you don't need to graduate with an Associate's to transfer to get a Bachelor's. In California, you just need passing grades with the Magic Four and have 60 transferable credits. These credits usually mean your general education and lower division classes for your major, but if you don't have one or two classes (as long as they are not prerequisites) you can still transfer (if the major is impacted, however, you will want to try to get as many lower division classes done as you can manage before you transfer...with the best grades you can get).

I emailed all four Cal State colleges that I had applied to, and the one UC I had applied to, asking them if my chances at being admitted would be hindered by my not having Psych-80 in the off-chance that I would not be able to find a comparable course or Chaffey would not add another course. I let them know my situation, the steps I had taken (so they wouldn't tell me to contact my counselor at Chaffey, which I had already done), my application date, and I also included a copy of my unofficial transcripts. Every college replied stating that I had the Magic 4 and that I had 60 transferable units, so not having Psych-80 would not be a problem.

To top it off, one of the Cal States replied that if I did transfer in without Psych-80, I could take it later at Chaffey and transfer it in while also attending a Cal State. No one else had told me this info, and this advisor gave me this info without me asking. Now I know, and guess what...now you do too, all because I took the extra steps to solve this issue. Remember, closed mouths don't get fed!

Weigh which solution works for you.

For me, asking my employer for time off for the class that took place during the weekday didn't work, and neither did finding a comparable course. Transferring and forgoing graduation was the next best solution and it was a compromise I was willing to accept. Sometimes that is the best you can do.

However...last week I got an email from the Program Coordinator who replied that she had gone to the Dean with her influx of emails from all the other students...and added a Psych-80 for Monday nights.

Yeah. That's right. The students successfully got the administration to add the class for us, and now I will be able to graduate in Spring. I registered for that class the second it went live and am now sitting pretty with a very full schedule.

What does this all mean?

It means that there are options to getting your education done, and graduating with the classes you need. But it also means that you have the ability to make it happen. I believe that in situations like these, "I don't know" and "You can't" and "No" are not answers. They just mean that whoever you are talking to doesn't want to give anymore effort to the situation, which is sad because that is their job, not yours. But hey...there's always another person higher up to bug. And bug until you get the answer you want. Be pesky. Be annoying! This isn't high school where you kind of have to obey without objection to what someone gives you, and take it for face value. You can make things happen.

That isn't to say that this will always work. This post sums up about three months of effort, off and on. I was ready to accept that I wouldn't graduate, but that I could still transfer, which wasn't my ideal but was good enough. Thankfully our persistence worked because now I can graduate.

I hope you feel a little more empowered by this post. Sometimes it feels like we are navigating the Junior/Community College on our own, and it can be frustrating when barriers like this pop up. But know that there is always a solution, and the path to that solution may not be a straight line! But there's always a way around (or over) every brick wall put in your path. You can do it!

Have you ever faced a situation like this? How did you get around it?