I am not sure how many people failed, however I asked a few of my course mates from the same group if they could write a short statement regarding their feedback with this tutor to back me up a little bit. And all of them confirmed he wasn’t helpful.

Haha thanks, I got the joke! Yes, that’s my plan for now. I love architecture and I know I won’t give up. One way or another, but I’ll get there eventually. It’s just a bit disappointing at the moment.

Do you think it’s possible to get a some kind of placement without a degree? I’m planning on working on my portfolio so I can back myself up a bit.

No, I wasn’t offered any further chance to redo this project unfortunately. Clearly it’s been a matter of a miscommunication, like I said I failed only by 2%. But they weren’t willing to help me in any way. And the other universities don’t know the story, they just don’t accept any transfers into a third year.

Thanks for the reply! I learnt my lesson and hopefully it’ll all work out sonner or later.

Yes, I agree. Both sides failed within this situation. I’m not fully blaming it on them. I’m just a bit disappointed from the outcome, I expected the university staff to be much more professional and helpful when asked for it.

Thanks anyway!

Ricky, I think part of the problem here is that communication was done solely through email. We have a problem with that with some staff. Shoot an email with no follow-up phone call. No worries, job's done, my ass is covered. Wrong. emails are too easy to ignore, specially when you're getting 40+ a day and handle dozens of projects.

Rick, based on the spelling and terms in the OP's post, he or she is not in the US. In some other countries a "tutor" is the term for the person who has academic charge of the students - what you'd call a professor or sometimes a section leader in the US - not a TA sort of role that is overseen by another instructor/professor.   I believe he or she is talking about the person who taught the course and is responsible for the grading. 

Right. First of all, I did ask the people from group, which knew as much as I did. Secondly, each brief was said to be graded individually. So, it didn’t matter what to me what other groups were doing as it was a completely different project. I thought I was pretty instant bombarding them with emails. Looks like it wasn’t enough. It’s not as easy as it seems to speak to them in person, as most of the tutor have lectures and also they teach other years. So, it’s not like I can pop in to the office any time and they will be there waiting for me. The mistake I made is that at the end I just gave up after trying to get any information and after being ignored all every single time.

Unfortunately for me, I’m a super proud person, so after all these emails I sent I just left it. The only person I spoke face to face was the tutor, module leader (for a second, before he disappeared) and my personal tutor, who couldn’t advice me much at that moment.

JB yes, I’m based in the UK. Tutor=professor. See, in my university they always talked big about helping students and advising. However, when it came to actually me needing it, they didn’t give a flying fuck. Hence my disappointment.

I've seen it happen numerous times before. Student complains that they have low grades and no feedback and the prof retorts with "why did you not come see me during office hours". Some people just don't react/rely on emails.

In my university they are obligated to get back to the student within 48h, just like it’s stated in the student handbook. If this fails, I have a right to make a complaint.

Shame I had to be a part of it... I appreciate your response!

Also, there’s no such thing at my university as calling a tutor. It’s either through an email or face to face. And physically they were unavailable like I said before, so my only chance was through emails...

I am considerate, you've failed your second year twice, that's all I'm pointing out. That you're so jumpy about that might indicate the underlying reason for your double failure, maybe try working on that. 

Also, do you have any of your classmates confirm in writing their opinion about that one tutor that failed you the second time around? Or was it just trash talk at the bar?

Generally if you fail by only 2% that means you are already on the bottom, dangling there, no? It's like flipping a coin, why did you let it get to that? 

How can your tutors be unavailable when you have classes with them? They have offices to put their briefcases, check those emails you were sending, they have telephones in those offices, hell go knock on some of those doors if your future depends on it. 

It is very easy to write a bunch of whiny emails (or to post a whiny archinect-post), but if it is really that important to you, you would/should have taken a more active approach, sorry. How will this attitude ever get you anywhere in the real world if you ever graduate and stay in this field? 

Stop finding/looking for excuses for the fact you failed your second year twice, own up to it and move forward.

