So I’m a very hardworking student in all STEM-related subjects, but don’t really engage in sports. One day I had to do something immediately and failed to inform my P.E. teacher. She marked me absent, and assume that the absence would remain on my record, how much would it affect my college app (never had a single tardy nor absence before, planning to apply to MIT and other schools that do see attendance)?
Colleges do not care about attendance unless it adversely affects your grades. PE is not a core/academic course so PE grades will no be considered in the admissions process.
Hi! Thank you for your immediate reply! My primary concern isn’t really about P.E. grade, rather the fact that I have an unexcused the absence on my record. However my grades are awesome so it did not affect my grade.
To me it seems unlikely that university admissions officers will even know about this one absence. If they do know, then I can’t imagine that they will care.
Some school consider all grades in the gpa, so if this makes your PE grade fall, it will matter. How much? Not much.
I my days in school, if you had an excused absence from PE, you made up the hour. If unexcused, you made up 3 hours. NO ONE could graduate with out making up those absences. In May, the gym was packed with students making up the absences. Even if you had a doctor’s note, you made up the missed classes. If you had a broken arm you could still go to PE classes and do something else.
Why so strict? Because everyone, like OP, had something better to do than go to PE. The PE teachers took it personally.
Thank you so much ;-; I’m actually crying at your response (I’m the typical VERY VERY obedient student :P) Yeah I do have a pretty good relationship with my P.E. teacher so I should just go talk to her and make up the hours? Thank you.
By the way no I am not failing P.E. for one absence.
It’s possible that absence information, excused or unexcused, is not even SENT as a part of your high school transcript. In our high school, it’s not. Either way, one unexcused absence will not have an affect on your college apps! You sound like a very diligent student, and talking to the PE teacher isn’t a bad idea just in terms of being a responsible student, but don’t worry about that absence! And I suspect that your high school record and grades are going to speak for themselves in your college applications.
It is probable that it is not sent.
You are not the first person who ever ditched a PE class, and will not be the last. Colleges do not care if you cut classes - that’s between you and the HS. Even if you are disciplined for cutting the class, colleges will likely not care. What they will care about is if it drastically impacts your grade. No AO will disregard a D in PE and say, “Well, it’s only PE.”
So no, you have nothing to worry about.
Thank you for all who have posted on this thread, it’s settle now and I’m getting an unexcused absence in P.E… Would schools like MIT that actually do look at applicants’ records look at this unexcused absence and have a worse opinion about me (especially when it’s in P.E. and they might be able to interpret a lot)? Thanks.
No, like @skieurope said, colleges could care less about one unexcused absence. It literally has no bearing whatsoever on your application. If you skipped half the year and had a decline in grades, then yeah, it’d matter. That’s not the case, though. It’s one day, no big deal.
What about my college counselor who also happened to be informed about this absence in P.E.? Will this have some apparent effects on how he’s gonna write my recommendation 3 years later?
What kind of school are you at that every unexcused absence is reported?? Some schools don’t even report all suspensions.
It’s not my school that report the absence, it’s that elite schools such as MIT require student records too.
Long answer: S19 is headed to an Ivy in the fall. He had several unexcused absences fall of his junior year. 5-6 if I remember right, and in core classes. My fault actually, my wife and I had a miscommunication about who was calling him in, and ultimately no one did. It kept him off of NHS last year, which she is still mad at me about. When I realized what happened, it was too late and the school wouldn’t let me correct it even though they knew where he was those days and would have excused it without issue if I had made the call within 48 hours.
Short answer: In the extremely unlikely case they found out, they wouldn’t care anyway.
You think adcom has time to go through every PE absence ? Um, ok.
And schools do have discretion over what they release afaik and judging by other threads here too.
Bottom line, if you get rejected from MIT, it won’t be because you skipped a PE class.
Thank you for all of you who have replied 
Now the only question remaining is how will it affect my college recommendation from the college counselor, etc…
If you are so worried about it, get it removed from your record. Ask you teacher how to do that.
In summary - no, a single unexcused absence in any subject (or even more), in and of itself, will not have any effect whatsoever on your acceptance. You should stop wasting emotional energy on this.
Get thee back to school work, extracurricular activity, and hanging with your friends, and think on this absence no more.
You’re not going to submit a rec from your PE teacher, and I highly highly doubt that your GC will mention it, but you can certainly ask. But stand far enough away so you’re not deafened when s/he bursts out laughing.
FWIW, most transcripts do not list absences/latenesses. The ones that do generally only list full-day absences (which, again, is not going to be a concern to AOs in 99.9999% of cases). A single ditched class usually counts as a minor disciplinary infraction, and is unlikely to appear on a transcript.
So, to be clear, a college like MIT does not care about minor discipline issues like skipping class, using a cell phone, leaving campus during the school day. They will care about major infractions like drug-dealing, bullying, plagiarism, etc.