I have two classes that I will be absent from tomorrow due to a doctors appointment (that I can’t cancel and i have to drive two hours away). One of my professors does not distinguish between unexcused and excused absences, while my other professor does excuse absences with documentation.
Should I email my professors and let them know I will be absent?
Yes, email them, if only as a courtesy. And there should be some provision for unexcused absences, IMO. Sometimes things happen that are beyond the student’s control and he or she should not be penalized because life happens.
Also tell them that you will get the notes from a fellow student. After you read the notes and read the chapter of the book, go to office hours if you have any questions.
Get a doctor’s excuse with the doctor’s address on it so they can see you had to travel a ways to the appointment.
I’m nervous to email them lol. I can be very shy.
It’s better to let them know so they know you care and not just not coming to class.
Just tell them that you have a doctor’s appointment out of town that you can’t reschedule and won’t be able to attend class. Email is easy.
Can I post a sample of my email or is that prohibited?
@AvPsychologyGirl You can, but all you need to say is, “I have a doctors appointment on mm/dd and won’t be able to attend class tomorrow.” If the class has mandatory attendance or participation, you could ask if there is a way to make up for the lost class. It is not really a big deal.
“I just wanted to let you know that I have a doctor’s appointment on [date] and won’t be able to attend class. I’ve already contacted a classmate for the notes, and I’ll continue reading [assignment] so that I’m prepared for next time.”
(This assumes you have already contacted a friend in the class…)
Then when you return to class you can offer the professor your doctor’s note if necessary. Whether they will want it/take it/give you an excused absence depends on the specific course policies … which of course you are familiar with from reading the syllabus.
Good luck at the doctor!
Usually they have a policy about absences, check the syllabus. Sometimes you can give a copy of a doctor’s note to get an excused absence.
While that may be true in terms of how they record attendance, it’s probably not true in terms of how they’ll feel/think about your missing their class. It’s better to have them think you missed it because of a doctor’s appointment not because you just didn’t feel like showing up.
As the others have said, definitely email both of them and get a note in case the prof who does distinguish between excused/unexcused requires it to consider it excused.
And just for the record/other similar scenarios. If the class does not take attendance, I would probably not send an email unless the class was small/discussion based enough that the professor would notice I wasn’t there.
is this fine?.. "Dear Professor x,
I wanted to inform you that I will not be in class tomorrow due to a doctor’s appointment that I have to attend in Boston. I will be sure to review the course notes on blackboard in lieu of the missed class."
It’s fine.
Yes, that’s fine. Don’t worry about this too much - most professors won’t hold one or two absences against you.
Eh. It’s kind of the same thing as a job. Life happens, but if “life happens” too much people start to get suspicious OR it starts to impact your work in negative ways. It’s fine if you have to go to the doctor once in a while in a job but if five grandmothers die in the space of a month people start to look at you oddly.
I’ve had multiple professors who allowed a certain number of absences total (usually 3). If you missed over that amount your grade dropped a letter grade. At that point, you’ve missed a week of class, and your understanding of the material may be impacted.
Thank you everyone for the feedback. I sent out an email to my professors. One of them were helpful while the other one responded with “I don’t need email notes that are only to announce
absences. I’ll assume you have a good reason not to be in class if/when you are absent.”
Wow, that’s a pretty rude response. It could have been stated much more nicely and gotten the same message across. But, whatever…better to be safe than sorry.
My first read was that it was rude, but my 2nd thought was that it was meant to convey the far more positive “I trust my students to take this class seriously and will not assume the worst in you if you are absent. Therefore I don’t expect any explanation or notice of absences.” Maybe it’s just wishful thinking on my part though.
The rude one probably spent more time writing a snarky response than…whatever
Probably did.
I do get email from students for an occasional absence. I usually reply with a quick “Ok. Thanks for letting me know.”
The seemingly rude response is so unnecessary. These faculty are definitely not modeling proper email etiquette for their students… I can see a student trying to do the right thing being so put off by that response, even though the faculty member may not think that it may have come across poorly. Hope that prof wasn’t in the communications dept.!
Not that I’m excusing the email (which I agree was rude), but is it possible that English isn’t the prof’s first language? I can see that being unintentionally rude when s/he was trying to convey what brown said a few posts ago.