Is it still a rip-off when it's not intentional?

When I took a class in the fall semester, my work was adequate and I felt my grades were good. I expected to get a C in the class, but hoped for better. When I checked the grades online, I was devastated to learn that I made a D in the class, meaning I would have to retake it.


I immediately emailed my professor to ask what happened to cause such a poor grade and to find out what I had done wrong. I didn’t get an email back until the week before the spring semester started.


The entire Christmas break was depressing. While it shouldn’t have been my focus, as that is the time I should be centering my attention on the celebration of Jesus’ birth, I was consumed with sadness. I couldn’t decide if I should change my classes to try to retake the class and drop the one that follows it. I kept my schedule the same and waited until I could talk to her.


She replied to my email and said she could talk to me about it when the semester started. That wasn’t good enough for me, because on the slim chance that there was an error, I didn’t want to be enrolled in a class I didn’t need and miss out on a class I did need.


I replied to this email immediately and asked her if I could talk to her in person and she gave me her office hours. I went to see her and she was very kind about it in person and gave me a list of grades I made in that class. While doing so, she saw an error of 100 points that weren’t carried over in another column, and I was hoping this saved me, but it was a few points off. She let me keep the grade sheet and told me to check it over just in case.


As soon as I got home I looked at it and it still wasn’t adding up to me. I rechecked the grades several times, several ways, adding and dividing any way I thought I could to see if my numbers matched hers, but they didn’t. I asked a few other people to look it over and it was wrong. I saw her immediately the next day and she agreed with what I found. Because of that, several other students’ grades were changed.


If she had not been willing to show me the grades, my next step was going to be talking to the dean of the School of Journalism to see what I could find out. If that didn’t work, my plan was to go to the dean of Student Affairs. I was just glad I could get it changed.

While my rip-off example wasn't intentional or monetary, I, and others, almost didn't get what we deserved.