College Rants

[AdminAssistant]

Well what if attendance is not part of the marking scheme?

I don't know a single professor who does not include either participation or attendance into the grading rubric. I'm sure, however, there are those who don't. In that case...I don't know. I'd go to class anyway, but that's the kind of person I am.

[Greenday]

I don't know a single professor who does not include either participation or attendance into the grading rubric. I'm sure, however, there are those who don't. In that case...I don't know. I'd go to class anyway, but that's the kind of person I am.

I know a few. Namely every chem professor I've had.

1. None of them used powerpoints. Everything was on the chalkboards.
2. "I don't care if you show up or not. If you don't show up, you will fail and that isn't my fault."

Probably one of my favorite quotes of all time from a teacher. My stats teacher didn't require attendance either. He told us on the first day if we only showed up for tests, quizzes and handed in the homework, that was fine. The first 2/3 of class was tests. Last 1/3 was review. I got nothing lower than a 95 on the first three tests, got A's on every homework and quiz, and went to every class at that point. I told him after the third test that I really liked the class and that I was good and he said since I did so well, I could probably just skip the rest of the lectures with my grades and work on my other classes. So I did. I got an A.

[HYHYBT]

As I remember it, the strictness of the attendance policy was inversely proportional to the necessity (otherwise) of showing up regularly, and the biggest tardiness problems weren't from not getting up/arriving on campus on time, but from having a class the period before that either ran slightly over or was too far from the next one. Someone said late students should sit in the back? I'd think it ought to be whichever empty seat is nearest the door... the only class I ever had with anything like that tardiness policy was also the largest at 400+; he started lecturing five (I think) minutes after the official start time, again because of the difficulty in crossing campus, and anyone after that sat in the wings out of sight.

I suspect textbooks would be cheaper if there were some incentive to the professors to use existing ones rather than, whenever possible, writing their own with nearly the same content.

[Boozy]

I don't know a single professor who does not include either participation or attendance into the grading rubric.

I'm assuming you attend a smallish school.

There were 500 students in many of my first-year lectures, and over 200 in most of my second-year courses. Grading for participation, or even taking attendance, would not have been feasible.

Participation was a factor in my fourth-year seminars, since our class sizes were closer to 30 students by that time. And that's how seminars operate.

I didn't go to class if a) no one would notice my absence, and b) I didn't feel that it was the best academic use of that three-hour block of time. I never once felt bad about it, and I did very well in school.

[AdminAssistant]

I'm assuming you attend a smallish school.

My undergrad was relatively small. That and my major (theatre, acting) pretty much necessitated being in class (can't learn that kind of stuff out of books). I suppose that's where my ethic of going to class came in. If our professors found out we were regularly skipping classes, even in classes outside our major, they'd chew us out for it. Then ban us from participating in shows, because obviously we were too busy.

The school I'm at now is freakin' huge. (Total enrollment is 30,000). I TA for two different classes. Intro - we don't take attendance for lecture but we do for discussion sections. Enrollment - 170-ish. Theatre History - I take attendance. Enrollment - 59.

[DrFaroohk]

Attendance shouldn't matter for shit because its not a day-to-day thing they judge you on - its for the semester. If you get a 3.5 grade, why should it matter if you came to class every day, every other day, or never? It's like certain jobs where they don't care about what you do day to day - I know a guy who processed loans or something for a bank. As long as he did like a million dollars a month, they didn't care if he worked 1 day a week or 7.

I had to deal with that in high school - almost didn't graduate because I had missed more than the allotted days. Their reasoning was "we don't feel you can receive all the knowledge from this course if you're not here...." Oh yeah? This B+ says I can and did.

[Cats]

I had to deal with that in high school - almost didn't graduate because I had missed more than the allotted days. Their reasoning was "we don't feel you can receive all the knowledge from this course if you're not here...." Oh yeah? This B+ says I can and did.

This. My High School had "administrative failure" for those who missed 6 or more unexcused days per semester. Of course, if you had the old excuse note from the parents, this didn't apply to you, so thankfully it only really punished either the sucky parents or the kids who skipped a lot.

For those who said if we're so smart, to test out of the class, you have a point. HOWEVER, for that to actually WORK, that needs to be available as an OPTION. With the expection of a AP couse in high school counting as college credit if you score well on the exam, I have yet to see this. I sure would have loved such a program in high school (seriously, I needed a credit and a half in my senior year of high school required for grauation, and they were the senior only classes [english and gym].



Anyway, What I hate about college is the zillion electives you need to take in order to graduate, even if the class has NOTHING to do with your major. I know so many people who are my sibling's age (and a few my own) who've had to go 5 or 6 years JUST to get all their credits. That time could have been cut back if A) one didn't have to take uncessary classes and B) you could actually test out of some courses by demonstrating sufficient knowledge.


One thing about the school I went to fo a year was the dorm bulding I was in had no kitchens. So if you were studying, and hungry after the cafe closed at 8 pm, TOUGH. Ramen Noodles and Easy Mac for you. I'm sorry, I like the ability to be able to actually COOK something when I want to eat some good food. The other dorms? Oh, they got their kitchens. Way to be fair.

