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Skipping lectures in college / university? Thoughts?

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Skipping is fine if you're better served elsewhere, whether for your benefit or someone else's. It does sort of depend on what kind of lecture we're talking about, though.

My first year I skipped one of my intro class lectures to study for a midterm exam that I had at 6pm. The lectures for that class usually included PowerPoint slides so it was no big loss. Not all of my lectures have been like this, but I'm sure many people experience classes where the majority of material is taken right from notes slides that the instructor provides. With these there can be some good excuses to skip. But I don't think it's the same case when the instructor writes on the board, brings in class discussion, and doesn't use PowerPoint.

But honestly, you're paying for the education so it's up to you whether or not you go.

What annoys me is when people go to lectures and just sit on their laptops playing games, checking Facebook/looking at photos, posting on message boards, etc. If you're just going to do stuff that you can do anywhere else, then why even come to the lecture? It's especially bad when the person is sitting somewhere in front of me and I have to deal with flickering images on their screen at the corner of my eye. I'm at the lecture to pay attention to the instructor/professor since I pay good money for my classes.
 
Skip while you have the chance. Once you get a full time job you will yearn for the days when you coukd wake up and say "fuck it" and sleep until noon.
 
Early on in college I had shit attendance and failed out. I honestly though don't think they correlated as it was more of an attitude towards college coming from my easy small town/high school background. Once I skipped my one semester I came back and I would skip depending on the class and the professor.

I would go to the professor after class and discuss a few things with them. If they regurgitated material from the book/slides/whatever that was accessible outside of class I wouldn't attend. This is of course if they didn't take attendance. Also if there were no pop quizzes. If all three of those were met I didn't go, and just studied whenever.

One class I just became drinking buddies with the professor and basically shot-the-shit every day with him. Got crap grades but he said I talked with him more about actual relevant information than the class covered so he didn't have a problem giving me a good grade.

The last two years I had the same professors. Once I got really friendly with them and showed them the work I was doing outside of class and how it related to the class, they just let me count that as my project work and therefore only had to come for tests.

3.76 GPA.

Note: I particularly loved the classes where you could get all the work done early. I would finish classes within the first week and never go to them again.
 
Aesius said:
Skip while you have the chance. Once you get a full time job you will yearn for the days when you coukd wake up and say "fuck it" and sleep until noon.
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This does remind me of the couple of times that I've weighed going to class vs. sleeping in. It only happened in the case of 8am classes though (since I live off campus and would need to get up at 6:15-6:30 in order to have the time to get ready and go). And again, these were PowerPoint-based lectures so it wasn't horrible to miss them.

Sometimes it's okay to weigh one option against the other, but the cases should be exceptional and more important lectures/classes should not be missed.

Last semester I had an 8am-11:35am seminar on Thursdays. Of course I would never miss that one.

My whole life I've been good at attendance. Most times I've skipped or been late have been exceptional. The first time that I was too sick for school wasn't until my college years, where I had flu-like symptoms for a week and could barely get out of bed, couldn't eat, and was miserable. That's basically what it takes for me to miss class on the basis of sickness. Other times that I've skipped have been planned, with the options being weighed. There were a couple of times where I did basically say "fuck it" but in my opinion that sort of attitude is not good to consistently have throughout a college career, even when it comes to boring lectures.
 
Goddamn I've been missing mad classes this semester.

Like...at least 3 a week.

My sleeping schedule is all fucked up.

Grades are looking good though.
 
Sitting in a lecture listening to an uncharismatic academic droning on is a terrible way of learning. I'm lucky if I absorb a third of the information in any given lecture. I miss actual lessons where teachers at least had to TRY and present information in an accessible way :(
 
I've attended probably about 90% of my classes. I always think of some horrible consequence to motivate me to go, even though in reality I could probably get away with skipping 50% of the time and not miss much these days.
 
Petrichor said:
Sitting in a lecture listening to an uncharismatic academic droning on is a terrible way of learning. I'm lucky if I absorb a third of the information in any given lecture. I miss actual lessons where teachers at least had to TRY and present information in an accessible way :(
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My favorite lectures were with a professor who challenged the class rather than just reading notes to it. He would ask HARD questions and if nobody responded, he'd pick people at random and put them on the spot. It was painful sometimes, but it sure as shit kept you engaged if you knew that at any moment he might call on you and ask you to explain why a Hamiltonian wasn't always equal to the total energy of a physical system.
 
