Calling all college students..

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rookie_j70's avatar

rookie_j70

Senior Member

677 posts
Feb 24, 2010 8:42 AM
Do any of you have instructors/professors that have an attendance policy. I go to a small community college and have a teacher who says if you miss 3 days you lose 10% of your final grade, miss 5 and you automatically fail. Had a friend who had a teacher (I never took her) who if you missed class wanted a doctors note. Other teachers will take points away if you are late or you leave early

I think that if you are paying for school, you should decide if you want to go to class or not. Also, its community college, many students work, and many others have kids.

So do any other college students have teahers with attendance policies? What is your opinion?
Feb 24, 2010 8:42am
B

bLuE_71

Senior Member

226 posts
Feb 24, 2010 8:46 AM
It's their class. If you don't like the policy don't take them. Do you think you can randomly miss in the real world without an excuse?
Feb 24, 2010 8:46am
P

pkebker

Senior Member

760 posts
Feb 24, 2010 8:49 AM
Almost all my professors have had some kind of attendance policy...
Feb 24, 2010 8:49am
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baseballstud24

Senior Member

547 posts
Feb 24, 2010 8:55 AM
Attendance policies suck...but it's part of college. Usually the really big classes won't enforce it, but you'll find most of the smaller classes will.
Feb 24, 2010 8:55am
Q

queencitybuckeye

Senior Member

7,117 posts
Feb 24, 2010 9:48 AM
If I were to teach, the class wouldn't be a rehash of material in the books, so one would miss class at their own peril.
Feb 24, 2010 9:48am
ts1227's avatar

ts1227

Senior Member

12,319 posts
Feb 24, 2010 9:55 AM
I am a grad student who is instructor of record for a couple 2 hour courses, so I get to set my own syllabus (which is then looked over, but I have never even been questioned).

Since my class only meets 2 days a week for an hour at a time on a quarter system, the class only meets 20 times. Anything after 2 unexcused absences, or 10% of the entire quarter is 1/3 of a letter grade off of the final grade. (If you have an A and miss 3 times for no good reason, it's now an A-, 4 times is a B+, etc.)
Feb 24, 2010 9:55am
ohiotiger33's avatar

ohiotiger33

Senior Member

1,500 posts
Feb 24, 2010 10:05 AM
Neither of my political science classes have attendance policies this semester. My public speaking class, and a couple of honors classes do. Usually it is between 3-5 days. A lot of classes I have had don't have policies, but give some extra credit for perfect attendance.
Feb 24, 2010 10:05am
UA5straightin2008's avatar

UA5straightin2008

WOMP WOMP WOMP

3,246 posts
Feb 24, 2010 10:14 AM
none of my classes have an attendance policy, but 3 out of the 4 have a "participation" grade. So, if you dont show up, you cant participate, thus a poor participation grade. kind of a hidden attendance policy, but i rarely skip class unless im really sick
Feb 24, 2010 10:14am
jordo212000's avatar

jordo212000

Senior Member

10,664 posts
Feb 24, 2010 10:20 AM
Yeah I want to say about 80% of my classes (I'm a senior) have had an attendance policy of some kind. It didn't really bother me either because I was paying for the class, and I was paying alot, therefore I wanted to attend and get my money's worth.

But I agree with blue 71, grow up. You are almost out in the real world, you can't just skip work because you are hung over or want to play video games all day.
Feb 24, 2010 10:20am
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Nate

Formerly Known As Keebler

3,949 posts
Feb 24, 2010 10:22 AM
A lot of my classes had sign-in sheets and such for attendance.
Feb 24, 2010 10:22am
F

fan_from_texas

Senior Member

2,693 posts
Feb 24, 2010 10:25 AM
None of mine had attendance policies, but most had some sort of "participation" grade, which was effectively the same thing.
Feb 24, 2010 10:25am
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bamagirl

Senior Member

154 posts
Feb 24, 2010 10:36 AM
I am in an accelerated adult program, and I am only able to miss one class. More than that and it's an automatic fail. They are really hardcore about their attendance policies and being on time.

The classes are usually only 5 or 6 weeks long though, so that explains the need for you to be in class. You cover what normal students cover in a semester in 5 weeks so it is rough.
Feb 24, 2010 10:36am
C

Con_Alma

Senior Member

12,198 posts
Feb 24, 2010 10:43 AM
rookie_j70 wrote: ...

I think that if you are paying for school, you should decide if you want to go to class or not.
...
You do decide if you go to class or not. You also decide what your grade is based on the criteria the professor sets and how well you adhere to it.

You pay the University or College to hire someone who sets that criteria. You don't determine what the criteria is.
Feb 24, 2010 10:43am
FatHobbit's avatar

FatHobbit

Senior Member

8,651 posts
Feb 24, 2010 10:47 AM
I don't remember any of my classes having an attendance policy. I think I had some classes with labs, and obviously you wouldn't get credit if you weren't there.
Feb 24, 2010 10:47am
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cbus4life

Ignorant

2,849 posts
Feb 24, 2010 10:58 AM
As a grad student, i taught two undergraduate courses. I didn't have an attendance policy, but part of their grade was "participation," which was essentially the same thing as an attendance policy.
Feb 24, 2010 10:58am
I

I Wear Pants

Senior Member

16,223 posts
Feb 24, 2010 11:01 AM
A couple of my classes have had attendance policies. The punishment for missing a class should be the lost opportunity for gaining that knowledge or turning in/taking any assignments or quizes. If it was just a straight lecture and I can get an A on the exam for it anyway why would I go?

