If you have a history of skipping classes, you may wonder how that’s going to affect your performance in college.
Will your attendance record affect the likelihood of getting accepted into a certain college?
Will colleges inform potential employers about your lack of attendance?
It’s important to know if colleges look at attendance to ensure you make the best impression possible.
Do Colleges Look At Attendance?
No, colleges do not look at attendance.
If you’re in high school and tend to skip class, they’re not going to get a hold of your attendance record from your school
They care more about your GPA.
That said, your attendance can have a direct impact on your GPA.
Your GPA, or grade point average, is the statistic that colleges use to determine if you have high enough grades to succeed at their college.
If your GPA is too low, they may think that you’re not suited for the challenging courses that they present.
As such, they might not accept your application.
The other half to consider is whether a college looks at your attendance when reporting to a potential employer.
Because of the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), potential employers cannot access your educational record without your written consent.
This means that if you have poor attendance in college, and you don’t want your employer to know about it, you do not have to give consent for them to see your educational record.
In general, though, most potential employers are going to care more about what degree you earned and your GPA rather than your attendance, so this is rarely a point of concern.
Why Does Class Attendance Matter?
If you’re on the fence about skipping classes, either in high school or college, you may wonder if your attendance in class even matters.
Here are a few reasons why class attendance does matter.
1. Miss Out On Important Information
One of the reasons why you might want to skip class is because you’re able to get the information from the book.
If you have a teacher that teaches directly from the book, it may not make sense to you to attend the class.
Why do that when you can just read the book, after all?
The problem with this mindset is that even if your teacher teaches directly from the book, there’s always a chance that they’re going to add information that isn’t in the book to the lecture.
If you’re not there, you’re not going to be aware of this information.
If it comes up on a test, there’s a chance you’re not going to answer the question correctly.
If your teacher doesn’t teach from the book, it’s even more important for you to attend class.
Following the book or even the syllabus only gives you half the story.
If you want to succeed in class, you need to know what the teacher is talking about.
The only way to do that is to attend class.
Attending class ensures you don’t miss any important information.
2. Breaks Down Challenging Concepts
Another reason that you should attend class is that it can help you understand the coursework a bit better.
If all you do is read the book, you might not understand what it’s trying to say.
This is the whole point of a teacher.
They’re able to take the information from a textbook and break it down into smaller pieces that make the information easier to understand.
Trying to learn from the book on your own ends up taking more of your time.
That’s time you could be spending with friends or having fun.
By attending class, you can learn a simplified version of the information provided by your teacher.
Not only does this mean your performance in the class might improve, but it also means you’ll spend less time outside of class trying to learn the subject.
Attending class ensures that you’re able to learn more challenging concepts.
3. Aware Of Surprise Exams Or Scheduled Exams
If your teacher is a fan of surprise exams or tests, in general, then attending class is crucial.
Some teachers even make test scores a large part of your overall grade.
If you don’t perform well on the tests, you could end up with a failing grade overall.
Some teachers like to give surprise exams.
You may have just ended a particular part of the module.
To see how much you retained, your teacher might pull out a surprise quiz or test.
If you haven’t attended class, you may not know the information.
If you regularly skip class, there’s even a chance that you’ll miss the quiz entirely.
Since some teachers count missed quizzes as failed quizzes, that could have a huge impact on your grade.
Attending class also gives you the benefit of knowing about scheduled exams.
Your teacher might announce a test for next week, for example. It may not be on the syllabus.
If you didn’t attend class, you may not be aware of a test on that specific day.
As a result, you either miss it or flunk it because you weren’t prepared for it.
Attending class ensures you’re able to be aware of any upcoming tests or exams.
4. Fun
One of the reasons students sometimes skip class is because it’s boring.
That isn’t always the case, however.
If you have a good teacher or some fun classmates, attending class can be a lot of fun.
It may not be fun all the time, but there are always special moments where some form of hilarity ensues.
If you skip class, you’re missing out on those moments.
Those are the moments you talk about with your fellow students during high school reunions.
They’re the more enjoyable memories that you reflect on in your adulthood.
If you don’t have any of those memories because you skipped class, your high school years are going to be pretty forgettable.
Attending class ensures you don’t miss out on any fun memories.