[Greenday]

Anyway, What I hate about college is the zillion electives you need to take in order to graduate, even if the class has NOTHING to do with your major. I know so many people who are my sibling's age (and a few my own) who've had to go 5 or 6 years JUST to get all their credits. That time could have been cut back if A) one didn't have to take uncessary classes and B) you could actually test out of some courses by demonstrating sufficient knowledge.


One thing about the school I went to fo a year was the dorm bulding I was in had no kitchens. So if you were studying, and hungry after the cafe closed at 8 pm, TOUGH. Ramen Noodles and Easy Mac for you. I'm sorry, I like the ability to be able to actually COOK something when I want to eat some good food. The other dorms? Oh, they got their kitchens. Way to be fair.

I agree with that. Oh, it's supposed to make us well rounded. That's cool, but I can get by just fine without knowing the philosophies of people from a few thousand years, basic writing (learned that awhile ago), history (learned more history than an intro class can teach me), politics of diversity, sociology, etc. etc. I'm a Forensics major. Give me chemistry, biology, physics, criminal justice. Not stuff that are completely unrelated to what I'll eventually do.

[DrFaroohk]

Not to go too far off topic, but this all reminded me of a problem a friend of mine is currently going through: Last semester he finished up his masters program. Yay for masters! Time to go out into the world now.....

But he couldn't graduate! Why not? Because a course he took was considered "invalid" because he wasn't actually enrolled in the masters program at the time. Didn't matter that he already took it or got the necessary grade - since he wasn't in their program they said it didn't count, so he has to take (and pay for!) the same exact class again. One measly old class.

[MaggieTheCat]

Didn't matter that he already took it or got the necessary grade - since he wasn't in their program they said it didn't count, so he has to take (and pay for!) the same exact class again. One measly old class.

Something like this happened to me, which just reinforces AA's viewpoint that community or tech colleges just aren't as good as universities. I took psychology at a community college. When I transferred to another college -- another COMMUNITY COLLEGE -- that course did not transfer with me, and I had to take it again.

Something similar happened to a friend of mine, but he had the added bonus of having a moron for an academic adviser thrown in the mix. My friend had taken several classes at a local tech school in the town he grew up in, a tech school that encouraged all of the locals to go there first before university because all of their classes would transfer and were much less expensive than the university's. My friend was supposed to graduate this spring, but at the last minute, he got a call from his adviser telling him that he was short 18 credits from classes he had taken at the tech school that didn't transfer, even though the adviser had told him, multiple times over the course of 2 or 3 years while he was at university, that they would.

[telecom_goddess]

I just want to add my two cents about lateness and attendance. I have zero tolerance for people who are late consistently. There is really no excuse for it. All you have to do is get up earlier. Like with my job, I now have to get up earlier than I had to before due to the bus schedule and stop changing. Because I allow so much time for getting to work the bus could break down along the way, or the Max, and I *still* won't be late.

I end up being early for everything, and I have a co worker who is always late. He just annoys the crap out of me when he does that.....he throws off everyone else and screws up the day.

[gremcint]

I just want to add my two cents about lateness and attendance. I have zero tolerance for people who are late consistently. There is really no excuse for it. All you have to do is get up earlier. Like with my job, I now have to get up earlier than I had to before due to the bus schedule and stop changing. Because I allow so much time for getting to work the bus could break down along the way, or the Max, and I *still* won't be late.

Yeah because no one has a job that doesn't cooperate with a school schedule.


I guess things are different for colleges here, at both colleges I attended it was very structured course wise. http://www.flemingc.on.ca/index.cfm/...TN/style/d.cfm

here is a course at the college I just finished, if you look you'll see that each semester your courses are already chosen with a couple of choices. What's annoying is when I have to take a course that is pretty much what you did in highschool (math course that the hardest thing they taught was trig).

Only one of my teachers ever marked for participation or attandance. I've even had teachers post their lectures online, and my class was never more than 20.

I had a course I could have got exempt from but decided to take the easy A. I never went to one single lecture and I got 97 in the class.

I thought the point of college is people are supposed to be responsible for themselves and make their own decisions for the first time and therefore it is their decision whether or not to go to class.

[AdminAssistant]

I thought the point of college is people are supposed to be responsible for themselves and make their own decisions for the first time and therefore it is their decision whether or not to go to class.

Sure it is. I'm not arguing that. I'm saying that it's also my decision to fail your ass for not showing up. If you could learn everything out of books without guidance for a teacher, there would be no reason for class in the first place. My job is to help explain and expand upon the material in the textbooks. The textbook is not the limit to the material that can be covered, nor should it be.

[gremcint]

Yeah and when you test on the material you taught and the no shows fail the test then they learn the consequences of their actions.

[DrFaroohk]

As a teacher for a college you provide a service someone has paid for. Isn't it his choice to utilize it how he pleases? It'd be like if you paid a mechanic to work on your car, but he said that since he didn't feel you appreciated your car enough he's going to purposely destroy it for you.

The grades are supposed to be the deciding factor. If he passes, he succeeded whether you say he did or not. If he fails, those are the consequences he faces.