Hey, you’re missing a point there, so I’m not gonna sit there quietly. I understand I didn’t push myself as much as I should’ve, but that’s only because of the advice I was given. At that time we also had other assignments I had to focus on, so if my tutor tells me something’s not important, I’m not gonna waste my time on it. Simple as. I know what I’ve done wrong and I know what he did. So, don’t make me look like someone who didn’t give a crap about doing their coursework and then at the end put all the blame on the tutor.

Shit happens, tutors fuck up too you know... And no, I wasn’t spending my nights at the bar slagging off the tutor, so yes, I do have it on paper...

And this tutor was only a part time staff, so he was at the university just for the tutorials, ONCE a week. Only way of contacting him was through the emails.
Did you even read what I said?

And I’m not looking for excuses. It is what it is. I want to get as much of feedback from other people to see if anyone could relate, hence the reason I posted it
. What’s bad about it?

“Hey, you’re missing a point there, so I’m not gonna sit there quietly. I understand I didn’t push myself as much as I should’ve, but that’s only because of the advice I was given. At that time we also had other assignments I had to focus on, so if my tutor tells me something’s not important, I’m not gonna waste my time on it. Simple as. I know what I’ve done wrong and I know what he did. So, don’t make me look like someone who didn’t give a crap about doing their coursework and then at the end put all the blame on the tutor.” 

You didn’t push yourself because someone told you not too? Way to go, great work ethic and drive! No way your tutor tells you their assignments are not important, as far as tutors are concerned their assignments are always important, maybe skip some assignments of your other tutors but not theirs! I never meant to make you look like you didn’t give a crap, just that you didn’t manage 2nd year, twice. 

 “Shit happens, tutors fuck up too you know... And no, I wasn’t spending my nights at the bar slagging off the tutor, so yes, I do have it on paper...” 

 Well, if people back you up, maybe push a little harder. Don’t just send some emails and call it quits, literally. If you look in the mirror and truly believe they are in the wrong, go for the fucking jugular, you paid for your education so go get your money’s worth! 

 “And this tutor was only a part time staff, so he was at the university just for the tutorials, ONCE a week. Only way of contacting him was through the emails. Did you even read what I said?” 

I did read what you wrote, but people don’t just -poof!- appear out of thin air and disappear again just like that, they need to arrive from somewhere and go somewhere afterwards. They have other, better!, things to do, they really do have telephones, other jobs with contact info, hell even a home if necessary. If you can’t get in touch with someone that is about to fail you and force you to repeat your second year again, go fucking do something about it, no? 

 “And I’m not looking for excuses. It is what it is. I want to get as much of feedback from other people to see if anyone could relate, hence the reason I posted it . What’s bad about it?”

I’m giving you my feedback, seems like you can only handle positive feedback that affirms your own pov. Maybe that’s why you’re in this predicament in the first place (too easy?) And I for sure can relate to failure, I failed a semester once, the tutor makes horrible architecture who couldn’t understand what I was trying to do and I was still working on the side in an office on the completion of a venue, wouldn’t have missed that experience for anything in the world. So I didn’t make enough time and he didn’t get my way of working and I didn’t respect his. So I failed. So there you have it, I can relate if I want to.

I just think you could’ve said what you said before in a different way. Your last comment makes sense and yes I agree with it! I failed once purely because of my own fault, second time- well, as you know I can argue about it. But I appreciate your comment and I know what to do in any situation like this in the future.

Unfortunately, recording the law of my university, I had no right to be chasing my tutor outside of the working hours. And again, they are not using telephones for working purposes. I would get in trouble if I tried to get in touch with him on a ‘
personal’ level.

Ah, now we’re getting somewhere here Rando. This reminds me way back when I was a first year studio TA. I was responsible

For a smalll group and there was always « I didn’t do X studio project because I was up all night doing Y coursework ». Tough break kid, you still need to put in 100% in everything if you want to get above the C and B grade level.

I had A’s in my previous projects ;). Clearly, I couldn’t handle well the situation I was in with this tutor, as nothing like that happened to me before. I just expected a bit more of a professionalism from them, that’s all.