I can't justify sitting on a bus for 2 hours just to listing to a prof read directly off their lecture notes, word for word, that they post online anyways. It's such a colossal waste of time. I would probably have perfect attendance if I lived on campus though. I'm only in my second year and I plan on going to most classes my next two years as my grades will actually matter at that point and you have to attend seminars and whatnot.
 
Kapow said:
I can't justify sitting on a bus for 2 hours just to listing to a prof read directly off their lecture notes, word for word, that they post online anyways. It's such a colossal waste of time. I would probably have perfect attendance if I lived on campus though. I'm only in my second year and I plan on going to most classes my next two years as my grades will actually matter at that point and you have to attend seminars and whatnot.
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This is a huge logistic reason as well. Living on campus is a vastly different experience. You figure "fuck it, I'm not doing anything anyway, might as well go to class". It's common in college to have a single hour long lecture with nothing else on either side of it. Nobody wants to commute to that if its only marginally useful.

Archer said:
GPA means nothing in the real world.
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This is true down the road, but as a new grad pursuing an entry level position in your field of expertise, it most certainly makes a good first impression.
 
Bloodbeard said:
Going to class is kind of a big deal as a philosophy major where classes are typically 10 people or less.
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Philosophy lectures definitely fall into the sort that are worth going to. Sometimes they're boring, sometimes interesting. But the ones I've been to don't use PowerPoint and bring in discussion. The concepts are deep. You won't get anything if you don't listen and take notes.

I say this as someone who's filling an ethics cluster for my degree program. These philosphy courses are typically small (10-30 students at most; one of mine I think had 8). The majority of grading is done on papers and exams that basically require lecture-based knowledge of material. And yeah, being in a small class makes your absences very noticeable.

Hell, in my intro to Philosophy course it was important to be at the lectures. Just reading philosophical texts is pretty damn hard as they were very wordy and deep. I definitely wouldn't have understood the likes of Kant and Descartes just by reading their texts. I would've been lost and I would have done terribly on tests and papers.

Lectures that serve to clarify material (as much as teach it) are quite useful.
 
I have fine attendance for all my classes except one, in which I haven't gone to it once. Yeah, that's awful. But I'm starting to go next week and if its too late, I just get a withdrawal and I'll retake it next semester.
 
Risible said:
Holy shit, you're either a troll or a complete fucking idiot. Calling people elitist when they question your insane decision to pay for college and then not attend is cognitive dissonance of the highest order.

Or maybe you missed the class where they taught the meaning of "elitist."
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Or he's neither. I guess you don't attend a research university? You know, where 'professors' are forced to teach in order to do their research?

I've had some truly terrible teachers. I stopped going to class... That makes me an elitist?
 
I feel awful if I skip lectures. I try to have 100% attendance - doesn't mean I listen though. Usually just write the title of the lecture in Word, write a page or two over two hours and browse GAF lol.
 
I never skipped. I never really had a reason too, I wanted to do well in my classes plus many teachers give you a participation grade which hurts you if you don't show up. I don't care if other people do unless they do bad in the class and then complain about it. If you were so worried about getting a better grade you should have shown up to more than 1 class during the semester.

That said, I hate the teachers that do penalize you for not being there. The student is paying for the school themselves. If they don't want to go to a single class and just come for the test they should be able to and not have some nonsense participation grade hurt them for it. It's not middle school.
 
Aesius said:
Skip while you have the chance. Once you get a full time job you will yearn for the days when you coukd wake up and say "fuck it" and sleep until noon.
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Amen! This right here is very true. You definitely won't feel it till it happens. I'm currently at work in my cubicle typing this.

Honestly, skip away while you have the chance in college / university as this guys says because once the work life starts, you can't simpyl say "fuck it" and sleep in as there will be consequences. Big time. :)

But again, I don't condone skipping. Only skip if you know what you are doing. But yeah, skipping is fun when you are either out with your friends or doing something fun. It's just part of the experience.

