Attendance in University

[FatalT]

So today was the first time I went to my Religion class (I'm a lazy bum and 12:30 on a Tuesday or Thursday is too early to wake up for) and just got home to see a wonderful e-mail from my pregnant professor.

Subject: "Warning RELG 101"

Jameson,

You’ve already missed Relg 201   5 times, including two quizzes.  I have not heard from you regarding these absences.  Be sure that you are aware of the policies and consequences regarding attendance that are listed on the syllabus.

KK

Great. 5 absences. By my count I only had 3. I look at the class syllabus and see this piece of shit:

Note:  8 or more absences (no matter whether excused or not) will result in a final grade of F or U for the whole course, in accord with the university’s attendance policy about missing more than 25% of classes.  If you add the class after classes have begun, any missed classes do count as absences.

What the fucccckkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk?! If I get 3 more absences I fail! I've never seen that rule in my entire time of going to college. I added the class on the deadline of being able to, so the two classes before I enrolled that I missed count against me? BULLSHIT! Screw you, you religious zealot whore! I calmed down a bit and sent her a reply:

Hi Dr. Kiblinger,

I see now that the classes before I enrolled are counted as
absences from the syllabus on webct. I haven't been able to
get a ride to class because my car was damaged in an accident
on the interstate before Christmas. I now have a vehicle to
drive and plan on attending class. If you would like, I could
photocopy my accident report from the officer and e-mail you
pictures of my car. I apologize for taking so long to get in
touch with you about this. I would have e-mailed you sooner
but I wasn't fully aware that the classes at the beginning of
the semester would be counted against me.

-Jameson Tyler Hood

This may sound like complete BS but its all true. The only BS part is that I've had a vehicle to get to class but I was just too lazy to go. She very well could somehow check my attendance in my other classes and see that I've been going, but those classes are on Monday/Wednesday. I can just as easily claim that I've only been able to get transportation on those days and times.

I'm not going to be able to make up the 2 quizzes I missed but I don't really care about those. I just want to get my absences down to 3 where they should be OR to have her excuse them all. If she doesn't do any of this then I'm going to falcon punch her in the fucking stomach and abort her child. The poor thing is going to grow up in a world supported by Christian zealots and Ron Paul supporters anyways. I might as well help it out. Or I'll just drop the class. Whatever.

In any case, how is everyone else doing attendance-wise this semester?

[Mupepe]

punch her in the stomach!

[FlameOfCallandor]

I always thought classes in college that took rool were fucking stupid. If I can pass their class without attending every lecture then they need to thin about how their class is structured. I should want to come to class and if I dont I should be punished by having to study extra hard on my own.

That being said. It's fucking college, grow up and attend the classes. Remember, you are paying for them. Dont take the class if you dont think you will get anything out of it.

[drew]

LOL, you should feel lucky that you have three more chances.  Shit, I've failed classes because I missed 2 classes and was late once. 

[demi]

LOL you are going to fail a class on religion

Maybe you should quit playing trash like Burnout Paradise

[FatalT]

I believe that you were in an accident;  no documents necessary to prove
that.  The issue is that you needed to find an alternate way to get to
school and you needed to be in touch with me.  You've now missed a lot;
I hope that you've been keeping up with reading and getting thorough
notes from a reliable student.

Eh, whatever works.

Yea FoC, I need to grow up and just go to class. Hopefully I haven't shot myself in the foot and I can get back into the groove this semester.

I feel sorry for whatever university you went to Drewsy.

Burnout Paradise is a great game, by the way. Jerk.

[Mr. Gundam]

Attendance was part of my grade in both undergraduate and graduate school. And, you're paying to go to college... GO TO CLASS.

One of my good friends is a doctoral graduate TA at SUNY Albany, she doesn't give credit for attendance, but does get all kinds of crazy excuses from her students near the end of the quarter.

[Phoenix Dark]

 

I try to determine what classes I need to attend, and what classes I can skip. For instance it was obvious from the beginning that missing my economics class would be suicide, so I've only missed one class. On the other hand I've missed 3 history lectures in a row - week and a half. He takes attendance but who cares. I can pass the tests, which is what matters

[rodi]

hahaha Religon 101, I wouldn't go either.

[Himu]

I always thought classes in college that took rool were fucking stupid.

maybe you should have attended more often!

[Smooth Groove]

My undergrad U was an acaedmically prestigious school that expected their students to be mature and indepedent enough to go to school.  Attendance was never taken unless it was for lab classes.  

