<p>I'm an International student and I want to register for a top university, I think I have a real chance of getting into one of the top universities (Harvard, MIT etc.),
But I'm searching for a university that has no mandatory class attendance, I trust myself that I can choose which classes to go to and which ones not to go to.</p>
<p>Is there such a university in the US?</p>
<p>Yeah, the bookstore.</p>
<p>Go to class.</p>
<p>Most schools have policy in place, which professors can use or not use so it would vary by class. But I don’t get why you would go to a top school and not want to engage with the top professors that give it the quality reputation…may as well do online college except you want to say you went to XXX.</p>
<p>Most colleges don’t take attendance at lectures though do at labs and discussion sections. I’ve had professors that either were bad at explaining things or couldn’t speak English in an intelligible fashion where I opted to either skip lectures and use the time to just read the book or attend a different professor’s lecture of the same class.</p>
<p>Why not do the classes online. Pick a respectable college that has a brick and mortar university and take their classes online. However most employers will not respect an online degree even from an accredited university however, if it has a brick and mortar facility they won’t know the difference unless they go through your transcripts.</p>
<p>However, for science classes you cannot really do many online unless there is no lab associated with them.</p>
<p>Any big research university with over 20,000 students will have classes that contain 500 students. The professor will not be able to take attendance, if he or she is even there (sometimes TAs will teach the class). However, as you get into your upper level classes, you may find that classes become smaller, which allows professors to take attendance in them.</p>
<p>
Actually, today’s technology allows for teachers to take attendance even in large classes, although presumably students can get others to click their clicker devices and still skip out on class. </p>
<p>Op, for the most part it is up to the individual professors to decide whether attendance is required and how much of the grade it is worth.</p>
<p>
Some professors care who shows up, most in large classes don’t. Some classes are okay to skip, but most aren’t, particularly at a “good university.” No one is going to care if you miss a few classes here and there, but if you consistently don’t show up to classes (particularly discussions/labs), you will probably do poorly.</p>
<p>If your high school is very strict about attendance, I could see how that would make you think that college in the US would be the same. It usually is not.</p>
<p>
It’s conceivable, but I’ve never experienced it; sounds like too much trouble. In most large lecture classes, the professors don’t really seem to care if they have 190 students or 230 or however many in the class at any given time.</p>
<p>I’ve actually never been in a class that took attendance at Notre Dame, though in smaller courses (10-15), it’s kind of obvious, and a professor might care. The most I’ve ever noticed, though, is a professor looking up one day and asking, “Is [Greg*] still in this class?”</p>
<p>*I don’t remember his name, understandably, he never showed up.</p>
<p>It’s really up to the student. I know people who skip most of their classes, and their grades aren’t determined by attendance, but by tests and papers, just like the syllabus says. It just so happens that they’re usually not as prepared for the tests and papers as students who miss class less. Professors aren’t there to babysit you, they’re there to teach and see if you learn. If you don’t want to listen to them teach, you’re less likely to learn. If you can do it without them, good for you.</p>
<p>It is highly variable. Generally science, math, and engineering classes any top tier university will not take attendance, for both lectures and section (section is usually just for review of lecture). Sometimes, though, discussion sections for humanities classes will take attendance, since participation is part of your grade.</p>
<p>Occasionally lectures will have mandatory attendance, but there is not difference in attendance policy between any of the top universities, so this is not going to be a factor that differentiates top universities like MIT, Harvard, etc.</p>
<p>I think OP means core, distribution or gen ed requirements. I can’t imagine anyone posting in the science majors forum abut skipping actual classes. Brown and Amherst are two with that freedom of choice. You have to check the details for each. There are still required classes in your major. Google “open curriculum.”</p>
<p>You can see the class sizes, and if it’s really big they probably won’t take attendance.</p>
<p>Princeton is one place you don’t have to go to all your classes.</p>
<p>In general colleges give you a lot of freedom.</p>
<p>Like XRCATD said, freedom is a great benefit that comes along with college. You will get to decide whether you want to attend class if the teacher doesn’t take attendence, which is much more common in lectures rather than classes taking place in actual classrooms.</p>