<p>I'm currently applying to several colleges, which has caused me to think extensively about my chances of getting in while I wait months for decision letters. I know that my grades and scores are pretty solid, but my attendance to my high school in the last 3 and a half years has been pretty spotty. I don't mean that I leave for like, weeks at a time, but I have had my fair share of "mental health days" (I don't think I have done a whole week of school yet this year...). So I guess my question is, will poor attendance mean more than my combined grades, test scores, essays, and everything else they look at?
Thank you in advance for any insight anyone might have.</p>
<p>My school sends attendance records. Ask your GC if they send them. If you are missing that much school and colleges can see, it may very well be a problem. I have a goal of missing no more than one day a month. I think 4 absences a semester or less is idea. If there is a big health or family problem, of course that is very different.</p>
<p>My other question is, how have you not gotten in trouble with your school or with the state. At my school (private), 6 absences in a semester and you are put on an attendance contract. This means that for every additional absence you must present a doctor’s note or funeral announcement or something along those lines. Failure to do so will result in expulsion.</p>
<p>I’d say anything less than about 10 days a semester (90 days) is okay. But really, that’s not exactly one of the things colleges scrutinize unless they can make a correlation between your attendance and your grades or rigor of classes that negatively reflects you as a student.</p>
<p>If you’re skipping school a lot it makes you look lazy.</p>
<p>Well I don’t go to private school, and things over in public school (especially mine) are pretty different. My school doesn’t really care how many times you miss school as long as it’s excused (my mom always calls me in sick when I don’t want to go), they’ve got more important things to care about. So far this year, I only have 6 absences (including today), which is a pretty marked improvement over last year (I think I had somewhere around 40 for the year). My grades and course rigor are both impressive no matter how you spin it, so I don’t think attendance should be too big of a problem when you weigh it against everything else. However, adcoms couldn’t care less about how I feel about it, so I figured I would turn to CC. Haha.</p>
<p>40 absences is really concerning to me (of course im not an adcom), 6 absences is not really. Do you know what kind of a letter your guidance counselor will write you? If he or she doesn’t know you well, about the only things he or she can write about are your grades and attendance.</p>
<p>Do you think your teachers will give you good recommendations if you are missing 20% of their classes? I know mine wouldn’t unless their was an extenuating circumstance.</p>
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<p>I sorry to hear that your mother caters to this and that your school lets you get away with it. You say they’ve go more important things to care about. You don’t think attendance is important? If the schools you are applying to find out about your deplorable attendance record and surmise your casual attitude surrounding going to class I think you might be in trouble.</p>
<p>Wow, that’s a lot of absences. Are your grades pretty decent?</p>
<p>raiderade: My guidance counselor doesn’t know me particularly well because we’re only really allowed to meet with them in our junior and senior conferences. Seriously, if you go to the guidance office and ask to meet with your counselor, the secretaries will pretty much tell you to shove off. I think I made a pretty good impression on her in the two times I have met her, though. My grades are excellent and the teachers I chose to write letters for me totally love me (especially my Latin teacher. she told me she wrote like, the best letter ever. haha).</p>
<p>Pea: I go to a public school with 2000 other kids, and many of them don’t bother to show up at all. A girl like me that makes top grades while managing to take a few days off (relative to everyone else) is hardly a concern to administration. They don’t care about anything unless they find out you’re selling drugs in school, haven’t attended in two months, or carry a weapon in your bag. I have a friend who didn’t come to school for a month and a half, came one day, and then left another month and a half and nobody said anything about it.</p>
<p>The reason my mom lets me do it is because she knows I keep up with the work, so it’s not like she’s doing the worst thing here. I teach myself better than my teachers do, so I pretty much handle my own education out of text books. Haha. I really don’t feel like I learn anything when I go to school. Honestly.</p>
<p>I completely understand what you mean and feel the EXACT same way, but I decide to suck it up and go to school because I value getting into college more sadly. I’m not saying your a bad person or anything, but I do think colleges will seriously question your spotty attendance.</p>
<p>I feel that your less-than-stellar attendance might raise a red flag. Normally, attendance would be a trivial matter, but if you haven’t completed a single week of school yet, then that might be an issue. </p>
<p>I can see why your school’s administration might not have a problem with it, on the other hand. Top of the class, good intentions, good grades, etc. Like someone said above, it’s not like you’re skipping school to do drugs, you’re actually doing work. </p>
<p>Attendance reflects a person’s dedication, whether it be in school or in a job. If I were you, I would try and step up your attendance, and suffer through school just like everyone else.</p>
<p>Well I suppose I’ll just have to wait and see, won’t I. I already have an ED application sent out, so maybe that’ll be my first indication of how much it matters 
Thanks for the advice, guys. I’ll probably try to reform my attendance record a little this year, even though it’s senior year and it probably doesn’t matter so much.</p>