Most of the time that isn't the case but many of my freshman level courses were like that. I simply read the assigned chapters and if I understood everything in the reading assignment I wouldn't go unless there was something for points (a homework to turn in, quiz, etc). If there is even one point that I don't understand in the reading I'll go to class so I can glean that knowledge.
Feb 24, 2010 11:01am
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cbus4life

Ignorant

2,849 posts
Feb 24, 2010 11:01 AM
rookie_j70 wrote:

I think that if you are paying for school, you should decide if you want to go to class or not. Also, its community college, many students work, and many others have kids.

No offense to you, but i am so sick and tired of hearing this line.

Yes, you pay to go to school, but your tuition also helps hire professors whose right it is to set policies in regards to determining your grade. Attendance policies are one of those.

Yes, some have kids, and some work, and things can be worked out with the prof, generally, in the case of emergencies or unforeseen circumstances.

You're a student, which involves attending class and participating. Hence, nothing wrong with setting attendance policies.
Feb 24, 2010 11:01am
R

raiderbuck

Senior Member

1,623 posts
Feb 24, 2010 11:24 AM
Most of my classes that had attendance polices were usually classes with real homework. Math, English, Economics, etc.,. You didn't want to miss Calc class because the Prof would go over the lesson and assign homework. Same for my English classes.

My lecture classes (history, Poly Sci, Psych) didn't enforce an attendance policy. Kind of hard to do that with 250 students in the class. Plus, most prof's put their notes online or followed a book. Attendance policies suck, but after a while you really don't want to miss class. It just puts you behind.
Feb 24, 2010 11:24am
I

I Wear Pants

Senior Member

16,223 posts
Feb 24, 2010 11:40 AM
cbus4life wrote:
rookie_j70 wrote:

I think that if you are paying for school, you should decide if you want to go to class or not. Also, its community college, many students work, and many others have kids.

No offense to you, but i am so sick and tired of hearing this line.

Yes, you pay to go to school, but your tuition also helps hire professors whose right it is to set policies in regards to determining your grade. Attendance policies are one of those.

Yes, some have kids, and some work, and things can be worked out with the prof, generally, in the case of emergencies or unforeseen circumstances.

You're a student, which involves attending class and participating. Hence, nothing wrong with setting attendance policies.
I agree except in the cases where I've seen people get As on all exams and assignments but because of attendance policies got Cs or worse. In those cases it's clear that attending class wasn't really needed for the student to get a firm grasp of the concepts taught. Of course those situations are pretty rare but they do happen.
Feb 24, 2010 11:40am
darbypitcher22's avatar

darbypitcher22

Senior Member

8,000 posts
Feb 24, 2010 11:42 AM
most of my classes have some sort of attendance/participation grade worked into the final grade. I've really only ever had one course where there was no attendance policy.

On the other hand, I have these professors that randomly say I'm taking attendance 5 days out of the semester but I'm not telling you when in an attemp to get people to come to class. It still doesn't work
Feb 24, 2010 11:42am
I

I Wear Pants

Senior Member

16,223 posts
Feb 24, 2010 11:45 AM
I'd like to see statistics for class attendance in courses with mandatory attendance vs those without such policies. From my experience there isn't really a difference in the amount of students that do and don't come to class either way.
Feb 24, 2010 11:45am
sleeper's avatar

sleeper

Legend

27,879 posts
Feb 24, 2010 12:31 PM
A few of my classes have official attendance policies, but all of them basically force you to go to class, because the material is rather challenging, that if you miss a class you will probably fail.
Feb 24, 2010 12:31pm
SQ_Crazies's avatar

SQ_Crazies

The Godfather

7,977 posts
Feb 24, 2010 12:43 PM
None of my classes have attendance policies but you pretty much lose 10% of your grade if you miss 3 or 4 anyways.
Feb 24, 2010 12:43pm
LJ's avatar

LJ

Senior Member

16,351 posts
Feb 24, 2010 12:45 PM
fan_from_texas wrote: None of mine had attendance policies, but most had some sort of "participation" grade, which was effectively the same thing.
This.

The Prof's who didn't care always had a small quiz at the beginning of the class. The one's who did would bust out a quiz at anytime as well as expect you to respond to something at least once per class period.

I had other classes where I went maybe 10-15 out of 30 and got an A. Those were rare and usually were required liberal arts classes.
Feb 24, 2010 12:45pm
SQ_Crazies's avatar

SQ_Crazies

The Godfather

7,977 posts
Feb 24, 2010 12:46 PM
I Wear Pants wrote: I'd like to see statistics for class attendance in courses with mandatory attendance vs those without such policies. From my experience there isn't really a difference in the amount of students that do and don't come to class either way.
Same here.
Feb 24, 2010 12:46pm