I personally don't agree with their policy.  Quite a few students drop out every year because they spent too much time messing around instead of going to school.  Most of the grades were determined by cumulative finals that cover 5 months of material.  The guys that ditch class don't know how much they're missing until the end.  And then they're fucked when finals come around.  I feel bad for those dropouts because most of them were bright people that just needed stronger discipline.  They weren't bad people, they were just a bit immature.  If the school had been stricter about making those people go to class, most of them would have made it.  

[rodi]

My undergrad U was an acaedmically prestigious school that expected their students to be mature and indepedent enough to go to school.  Attendance was never taken unless it was for lab classes. 

I personally don't agree with their policy.  Quite a few students drop out every year because they spent too much time messing around instead of going to school.  Most of the grades were determined by cumulative finals that cover 5 months of material.  The guys that ditch class don't know how much they're missing until the end.  And then they're fucked when finals come around.  I feel bad for those dropouts because most of them were bright people that just needed stronger discipline.  They weren't bad people, they were just a bit immature.  If the school had been stricter about making those people go to class, most of them would have made it.   

They should have spent five years in the military lawl!

[Phoenix Dark]

My undergrad U was an acaedmically prestigious school that expected their students to be mature and indepedent enough to go to school.  Attendance was never taken unless it was for lab classes. 

I personally don't agree with their policy.  Quite a few students drop out every year because they spent too much time messing around instead of going to school.  Most of the grades were determined by cumulative finals that cover 5 months of material.  The guys that ditch class don't know how much they're missing until the end.  And then they're fucked when finals come around.  I feel bad for those dropouts because most of them were bright people that just needed stronger discipline.  They weren't bad people, they were just a bit immature.  If the school had been stricter about making those people go to class, most of them would have made it.   

They should have payed attention to the syllabus and gone to the first day of class, screw them. People who skip class should know what they're getting themselves into. I always make sure I'm not skipping important stuff - test reviews for instance.

[Van Cruncheon]

i say this as a person who was notoriously awful about attendance and great at faking his way through exams: GO TO FUCKING CLASS. seriously. the self-discipline will save your ass some day. i really kick myself for not having learned this lesson in the safe environment provided by college.

[CajoleJuice]

My attendance has gotten worse and worse each semester at my current school. I don't pay attention when I go to class anyhow. I just go to  the classes I know I need to go to. I go to a big public college, so yeah, they don't give a shit. I keep telling myself I need to get my ass in gear, but I just can't get myself out of bed in the morning.

I was able to wake up every day for work at an earlier time, though.

[Howard Alan Treesong]

i say this as a person who was notoriously awful about attendance and great at faking his way through exams: GO TO FUCKING CLASS. seriously. the self-discipline will save your ass some day. i really kick myself for not having learned this lesson in the safe environment provided by college.

QFT

When I was a sophomore I was proud of myself for not attending any classes for a 4 week period.

Now I want to travel back in time and punch myself.

[Phoenix Dark]

Missing entire weeks of class (unless it's a laughable elective)=NO NO

[CajoleJuice]

Missing entire weeks of class (unless it's a laughable elective)=NO NO

I did it last semester. :shrug

[Phoenix Dark]

Missing entire weeks of class (unless it's a laughable elective)=NO NO

I did it last semester. :shrug

Going to important classes helps with tests. I've got an econ test in a couple days, haven't studied, but by going to class I'm up to date on everything and won't have problems catching up

[CajoleJuice]

Meh. I can't understand half of the teachers anyway.

[CajoleJuice]

Did I mention my school is a joke?

And that I'm a disaster.

Nobody follow my example, seriously.

[Rman]

Did I mention my school is a joke?

And that I'm a disaster.

Nobody follow my example, seriously.

What school are you going to Cajole?

[CajoleJuice]

 

[Rman]

I love the Veronica Belmont avatar, BTW.

[CajoleJuice]

I aim to please.

[T234]

You a disaster?

I ALMOST CUT MY FUCKING LEG OFF YESTERDAY BACKING OUT OF A FUCKING FOOT AND A HALF DEEP DITCH AND THEN I GOT HOME AND FOUND OUT THAT I LEFT MY FUCKING COPY OF COD4 IN MY FRIENDS XBOX 369 THAT HE TOOK BACK TO FUCKINNG WALMART AND THEY SHIPPEED IT BACK TO MICROSOFT AND NOW I GOTTA GO BUY ME ANOTHER COPY OF THE FUCKING GAME AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

[CajoleJuice]

[Howard Alan Treesong]

I love the Veronica Belmont avatar, BTW.

That's a woman?

[thekavorka]

this policy is such bullshit for these distinguished mentally-challenged classes. the professor is trying to feel like she's important even though she teaches a bullshit class.

i'm a bio major, but i skipped my government class all the time. thank god they didn't have an attendence policy. but i go to all my real classes.

[CajoleJuice]

I love the Veronica Belmont avatar, BTW.

