<p>My cousin is having a wedding in India around Thanksgiving. I get three days off (Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday) from school that week, so attending would require me to take Monday and Tuesday off. For this reason, my parents are hesitant about letting me come. My question is how tough is it in college to take a day off? I always hated missing a day in high school because I don't like falling behind and having to catch up. For this reason, I've missed only 1 or 2 days during my high school years (excluding senior year). However, in college, unlike in high school, you don't have every single class every single day (obvi)...so I feel like missing a day wouldn't have as much of an impact as it did in high school (I only have two classes on Mondays! =D ). Also, in high school, the days immediately preceding the starts of thanksgiving and Christmas vacations were usually "goof off days" where no work really gets done. Is it like this in college? Finally, my parents contend that this is too close to finals to be taking days off. Do things really start getting intense around this time of the semester? I know this is a lot of hoopla for two days, but my parents are really uptight lolz. Advise, anyone?</p>
<p>it’s generally not too much of a problem to take two days off. A lot of people don’t even go to class in college anyways. You’ll want to email your professors/TAs beforehand, find out the assignments/what you’re going to miss, and maybe meet with them before or after if need be. </p>
<p>There are really no goof off days in college. I find the first day is often jammed with course logistics and half a lecture. The last day is generally a final review. Some days are less important than others, but there is no consistent time when these occur (aka occasionally one class may be somewhat goofy, but your other class that day most likely will not be).</p>
<p>Often the material closest to the final (that hasn’t been tested on a previous midterm) is weighted more on the actual final. But, as you said, you’ll probably be only missing 1 class. Do the reading, make sure you understand things for that day. Hopefully for you, it’s a course where the next lesson builds upon the previous one, so that you’ll be forced to learn the material at some point (and you may just learn it incidentally). If things are more disjointed, you’ll have to be a bit more proactive in catching up.</p>
<p>Darn, I’m going to miss the movies and cupcakes before vacation and after AP exams lolz</p>
<p>^One exception I’ve noted is that, in classes where you have a final paper (rather than exam) that you turn in on the last day of class, the professor generally makes the class pretty chill. Like I’ve had a pizza party, a cupcake party, a thai food party, and an Indian food party for my four classes like that. Granted each time we’ve also had like a wrap-up/summary discussion of the course or presentations of our work, so it’s not a total party. </p>
<p>Some final papers are due during finals week, however, and I’ve never had a party scenario for these classes.</p>
<p>i’ve had food parties and cupcake parties and movie parties before in some of my classes.</p>
<p>Just let the prof know ahead of time and it won’t be a problem.</p>
<p>Well since you have class less often than you do in HS, it follows that few times you meet per week for college courses are important. Like Senior0991 said, there really aren’t any goof off days in college. However, as long as you stay on top of your work, you’ll be good.</p>
<p>Ah, so maybe there will be cupcakes on occasion. Now back to the topic of the wedding…</p>
<p>Really there’s only a handful of days in a semester in most classes that are “essential”. Days before tests (reviews save your azz), days of tests, days where homework has to be turned in, etc. I’ve skipped loads of lectures in classes and have still gotten A’s.</p>
<p>But don’t ask the prof what you missed. Rookie mistake. College syllabuses are actually useful for scheduling unlike HS syllabuses.</p>
<p>^I think you should still email the professor or TA, especially if attendance/participation counts for the grade.</p>
<p>I hate missing a single day, that’s always the day that they end up reviewing or something important gets covered… lol. But, I have horrible luck. My advice would be to make friends with the people sitting near you and see if they’ll email you notes from the day you missed or record it for you. Ask about turning any homework in early that may be due.
I missed my second spanish class because I forgot what day it was… lol… That first test ended up being the test I did best on because I was so worried about what I missed that I studied like crazy that week.
