Did your college professors take attendance?

[smb6]

It depends on the professor. You learn quickly whose class you can miss without trouble and whose class you better not even dream of being late too, let alone missing.... That has been my experience...

 

[Deb in IA]

Mine did. They had you sign in on a sheet that was passed around. Of course you COULD have a friend sign in for you, but the same sheet was often used for choosing whom the prof would like to hear from when a question was asked.

My medical students told me a variation of that strategy.

One of their seminar classes has mandatory attendance. On the eve of a biochemistry test, a student panics and says that he has to study and can't spare the time for the seminar. He asks a friend to sign him in (we'll call him "friend #1").

Seminar starts and "friend #2" notices that his buddy is not there, so he also signs in the panicked guy, not knowing that "friend #1" also signed him in.

Of course, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to note that the guy who never made it got signed in twice, and all 3 students got into big trouble.

 

[disykat]

Some did, some didn't.

The ones I remember being real sticklers were classes like PE. You pretty much had to be in the hospital to be excused. (I went to college back when schools commonly required several units of PE for graduation.) Too many absences was an automatic F.

Most of my classes did - music, education, communications, etc. They were very participatory. Lecture classes like Biology and Psychology didn't.

 

[bumbershoot]

I don't remember about undergrad (though I rarely skipped classes, so it's very possible they took attendance). But in chiropractic school, not only did we have a dress code to follow, but we could only miss a few classes each quarter. If you went over, you failed, period. But with a quarter system, every minute counted, so it made a lot of sense. We also had a grading system on 7% instead of 10%. 93-100 = A, 86-93 = B, etc....

 

[NotUrsula]

Not in big survey classes. Small seminars they didn't need to -- they could see at a glance if anyone was missing. Everything else depended on the professor -- some were sticklers and some didn't care at all. My rule of thumb in large surveys was that if the instructor wrote the textbook and taught directly from it, it was a good bet that he wouldn't notice or care if you didn't show up. I had several classes like that where I showed up only once a month or so after the first week, and for exams, and still got an A.

That said, that was 30 years ago, and times have changed. Schools are using electronic devices to detect a student's presence these days -- professors are a lot more likely to take attendance when they can do it electronically in 10 seconds, vs. doing it manually and having it take 15 minutes of class time.

 

[design_mom]

I don't think any of my college professors took formal attendance, however, attendance was considered in my grades.

I took an Anthropology class and my final grade came out lower than what I was expecting based on my test/quiz/paper grades. I went to talk to him about it. He told me that he marked me down because I never came to class. I attended *every* class. I am not sure if he had me confused with someone else, or if I'm just that forgettable, but he wouldn't believe that I'd been there -- even when I showed him my notebook with dated notes. I *wish* he'd taken formal attendance if he was going to use it for grading purposes.

In the classes for my major, there usually weren't many students (10-15 per class) and there was stuff due every class, so if you missed, it was noticed.

On the other hand, I taught night school computer classes for a few semesters and I *did* take attendance. The school policy was that if you missed more than 3 classes, you'd fail. My personal feeling was that if you could miss class and still learn the material, then I didn't care. However, I once had a student who missed almost every class and had gotten a D or lower on every test. He came up to me on the last day of class and said "I need a C in this class to keep my scholarship. You've got to help me." Um, sorry... If he'd been to class and still scored low on the tests, I would have worked with him. If he'd missed every class and done well on the tests, I wouldn't have penalized him for missing... but he didn't even give me an "excuse" as to why he missed all the classes -- it was just "I need a C."

 

[WeLoveLilo05]

O, and I also had a prof, Algebraic Modeling, who would give 8 quizzes throughout the semester based on your homework (I think we had 32 classes in total). Everyday when we walked in he would ask anyone have any questions on last nights homework? And if you had a problem with a certain # he'd do it on the board and explain it. THEN, he'd look at the homework and say I want the answers to #s 10, 14, 19, 52, etc. He did it the 1st 15 minutes of class, so you wouldn't want to be late b/c if you missed it, you missed it you couldn't make it up, and he only did it 8xs out of the semester so you tried your best to be there every Tues n Thurs.
...He was such a hottie though, wasn't much older than his students
I somehow got an A and I am terrible in Math. At the end of the semester he told me that I worked hard and showed the effort, whereas a lot of kids wouldn't show, cheated, handed in projects in late, etc.

 

[Pigeon]

Most did, some didn't. I work in a university, and I'd say it's about the same at my institution now as it was when I was at a university several decades ago.

 

[ajk912]

I am going to college now. We are told that due to financial aid the government says that taking attendance is mandatory. Even in online classes, you need to log in at least every five days to be counted or you will dropped. For in person classes, if you miss more than three classes you will be withdrawn from the class.

 

[disney1990]

My daughter goes to a small college. Her professors don't have to take attendance; they know who is missing. That said, she is not comfortable missing classes for "vacation" because she feels she would get behind.

 

[pixie dust 112]

My profs didn;t take attendance...but that was 25 years ago. My DDs professors do take attendance.

 

[ThisIsJason]

Most of mine did in some way:

Take roll. A few classes would have attendance as a part of your grade. Some would have it if you missed less than X classes, they would add X% onto your final grade. In the math courses at my university if you missed more than 6 classes you failed.

A clicker thing. Was used in bigger classes (100+) had to answer questions during class.

Ask a question. I was taking a law class (no clue why!) and during the first 30 minutes of class everyone had to write down a question (could be about anything in politics from the week before, something from last class). And the Prof. would answer them.

 

[tasha99]

I never had attendance taken as an undergrad, but as a Masters student I've had some teachers take roll. Most don't care, but some think it's an issue of professionalism. I have taken classes where one absence would cause you to get an incomplete or an extra assignment to pass.

Now clinic--attendance is paramount because of clients. If you're late to clinic more than once, you can get a "no pass" in practicum and lose all the clinical hours accrued for the term.

 

[fraggle551]

Yup. I go to a small Catholic college and if you miss more than 3 classes they usually bump you down a letter grade. Most classes are 30 kids or smaller, so its also noticeable if you are missing.

 

[redlight]

Most of them didn't. The exceptions were mainly in language classes.

 

[A Mickeyfan]

I honestly cannot remember if mine did.. that was back in the late 70's. I will say most of my DD's do. Those that do take attendance make it clear that attendance is part of their grade. My DD attends FGCU in SW Fl

 

[mtemm]

I didn't vote because I needed another option..some did, some didn't.

 

[LivingtheWDWdream]

As someone who has to pay for her classes and being very low income I don't skip classes or miss class because I paid to be there, If I didn't want to go to class I should have saved the money and not signed up so I'm there because I'm paying to be there. I also wouldn't pass the papers, quizzes, or tests if I don't learn the information so by missing class it would hinder my ability to do well.

People do miss due to circumstances such as illnesses, death in the family, its sunny, its raining, vacation etc but unless I'm sick and contagious I'm in class just my personal ethics. Not saying someone who doesn't go is wrong they just view it differently and that's ok.

 

[java]

I had one terribly boring finance instructor that was about 100 years old. Class consisted of him reading us the book. He would take attendance at the start of every class.
As he began to read many of us jumped out the window.

 

[hopemax]

The only college class that had attendance,was my space design class in my engineering major. This class was the reason you went into the major, and involved a major presentation to people in the industry, which gave you a leg up on post-grad interviews. so you better be in class. if you were sick, you notified the professor. Also, a graduation requirement was a 1 credit lecture series. In the 2 years you were in the major, you had to attend X number of lectures. There was a sign in sheet that was passed around.