That's a woman?

Don't make me quote my own avatar!

[Rman]

I love the Veronica Belmont avatar, BTW.

That's a woman?

smh.

this is a better pic.

[T234]

I love the Veronica Belmont avatar, BTW.

That's a woman?

BECAUSE WE ALL KNOW PATEL IS AN EXPERT ON THE FEMALE FORM

[y2kev]

I only missed really boring lectures last semester-- introductory political subfield classes, Chinese history survey course. Garbage.

I never skipped any economics or language classes. Too critical.

[Joe Molotov]

I had some classes that had strict attendance policy and had other classes with no attendance policy. 8 classes seems pretty fair actually, I had at least one professor that would fail you for 4 unexcused absences, and the excuses had to preapproved by her in advance. If you had a good excuse but you didn't tell her about it beforehand, too bad it's unexcused.

I also had other professors that if you didn't show up for at least one of the first three class periods of the semester, they'd just mark you off the roster and kick you out of the class.

When I was a Freshman and Sophomore, I went to class all the time, but when I was a Junior and Senior I showed up late and skipped class all the time if I could get away with it.

[Van Cruncheon]

yeah, we'd get kicked out after 5 misses in my libarts classes, and 3 in my engineering ones.

[Smooth Groove]

My undergrad U was an acaedmically prestigious school that expected their students to be mature and indepedent enough to go to school.  Attendance was never taken unless it was for lab classes. 

I personally don't agree with their policy.  Quite a few students drop out every year because they spent too much time messing around instead of going to school.  Most of the grades were determined by cumulative finals that cover 5 months of material.  The guys that ditch class don't know how much they're missing until the end.  And then they're fucked when finals come around.  I feel bad for those dropouts because most of them were bright people that just needed stronger discipline.  They weren't bad people, they were just a bit immature.  If the school had been stricter about making those people go to class, most of them would have made it.   

They should have payed attention to the syllabus and gone to the first day of class, screw them. People who skip class should know what they're getting themselves into. I always make sure I'm not skipping important stuff - test reviews for instance.

I'm not saying that those guys shouldn't be held responsible for their own actions.  I just feel that it's not entirely their fault because many of them probably weren't properly brought up to become responsible adults.  Some kids just aren't ready to be fully indepedent in College because they're used to having teachers and parents tell them what to do.  They probably should have picked a more nurturing school but many parents and students don't realize that picking a school goes beyond looking at the latest national rankings.   I really believe that many of those dropouts could have suceeded if they had just been given more guidance.  

[Oblivion]

I've failed quite a few classes, but none of them were due to the subject material being difficult, but rather because most of my points would be lost due to attendance.

I'm not exactly sure where I stand on the attendance issue. On the one hand, I'm an immensely lazy fucker and people like me need some incentive to actually attend class. But on the other hand, I still feel that when you're in college, you're old enough to be responsible for your actions, and the professor's shouldn't force you with stuff like mandatory attendance.

[bluemax]

I found that GE's were the most anal about attendance. Although my Processor design class only allowed for 2 absences before you failed. The main reason was that the class was so fucking packed with material that one absence was like a chapter of material. Oh and Japanese class had a 0 absence policy because the class was every day of the week and if you missed a day you missed a lot.

Honestly for GE's I don't see too much issue in skipping but I'm an engineer and didn't find most of my GE's particularly interesting. Aside from the wasted money issue.

For major classes I think I often regretted skipping lecture. Towards the end I only skipped when I had too much work to make it to class, although I often coded in class.

[brawndolicious]

I've only missed one lecture and that was because of over-sleeping.  I'm pretty strict about attending because you pay them to teach you.  It's always easier to learn with a teacher in the room.  Also, it's nice if you're in a class where you can interact with the other students.  That's why my night classes were the best since those usually have less just-out-of-high-school brats who are happy their parents won't call mommy and daddy so most likely, the students will be more active in the class and thus, YOU LEARN MORE.  The only exception is in my current art history class where half the class is empty during lecture and 30 people are sitting in the aisles during tests.  Honestly, I am interested in material and the teacher is a good lecturer but I fall asleep so fucking much in that class.

But yeah, skipping class means you're an idiot or you just have a useless major.

How the hell does a teacher let you get 8 absences anyways?  Most of mine drop you at 2-4

[Olivia Wilde Homo]

In my earlier classes, they were strict about attendance.  In one class in particular, you lost a third of your grade for every attendance you missed (A to A- for example).  After the 5th missed class, you failed.  It was pretty funny to see all the teary students come up with their best bullshit story as to why they didn't go to class 2 months ago.

Now, there is no attendance policy.  Then again, if you miss a lecture, you're fucked.  So you might as well attend.