Hi! I am a sophomore in high school. I’d really like to go to an Ivy League school. I’m taking the hardest classes offered, doing STEM extracurriculars, and might do the Harvard SSP this summer. However, I have horrible attendance. I have missed 4 days of school in the last 3 months and have 5 tardies. I was wondering if attendance is a big factor in college admissions. Will my lack of punctuality stop me from getting in?
Not only is it not a big factor, it’s not a factor at all. Whether it impacts your teacher recs is a different question.
Are those excused absences and tardiness? Or were you just lazy and didn’t want to go to class. Many students, especially athletes miss many days of school each year. However, they are able to make up for the missed days by keeping up with the material. So just missing school days isn’t going to be a significant problem in college admissions. The main question is why are you missing those classes. Again, if laziness and procrastination is the real reason, and if it is affecting your school work and grades, then you will be in trouble. It doesn’t matter that you are taking the hardest classes offered, you will have to demonstrate interest by attending those classes.
My concern wouldn’t be whether it would affect you getting in it’s what you would do when you got to HYP etc. Not showing up is a bad habit and will probably not bode well for you in college. You will not be competing with HS classmates, you’d be competing for grades with the brightest, hardest working students in the country. How would you stack up not showing up for class?