I got a pretty awesome job right now! :) Not even going to lie, probably going to get a better one down the line because of experience. Hopefully!
 
Only missed one day in 4 years.

My lecturer was clever gave complete presentations to everyone who attended.

People who missed the lectures had to rely on the digital versions on the online portal. . .and on those copies he had removed any info of value.
 
Man, for some people in this topic, moderation is key. Just because you miss 1-3 lectures (unless its a once a week class, which in that case, you probably shouldn't for obvious reasons) doesn't mean you're automatically going to fail the class (provided that there are not draconian attendance policies in place).

On the other hand, skipping an entire month's worth of class is just dangerous behavior.
 
Art School undergrad (never ever skipped class - you were screwed if you did because you couldn't make up the exercises)

Biology undergrad (never skipped class because I loved my classes)

Medical school (learning which classes you needed to skip so that your time was better devoted to studying was a pivotal skill to develop)

Biology graduate school (never skipped class because I loved my classes - it also looks really bad because it's such an intimate setting)

Law school (mostly not allowed to skip class because they take rigidly take attendance. I usually start skipping more towards the end of the semester so I can focus properly on studying)
 
genjiZERO said:
Art School undergrad (never ever skipped class - you were screwed if you did because you couldn't make up the exercises)

Biology undergrad (never skipped class because I loved my classes)

Medical school (learning which classes you needed to skip so that your time was better devoted to studying was a pivotal skill to develop)

Biology graduate school (never skipped class because I loved my classes - it also looks really bad because it's such an intimate setting)

Law school (mostly not allowed to skip class because they take rigidly take attendance. I usually start skipping more towards the end of the semester so I can focus properly on studying)
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... You've done all of the above?
 
MechaX said:
Man, for some people in this topic, moderation is key. Just because you miss 1-3 lectures (unless its a once a week class, which in that case, you probably shouldn't for obvious reasons) doesn't mean you're automatically going to fail the class (provided that there are not draconian attendance policies in place).

On the other hand, skipping an entire month's worth of class is just dangerous behavior.
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I only had maybe 3 classes over four years which didn't promote pointless attendance policies.
 
depends on the class. if the professor just regurgitates what we already have to read in the book, then I only go on test days and use the time gained from skipping to read and takes notes on the textbook. Otherwise, I probably go about 80% of the time, though, I could easily get by going even less often.
 
Any lecture I had at 8am I skipped a ton. I skipped more in my first two years of college and not so much in my last 2. My major was Nursing so I couldnt really miss out on any information. I did pretty well overall though.
 
You shouldn't skip unless you 1) have something important to attend to, or 2) can use that time more effectively. I don't know many people who skip classes and spend the same amount of time and effort learning the material they missed, though.
 
Only when I was sick.

Sometimes when I was just not feeling that well and I'd decide to take a mulligan on that day.

I'd say I was in each of my classes at least 80-90% of the time. 3.96 GPA.
 
I skipped a lot my first semester and would have failed if it were not for the kindness of my music professor. I think I had missed almost two months in a row. For some reason I decided to have a meeting with him to explain what happened, which is really out of character for me. I didn't expect him to pass me but he was almost in the role of a psychologist for me at that point. Anyways, it turned out that he was very understanding, and he was friends with all of my other professors. He personally escorted me around campus to all of their offices, and we had meetings with each of them, and they all agreed to allow me to make up a bunch of the work. I ended up getting B's in everything.
The next semester I did the same thing and got 2 W's and 2 F's.
Then I was out of school for about 4 years. Now that I'm back, I don't see school as a chore anymore, but an opportunity, so I take it seriously. And maybe it's because I don't have any friends, but going to class is something I look forward to just because I get out of the house.

Lately though, this semester, I've always missed 2 days due to, eh, psychological factors, and I feel terrible about it.

And yeah OP I do hate when you go to class and there are no assignments, and the professor is just monotone reading from a PowerPoint. But on the other hand it's usually only 50 minutes or so, wont' kill you.
 