5. Get Kicked Out Of Class
While the college administration may not look at your attendance, a college professor might.
A college professor who teaches a smaller class, instead of a lecture hall, likely tries to engage each of their students.
They also know that not every student can get into the class because of number restrictions.
If they notice that a student keeps skipping class, they might choose to kick them out.
That way another student who wants to attend the class has the chance of getting in.
If you don’t need the class, this might not bother you as much.
However, if it’s a class that you need to pass to pursue your degree, getting kicked out can be a pain.
Not only do you have to enroll in the class again next semester, but you might also face repercussions with your financial aid.
For example, if you don’t end up taking the class, the number of credit hours that you have decreases for that semester.
Since financial aid is often based on the number of credits that you’re taking per semester, a sudden decrease in credits means that you owe money.
If you already spent that money on books and other things, you’ll have to find a way to pay it back.
That could be difficult if you don’t have the money available or if you’re not working.
Not every teacher will kick you from the class if you don’t attend, but it is a possibility.
6. GPA
A final reason why you should attend class is because of your GPA.
If you skip class regularly, your GPA will likely decrease.
That’s because you’re probably not going to perform well in class.
When you skip class, you lose out on hearing important information about the particular subject you’re studying.
You may miss tests or be unable to understand the concepts because you’re trying to learn about them on your own.
As you struggle in class, your grade in the class becomes lower and lower.
If you skip several classes, this could be happening across several classes.
As a result, your overall GPA starts to decrease.
Even failing one class could have a huge impact on your GPA.
This can then affect your ability to attend college or go to graduate school.
Colleges care far more about GPAs than attendance records.
That’s because they know if you don’t attend class, you’re probably not going to have a great GPA.
Attending class ensures you have better chances of earning a good grade in the class and keeping your GPA high.
How Do You Improve Class Attendance?
If your class attendance is starting to look poor and it’s affecting your GPA, you may wonder how you can improve it.
Here are a few things you can do to improve your class attendance and GPA.
1. Start Attending Class
One of the first things you need to do is start attending class immediately.
It doesn’t matter if the class is far ahead of you or not.
You’ll want to start attending class.
Attending not only lowers the risk of having your teacher kick you out–if you’re in college–but it will also allow you the chance to start taking notes directly from the lectures.
Even if you don’t understand what the teacher is talking about, those notes will be helpful later.
You can get caught up outside of class, but having those notes made from lectures that you attended ensures that you stay on track once you get caught up.
Additionally, attending class also makes you aware of due dates, potential exam dates, and any projects coming up.
You can prepare for those instead of getting blindsided by them.
The best thing to do to improve class attendance is to start attending class.
2. Get A Tutor
The next thing you should do to improve your class attendance is to get a tutor.
The tutor might be the teacher if they have extra time or another student.
A tutor is helpful because they can get you back up to speed.
Having not attended class, you may be far behind where the rest of the class is.
Even if the rest of the class is only a chapter ahead of you, they’re building on concepts that you still need to grasp.
A tutor can help because they’re basically acting like a private teacher.
You’re able to make up for those missed classes with the tutor.
Once you’re brought up to speed with the tutor, you’ll find that class is easier to attend because you’ll start to understand what your teacher is talking about.
Getting a tutor is a great way to ensure you improve your class attendance since it will get you up to speed faster.
3. Do Something Fun Afterward
If you’re someone that misses out on class because you deem it boring, you need some sort of reward for going to class.
There should be some sort of reward that you only get if you attend class.
That might be going to the local ice cream shop or buying something inexpensive but fun.
It might even be something as simple as an extra hour of gaming or hanging with friends.
By doing something fun after class, you train your brain to be ready to attend it.
You may even start to look forward to attending class.
4. Prepare As Much As Possible
If you’re not motivated to attend class, you have to make the process of going to class as easy as possible.
That means having everything you need in your backpack ready to go far before class begins.
It might also mean having your food prepared or your clothes picked out.
By removing the obstacles between you and getting to class, you have fewer excuses for missing out on class.
Conclusion
Colleges rarely look at your attendance from high school.
They’re more interested in your GPA.
However, your GPA can fluctuate based on your attendance in class which makes attending class important.
