<p>What's the deal with missing classes at Wellesley? How hard is it to make stuff up if you had to miss a few classes (travel for Thanksgiving break or something)? On average how many classes can you miss a semester without it affecting you too much?</p>
<p>Missing classes in college is basically your choice – if you don’t want to come to class, you don’t have to. But Wellesley is a small school: professors will notice if you habitually miss class and some/most will call you out on it in some way… email you to check up and see if things are ok, if there are other circumstances they need to know about, etc. Things like illnesses, family emergencies, traveling around breaks (especially Thanksgiving when flights are really expensive) are “excused”. Professors know what is going on and some have their own family events and holiday travels to attend to as well. I have found that all my professors have been really hospitable if I have to miss class for a legitimate reason – you can go into office hours, get notes from a friend or the professor, set up a meeting with your professor to go over material if you need to. Most professors are really flexible in that respect. I would caution to miss out on labs since those are a bit harder to reschedule but if there are pressing issues, most labs can be made up on other days (especially in intro classes when labs are often offered four or five times a week). The number of classes you can miss per semester without affecting you depends on you, the class, the professor, etc. Language classes I would not miss – but “larger” lecture classes, such as intro bio/chem/art history might not be as detrimental if you miss a class or two here and there. Intro sciences sometimes post slides of lectures so you can also use those lecture notes to help you out. Generally though I would say that most students at Wellesley don’t miss class often, and if they do, they have legitimate reasons. I have not been in many classes where people just miss because they just don’t feel like going to class that day.</p>
<p>Thanks so much. My family and I are trying to get travel plans worked out now for Thanksgiving and such, because flights get so expensive. I’d like to be able to fly back for my birthday and couple it with Thanksgiving break, but that would mean missing the three days before the break. I’m trying to figure out whether this is something that would be terrible or whether I could attempt to swing it if I made sure to meet with professors/make up notes, etc.</p>
<p>Generally you should be fine. I remember that especially during first year there were some midterm exams around Thanksgiving break, but professors are really accommodating and will let you take exams earlier if you have them.</p>
<p>And wow, you are really doing these things ahead of time! I don’t even have my flight back to Wellesley for the fall yet… though I’m usually the one booking my flights the week before I have to leave… oops!</p>
<p>A lot of people leave early for Thanksgiving. As one professor put it, he was rather angry at the people who left early until his own daughter went to Pomona and he just wanted her back. A lot of professors will give a “for-fun” lecture.</p>
<p>As far as regular absenteeism, missing class should be avoided, but doable in small doses, for travel, emergency, and illness. I think people cut class more in universities. It surprised me.</p>
<p>It depends on the classes. Language classes will usually be more strict about absences, you will just have to let your profs know in advance, but never have I heard anybody be told that they can’t leave. Usually the larger the class, the more relaxed the prof is about it.</p>
<p>First year writing courses do have an absence policy though – I think you can only miss 3 classes or you won’t get credit… something like that.</p>
<p>I … didn’t go to music theory class 10 times. I ended up only showing up for assessments and I still did extremely well. But then again, I have been studying music for 16 years.</p>