<p>What does the experience seem to be for you all?</p>
<p>From mine - it seems that math/science professors are more tolerant towards students who skip lectures regularly - after all - it's well known in math/science that you learn by doing problems, not by listening to the instructor. On the other hand though - a lot of them are rather poor instructors - and it's possible that some of them could become unusually defensive if students do not value their teaching.</p>
<p>That being said though - perhaps it is the case that professors who spend little effort on preparing lectures are more tolerant towards students who skip than professors who spend a lot of effort on such lectures.</p>
<p>On the other hand, Humanities and Social Science professors are not particularly tolerant towards students who skip lectures.</p>
<p>depends on many factors. my biochemistry class I never went to except the first day and the day of exams since it was at 8am. This was only possibly because she posted the lecture notes online plus the class hadabout 200 people...same for o-chem. My brit lit class had no attendance policy, but almost all attended regularly since his exams were based off his lectures. I've only had one class that required attendance (freshman composition) or else your grade was lowered.</p>
<p>My general consensus on it is that the professors REALLY don't care if you show up, but just don't expect them to give a crap about your grade if you never came to class either. Especially in large classes, unless there's some kind of roll-taking, professors generally continue on with whatever they had planned even if few people show up (they just might give a pop quiz for extra credit consisting of "Write you name and your favorite color on a sheet of paper and hand it in for 10 extra points on your next exam"). Several of my smaller classes have had stringent attendance policies, but often my large lecture classes did not. The few big classes that did had something along the lines of a sign-in sheet on the wall, or GTA's checking a seating chart.</p>
<p>professors care, but not to the extent where you cant get an A if you dont show up(though its certainly more difficult). Professors often give out exam problems or the like in class, or solve upcoming online homeworks or things of that nature. Not going will certainly hurt you, but you can still get an A.</p>
<p>I go to a smaller public U, and professors rarely give you a hard time if you don't come, but some make attendance worth a small portion of your grade, like 5% or 10%. And with those professors who don't have a percentage of the grade that is attendance/participation, they often make a mental note of those who frequently miss class. It sometimes makes the difference between an 89 and 90 at the end of the semester. Go to class.</p>
<p>In small classes, professors tend to get slightly ticked off when attendance is poor - because it's noticeable & they know your names. They might act like they don't care, but really they find it annoying.</p>
<p>I've been doing research in my department (chem) since 2003.. I'm on a first name basis with the majority of the professors. I've heard them complain about certain students who don't come to class & do badly on tests. It's kinda funny to hear it from their side, because in class they act like they don't care or notice. Actually, I know for a fact that one guy didn't get into grad school here (he did his undergrad here) because he'd always make a scene coming late to class or just skip entirely. When the profs saw his grad school app.. they rejected him immediately because they didn't want to put up with him anymore.</p>
<p>Professors care, but professors in large lecture courses can't tell who is there and who is not. </p>
<p>In smaller classes (<25), attendance is usually critical since those tend to rely on discussion. If students aren't there (or haven't done their work), the professor can get really ticked, even if s/he doesn't show it outwardly.</p>
<p>As a parent paying tuition, I guess my question is why you would skip class on a regular basis when you take into account what each hour of class time is worth?</p>
<p>To be smarmy, boysx3, because that would be the parent paying the tuition, not the student in question. :p</p>
<p>To be honest, there aren't many professors in classes over 30 that notice when a particular student is missing, unless it's a regular contributor in an otherwise quiet class. They DO tend to notice when there are gaps, groups of people that don't show, and I can bet anyone can imagine how that might feel to a newer professor who takes their teaching job personally.</p>
<p>The older ones seem to know that college students just don't go to large lectures and accept that up to 1/3 or more of the class is not going to show on any given day.</p>
<p>Small classes usually have some attendance/participation grade factored in -- a small percentage, like 10-15, but enough to take an A to a B simply for non-attendance.</p>
<p>Larger classes usually do not, and as such the professor makes few nods toward attendance. You go if you want the material, you don't if you don't. It's up to YOU, the student, to determine whether it's worth your time -- you're paying for it, after all. Some base their exams around their lecture material (particularly in the humanities), but others are straight from the text book and lecture becomes gravy to understanding the material (typically in the sciences, social and otherwise).</p>
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Small classes usually have some attendance/participation grade factored in -- a small percentage, like 10-15, but enough to take an A to a B simply for non-attendance.
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<p>Isn't it often the difference between a 3.4 an a 3.5 though? Frankly, I'd prefer to be studying out of the textbook or doing additional problems instead of losing that time to lecture.</p>
<p>Whatever works for you is what works for you and you might decide it's worth it to take the grade hit in favor of a method you prefer.</p>
<p>However, the professor is still going to give you the grade hit.</p>
<p>So it's more of a class-by-class determination. There's no one catch-all method for determining which professors care about attendance and which don't, and there's no way to find out whether you do better going to class than not unless you miss a few. So it's really up to you to decide: 1) whether it's worth it to go to class; 2) where and how you'll learn better. IN GENERAL, you can afford to skip huge lectures (particularly in introductory subjects), but really should think twice about skipping smaller classes.</p>
<p>Sometimes big lecture classes have professors who encourage attendance and so throw in little tidbits in class, such as using homework problems on the exam. Sometimes small seminar classes don't care whether you're there or not and test from the text exclusively. Only way to know for sure is to go.</p>
<p>It has a lot to do with subject matter, though. There is only so much of basic math and science that can be conveyed via lecture. If you're a whiz at that stuff, getting up at 8am to sit for an hour listening to a professor with a barely intelligible accent go over material exactly as it appears in the book is going to be an extreme waste of time and sleep. On the flip side, the main point of humanities classes is to interact with the material, so even in the very lower levels you're going to be expected to do some participating in order to get the benefit of the course.</p>
<p>As you go up, it seems to become inverse: you're required to participate a lot more in upper division science and math (as it becomes more abstract), and are required to pay more attention to papers and your own thoughts than prevailing theory in your upper division English (as it becomes more a matter of applying methods you've learned to new material). How the professors deal with student attendance is completely up to the professors. Sometimes they'll go with the flow of understanding how the material relates to an undergrad's progress in their studies (for example, for a senior-level seminar, professors aren't likely to penalize you for not attending; your inability to keep up with the class will take care of itself), sometimes they'll continue to punish you like you're in kindergarten and only punitive action will show you the error of your ways (docking points for independent thought unsubstantiated by class discussions -- don't laugh, it happens).</p>
<p>It really depends on the type of class and the professor. </p>
<p>A lot of the professors that I had this past year had attendance policies. They gave you a set amount of days you could miss, I believe it was 3 lectures for most of them, and then after that they would deduct points from your final grade. This even happened in my huge 200+ people science course.</p>
Red flag #1. I overslept the second Fluid dynamics test in Unified. By 45 minutes. With only 15 minutes left in the test, I staggered into 33-225, my heart still racing from the shock. Professor Drela gave me the full hour to take it.
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I overslept the second exam in 8.033 (Relativity) by 45 minutes. Again, the professor gave me the full allotted time. "I was in college once, too," he said. Now I don't want to give the wrong impression. Compassion isn't a prerequisite to becoming a professor at this school. It'd be a big mistake to confuse luck with law, and assume that I deserved anything but an F on both those two tests. But all that aside it was the jolt I needed I think, and in a way it wrenched me from the nightmare in which I'd been a living character and I took a look around. This was the second time I'd overslept something very important. Something I set 2 alarms for. Also, the exam was at 2pm.