Best thing would be if you have a classmate who types their notes who wouldn’t mind emailing them to you, maybe even offer them a couple bucks for it.</p>
<p>It depends on the class. Many large lecture classes have the professor just going over powerpoints the whole class (If they post them online, then you could miss those easily). You should know by Thanksgiving whether you can afford to miss a class or not. However, in my experience, many classes assign something big right before a break (like a test or paper). Nevertheless, a lot of people leave on break early so you won’t be alone, just talk to your professor if you would be missing a test or something and take it early.</p>
<p>Talk to your professors before you leave, especially if you’re in smaller classes where you’re going to be missed. If there are any tests/quizzes/papers, see if you can reschedule/do it earlier.<br>
Also, there aren’t a whole lot of goof off days. The only ones I got were in my first semester English class. We watched movies, ate malasadas & had a big pot luck (midterm and final days only).</p>
<p>Many students will go home early for Thanksgiving - you wouldn’t be the only one missing those two days. (Heck, I have had professors cancel class the week of thanksgiving because they expected half of the students to be absent!) </p>
<p>As for whether or not to talk to the professor: do talk to them if attendance is mandatory, if it’s a small participation-heavy class or if there’s something due that day. Do not email them if you’re in a lecture with 300 other students. The professor won’t care and he certainly doesn’t want to answer 100 “I’m sorry but I’ll have to miss class this week” emails. In my 4 years in college, I have had several professors explicitly ask us not to email them about short-term absences; but only two explicitly asked us for an email ahead of time (one was a class with 4 students, the other a discussion-based seminar with mandatory attendance).</p>
<p>I would be too nervous that I was missing something important so close to finals since I cannot depend on others(strangers) to take adequate notes for me.
Your parents can always pay more for your flight, closer to the wedding, if you need more time to decide if you can miss class.
School comes first to my parents so I wouldn’t even be asked if I wanted to attend.
Get used to missing family events.
Between research, internships, obligations, you’ll be missing more and more family gatherings.
FYI,professors don’t like to be asked if you can miss class, you are an adult now and have to make these decisions and face the possible consequences of your decision.</p>
<p>Oh yeah, don’t be one of those kids that takes “early vacations”. You know…like leaving 3 days early for Christmas Break. Profs love to give “pop quizzes” on those days where the only question is “what is your name”.</p>
<p>I think it’s actually the opposite in terms of missing a high school vs. college class. College classes tend to move at faster paces, so one college class is going to cover a lot more material than one high school class. Plus, if your school runs on the semester system, you may actually have tests/papers on the days you will need to miss. You will likely find out these dates at the beginning of the semester when you get the syllabus. If you have anything due on the days you won’t be in class, it’s far better to turn it in earlier rather than later (or, if you decide to turn it in late, don’t complain about any late penalties that apply). As for tests, just be prepared for the fact that a professor may not move it for you even if you beg. </p>
<p>Keep in mind while professors are probably used to people wanting to leave early for Thanksgiving, it doesn’t mean that they like it or that they will make things easier for you to do so. (At my school, we don’t get the Wednesday before Thanksgiving off, though some professors cancelled classes of their own accord. But I never had any professors who cancelled class on the Monday or Tuesday before.)</p>
<p>As for missing material for finals, it depends. I would be concerned about the fact that I would be falling behind in all of my classes, as opposed to just one or two. Furthermore, I personally hate relying on other people’s notes. But that’s a personal preference thing. Also, some classes are harder to catch up in than others.</p>
<p>Depends on the class. There was a class I only went to three times and got a B. Just depends.</p>
<p>Sooooooo no emailing if it’s a huge class? what if i came in during office hours with some questions, then at the end i sneak in, “i’m going on a trip, I’m going to miss a couple of days.”
will they be like “oh, read this and that and do that and you’ll be caught up” or will they be like "bah humbug, i have 200 other students. i don’t care. get the notes from a classmate</p>
<p>If you’re going to be gone from class, just be gone. This isn’t high school, you don’t need an excuse. Ask if you’re concerned, I don’t think anyone would be annoyed by you asking. But it’s not a big deal. You can miss class anytime you want.</p>
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<p>Yea, I also had a class where I only showed up for exams (I had another class at the same time), and got a B.</p>