Also guys, I’m saying everything from a UK’s Student point of view, as like I said staff here is mostly super helpful. Looks like you’re more left out on your own in the USA. Which I don’t think is fair! In my opinion, architecture is a super creative subject. You need as much feedback as you can get to keep you going. If you’re stuck in your own mindset, that’s where the problem appears. And that’s what happened to me. I clearly wasn’t able to deal with the situation on my own.

Rando and I are not based in the USA, just so you know. Certainly starts to resemble the "work from home" students I used to teach. They never could catch up to their peers, mostly due to lack of studio/face time with peers and misc faculty. I've know a few people who've had to re-do entire years. One in particular was so shook by it, He previously needed lots of attention and "fill the gaps" type explanations. Failing turned him around and 2 years after, was back in class and with gusto.

Fair enough!

"UK is not that geographically big of area but it can be just as painful and difficult to contact the instructor in person or over the phone when they are not on campus. " 

 Are you suggesting the OP travel his/her country in search of their tutor like some sort of lost treasure chest in an open world RPG game?

This thread has gone in a weird direction... In my teaching career I've never encountered any code of conduct anywhere that explicitly limits where or when students and instructors can meet or talk. Rick your school must have had incidents (maybe with you?) that prompted the adoption of those strange rules. It does sound kind of like you might have been disciplined for stalking someone.  As for the original poster, I agree with others that this is a done deal - there's no advice anyone can give you here that's going to reverse the situation, so cross it off as a learning experience and better luck next time.

Repeated contact when the student knows the professor doesn't want to be contacted is an entirely different thing than banning any contact off campus, which is what your previous post claimed was banned by your school's code of conduct.

Yeah, again, you've jumped from calling or approaching an instructor off campus to clarify an assignment, to deliberate stalking. Not the same thing at all. Trust me, if I as a professor were to make a complaint against a student for phoning me or approaching me when they see me on the street or in a coffee shop or something like that to briefly ask about an assignment or to set up a time to talk, I'd be the one who'd get disciplined, not the student. To rise to the level of stalking it would need to involve repeated incidents of a student deliberately following me or calling a home number or something AND I would have to document that I'd specifically asked them not to contact me that way and that they did it anyway after I'd told them that.

Look it's not that I'm recommending that this person run around all over town after his tutors - you can see above that I told him get over it and move on - but I think you're going off on one of your insane interpretations of rules again. None of the links you've posted remotely backs up what you originally wrote.

So, gaining access to your tutor's home and waiting there on the couch till they come home, so you can "resolve" your issues is illegal? First time I ever heard about that. Maybe I shouldn't have picked Richard Meier as my mentor/guidance councelor...perhaps.

How do you know if it is unwanted when you're not even allowed to? If I want to contact my tutor, it by definition is not unwanted. I have contacted tutors in class, after lectures, in school hallways, at drinks and presentations, in the parking lot, in the queue at the super market, in city hall, at their jobs.

Don’t matter what the laws/regulations are, I would never try to chase a tutor outside of the working hours. It’s called morals. There’s just lines we shouldn’t cross. Especially as a female I would feel highly uncomfortable to approach a tutor on a personal level. They might be shit tutors, but they’re still human beings.

Of course it depends on a person, one of the tutors I had was giving us extra tutorials outside of university during the Christmas break at a café and we had to contact him via his private email. However, it was his intention towards the whole group not just individuals. If he did the same only to me, then I would think it’s highly inappropriate.

Geez, if your tutor doesn't want you to contact them for feedback they shouldn't be tutors.

What do you mean they don't disclose where they live? The school is sending them checks so as a student of that school, paying tuition fee you're entitled to that information. It is public record.

I'm just kidding, sort of. All I meant was if your tutor is hiding from giving you the feedback you are paying them for, put in a little more effort than writing the occasional email.

Thanks for your advice
!

Thank you!

Damn, I was on first name basis with my profs and with daily contact, sometimes even on
weekends.

So were my previous tutors! They were truly amazing, always willing to help either on a educational or personal level. Universities need more people with passion :-)