I wish all my classes were the way monocle described but sadly that is not the case. Some classes I would only show up for the exams because they were boring as fuck and I'd rather read the book/powerpoint slides instead of surfing the web or dozing of in class. One thing I hate though is the fact that some teachers give points for attendance to encourage showing up, these tend to be boring as hell too but instead of trying to become better teachers they force you to come to class.
 
I miss maybe on or two lectures a semester per class....so I go to most, have to if your engineering and dont plan on failing
 
overall i think i went to about 70-75% of my classes.

i skipped more classes my first two years when i was taking a lot of units, and sometimes i didnt feel like being stuck on campus or something for a whole day. never got above a 2.8 in 6 quarters of school.

i skipped less when i got to my upper division coursework. i had less class, and an easier schedule that i could fit naps in or be done in like 2-3 hours tops on a given day. consistently at 3.2 or above my last 6 quarters and made dean's list.

but, sometimes, you just gotta fucking nap.
 
vcassano1 said:
It is so expensive, you'd be a fool to miss it unless you physically cannot attend.
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People who skip class can just say "You're paying for the degree, not the class time."

It depends on the class too. I have a class this semester that I've attended twice (this was the fourth week of school). Through a scheduling mistake I accidentally took Econ 141 (Econometrics) a few semesters ago. It's prerequisite, 140 (Statistics for Econ Majors) is required to graduate. The whole class is review for me, so attending lecture is a waste of time.

I had several general ed classes that were extremely easy to pass just by doing the reading. Personally if I can get an A either way, I'd rather have the extra free time than sit through unhelpful lectures just because I paid for them.

Forcing attendance is a huge pet peeve of mine. In the worst case I took a Psychology class at my JC that I rarely attended because I had just finished AP Psychology in high school and was reading a lot of psychology for fun at the time. I ended up getting a D because a third of the questions on exams would be bullshit like "What was the name of the main character in the movie we watched on teen depression?" Grades should show how well you know the material taught in the class, regardless of how you learned it.

It can be a slippery slope though, and especially once I got past GE and into upper division classes for my major my attendance has been better.
 
Do most people not have absence limits on their classes? Most of my classes allow five, but some only allow three or either dock your "attendance score" if you miss more then two (this one being my 8 AM class *sigh*).

On topic, I don't usually skip my lectures, but a lot of times I will just surf GAF if A. I already have a grasp of what is being talked about, or B. the slides are offered on CougarView. Sometimes I'll just surf anyway, bad habit though. :/
 
I haven't skipped a class in over three years, and as a result I haven't had anything lower than an A- in three years. Even if the professor sometimes reads off straight from a powerpoint, I'm still paying thousands of dollars for the right to attend school, and often times there's knowledge in class that you can't get just from reading the book or a basic outline in a powerpoint.
 
Help Me! said:
As a professor, I could care less if you miss or not. Just don't email me about what you missed.
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1728533-i_could_care_less_super.jpg
 
I only occasionally skip joke classes or classes with a podcast/videocast. I'm lucky that there are multiple lectures of my classes throughout the day, so I usually skip the early morning one I'm signed up for and just sneak into the afternoon class. Lower curve, same material :D.
 
I hate teachers that 'care.' Come to class, you cant sleep, you cant work on homework from other classes. Seriously, if you wanna waste $500 then thats your money to waste. Teacher should mind his own business.
 
Studying first year, in the beginning I barely skipped lectures, but now I'm nearly never attending them. I attend if they seem interesting, or necessary for the course/labs.
 
Depended on the class (and whether attendance was required of course), but I skipped the vast majority of my math classes (Calc/Discrete math) and showed up only for tests.

I also skipped most of my chem/bio classes, mostly due to absolutely awful teachers that just read the slides from the book VERBATIM...I can do that too...for free at home.

The only classes I absolutely NEVER missed were my upper-division compsci stuff. It wasn't particularly hard, I just wanted to get goody-goody with the teacher (for internship/references purposes).


It honestly all depends on how you learn. Personally, I get bored within seconds if the prof is reading straight from a slide. Other people can handle it just fine.


I will say, I never skipped any classes my first year. Seriously, first year is when you will meet a TON of your close friends/comrades in class. Do NOT miss out on that shit. Seriously. DO. NOT. FUCKING. MISS. IT.
 
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