Not only were graduation rates better in the past, but college was cheaper. I suspect the difficulty of paying contributes to retention problems, but the situation is complex.
Being engaged in the process of obtaining a college education is critical for success. There are always going to be outliers who can slide by without apparent consequences. Going to class and doing the reading, studying, problem sets, lab reports, papers, etc, and taking the exams is all part of being engaged in the process.
A college education is still a tremendous privilege in our country, why squander it?
Parental memories are as good a dip stick as anything else you can come up with. Life and people don’t change that fast. Digital age or not.
My experiences varied from “it was 8 am and sleep was more important” to “the professor in a 300 person lecture hall actually took attendance (assigned seats)”. Very dependent on the class and circumstances.
Read the syllabus for each class. Read the college policies for class attendance.
And this poster has posted elsewhere that grades ARE already suffering.
So what are the consequences? The student could get a D or F in the course…or courses.
Do enough of that…and you will be put on probation. Continue doing poorly and you will be asked to leave.
OH and if your student is getting need based aid and doesn’t meet satisfactory academic progress (SAP), they will NOT be eligible to receive that need based aid until they raise their grades and satisfy their college SAP requirement.
This could also have a secondary issue if requiring more than four years…and thus more than four years of costs…to complete the bachelors.
Oh…and lastly…if you flunk out twice at most colleges…you are asked to permanently leave.
It’s a terrible idea. You never know what you’re going to miss. Professors DO have a good idea who attends class, with exception of large lectures. Any class in which there is discussion, or where students play a role (for example if there is small group or team work. or debate sessions), or where there is video/film shown for discussion, is important for students to attend.
Now I know a few really brilliant students who “get it,” and are top-notch at reading, thinking, writing. Maybe the top 5% of the enrolled students. But being in class isn’t just to get or receive. It’s to provide feedback to the professor, and to be caught up on material so that students can help to teach one another outside of class.
When I was a student in my small LAC I never missed a class. Cutting class would mean that I’d miss so much of what that college had to offer. In addition, many of the classes were small, and my absence would be noticed not just because I was expected to attend but because I wasn’t directly contributing to class discussions, asking questions, and so on.
In sum, if you want to getting a good grade in my course, show up, get engaged, and turn your work in on time. But above all, don’t think of class as a time when you’re just a recording machine. It’s time to think and interact to the extent possible.
I totally agree @mackinaw. Given the cost of college these days and what it takes to get there, I could never imagine myself telling my daughter (or any other college student), that attending classes doesn’t matter. I really don’t care how large the class is or how droll the professor is. Developing habits of showing up and meeting commitments is vitally imporant for achieving success in life, not just in college but in every facet of life.
There are legitimate reasons for missing a class or two, but those should be exceptions. Skipping for the heck of it, not okay in my book.
See post #17. I teach college, and freshman always have attendance taken per university policy. How much that actually matters for the final grade depends on the professor.
None of the “it’s like this” posts are useful. Even in the most draconian environment, there can be professors who let absences go. And vice versa, my son has some professors who say “miss two classes (out of 28 total) and you will lose a letter grade”.
I would be more concerned about why classes are being missed than that they are being missed. My son learned that it is better to go to all classes even if they are next to useless. I know in my classes, sometimes the lectures can be dry, but I do spend time giving hints for exams and quizzes. And that is invaluable.
A pattern of missing multiple classes is alarming, barring special circumstances such as taking an AP course in the past but not taking the exam, or having self-taught a subject. Even so, punching the clock may be required by some professors.
Missing class is pretty common among my peer group as a sophomore. All my housemates are computer science majors and skip out on all the lectures since they are all webcasted. Waking up for 8 ams is also another issue. And lastly, sometimes the professors are just not that good at teaching and are more into their research than undergraduate instruction. Going to graduate student led sections is often more helpful than lecture, and there is so much supplemental teaching material available through services like Piazza and bcourses.
One of my professors (physics) literally spends 10% of the time telling unrealated stories, 70% of the time solving our homework problems with poor explanations of what he’s doing (this is very unhelpful because the homework is supposed to be OUR practice), and 20% of the time going into way to much detail on one subconcept that doesn’t make sense because he doesn’t explain the bigger picture. Me and my classmates agree that we have to teach ourselves everything from the book.
If the classroom didn’t literally have 18 students in it I would devote the hour I sit in it to studying the book/doing the homework on my own. I’m too scared to however, because I know he’ll notice I’m missing.
When the grades are suffering, it’s entirely different. When classes aren’t online, it’s different. It’s often a matter of the academic culture in your dept or school. some may be “come if you need to,” while others expect the participation- and frankly, the respect.
@Ynotgo CS61A has around 2000 students, at least at the start. Presumably some of them have dropped the class after the first midterm. The lectures are webcasted, but many of the students are freshmen who are not used to proactive learning.
Upstream someone suggested that today’s students don’t graduate because of poor prep and too many who don’t belong. I guess s/he assumes researchers haven’t corrected for this or maybe s/he doesn’t believe the research.
Even a cursory look at competitive schools show dismal 4 yr graduation rates. Binghamton 71%. Rutgers 59%. Look up your favorites to get an idea of the system’s difficulties. I worry about my students and their debts
I agree that students are less well prepared. Recently I found myself saying, “I will not accept papers without paragraphs.” My research university is far from open enrollment (60% acceptance, mid SAT 1150-1350), but some students have trouble with basic expectations, such as attendance, group work,and formal structures of writing.
That said, my poorly articulated meaning was that retention isn’t an issue of low SAT students with inadequate coursework, URM from failing schools, or open enrollment community colleges. Even at schools with decent SATs, like Binghamton (1360) and Rutgers (1200-1500), the retention rate is dismal.
Did your kiddo transfer or is he at the same school?
Especially as kids get to more upper level courses…class attendance is essential. I personally can’t think of any good reason why someone would just skip classes regularly. Illness would be the only reason to miss class…or perhaps attending a funeral of a close family member (with advance notice to the professors).
If you ever happen to read these posts…my suggestion is…suggest your kid go to classes.
Then make sure you see official copies of his grades at the end of each term. In our house, if the grades didn’t meet the bar, we would not have paid for the next term.
When you are paying $5K+ every month for college, and you only have 15 hours of class per week you child is just crazy to skip class. Would I skip a class where every hour cost me $75+? Hell no, and I’d attend every office hour and every review session too. I’d want to get the most out of my investment.
This is also school specific. I am a senior STEM major at a small LAC and the vast majority of classes here have less than 30 students, with most having between 15 and 25 students. I’ve never had a course where attendance wasn’t required to some degree. Most courses have had the rule that for every absence beyond 2 classes over the course of the semester, your grade drops 1/3 a letter grade (with exceptions for true excused absences like being in the hospital or traveling for sports, of course, which generally require a dean’s excuse to verify). Others just give you a zero for participation for that day, unless its excused (like a dean’s excuse, not just I had a fever so I decided not to come), which can add up. Some professors are a little more lenient- I missed 4 classes for the same professor two semesters in a row because I was sick, and it was alright in terms of not getting dinged for that, but it was hard for me to catch up on the material I missed.
Family member here teaches at a community college. School policy is that if you have more than a certain number of unexcused absences (illness, family death, etc) you FAIL the course. Fail it. Every term, this family member has has to give F grades to students who didn’t show up. And he gave them plenty of warning.