What should I do about this class?
This will be a long post but I'm very stressed and really need advice. I switched into a class during my school's add-drop period with the professor's approval. I joined a few weeks late, but that was within the allowed period and required his permission, which he approved via our online system. This class has been extremely disorganized. There is no syllabus, almost nothing posted online, and all our assignments are given verbally and vaguely, and the professor sometimes forgets what he assigned last time and has to ask students to remind him. The professor also almost never replies to my emails, which means that so far, I have had to go talk to him before/after classes to ask how to catch up on past assignments, as there is no info about this anywhere else.
After approving me for this class, I was surprised that he told me I should take the class a different semester because I was "too far behind" even though add-drop was already over and I couldn't change my schedule (which it became clear he somehow didn't understand). He even told the department head that I was a new student trying to join late, even though I had officially been enrolled for a week. When that confusion had been sorted out, I repeatedly asked him how to catch up and what the past assignments were. He said he would help me but never followed through on that, and he always gave me a sort of dismissive vibe and seemed like he had no concrete plan for me. He then told me to ask other students to help me catch up instead, and luckily I was able to get help from a few other people to learn what my missed assignments are. I finished every single missed assignment and emailed them to the professor a few weeks ago, to which he never replied, but I told him in person at our next class and he thanked me. At this point, I began to relax and thought I was all caught up and things were going smoothly.
I've attended every class since joining but missed class the other day for the first time due to being sick and offered to send him a doctor's note if needed. He replied asking me to send the note and then, to my surprise, said he's "worried" about how much I've gotten from this class. I'm really confused what he meant by that as I've checked in with him multiple times, done all of the work I thought I was supposed to, got help from other students like he told me to, and thought I was following along fine since then. I replied to his email politely telling him all this in writing and to please let me know if there's anything I'm still missing so I can do it immediately. He hasn't replied, and considering how disorganized and bad he is with emails, I don't expect him to before our next class. I plan to go talk to him in person again, but now I'm extremely worried about my final grade as we have had no feedback or grading so far, and his last email really shocked me. I've documented everything and have been considering escalating this further or speaking to the department head about it, but since I'm still in this class under this professor for another month, I want to avoid burning any bridges. I also don't have any "evidence" to justify my worries due to not having any grades. But I'm scared as I have no idea what my final grade will be and considering the shock and inconsistency of his last email, I'm even starting to worry he might fail me for whatever reason, as I feel like he doesn't like me. What should I do?
Posted Apr 8, 2026, 2:44 AM UTC