Going to class on first day?

[wolfman]

Being a successful college slacker required some effort up front, such as writing all the important due dates in a calendar.

Well, maybe if you’re some kind of hard-working slacker. It was easier to just ask around if the class/prof sounded good. Of course for 95% of them I knew from older students which ones didn’t care aboutt the boring crap and only cared if you learned your shit. I only had to gamble with the scouts for the new profs, or new classes.

[The_Hamster_King]

My wife’s a professor at UCLA. For one of her upcoming classes she sent email to all the students who are signed up for it and gave them a reading assignment so they’ll have something to discuss on the first day.

It’s a graduate seminar. And the four students who are registered for it are thrilled.

[MsRobyn]

At my uni, attendance is taken the first and ninth class days. Profs have the right to drop students who don’t show up on those days. Some, especially those whose courses have a wait list, will drop you if you’re absent the first day.

Financial aid also rests on being present the first class day. Unless you have a valid excuse, your ass had better be in all your classes. Otherwise, you’ll lose your courses (maybe) and the possibility of your financial aid (definitely). So instructors go over the syllabus, assign reading for the next class, and dismiss early. The longest I’ve ever been in any one class the first day has been about 20 minutes.

Robin

[Fionn]

@Misnomer

Counting both grad and undergrad work I’m about to start my 7th class at this school, and I’ve never had a problem … nor have I ever heard of anyone not being able to attend the first day of class because of anything you describe.

Through four years of undergrad, two university extension classes and two years of graduate school, I’ve never experienced or heard of anything like this either.

I always went to class on the first day, but I hated, hated, hated it when professors through through the syllabus line by line. I can read, talk about something else!

[Misnomer]

@Fionn

Through four years of undergrad, two university extension classes and two years of graduate school, I’ve never experienced or heard of anything like this either.

Glad it’s not just me! I didn’t count my “regular” undergrad years, because those happened at a very small college. Five people in the registrar’s office was a crowd. I took 3 undergrad classes at this university before starting my graduate work, so those (plus the grad classes) are what I counted in my reply. I just can’t imagine an institution so inefficient that it regularly causes its students to miss the first day of class.

(There was a 10-year gap between finishing my bachelor’s degree and starting classes at this place, and I must say: computers make life soooo much easier!)

I always went to class on the first day, but I hated, hated, hated it when professors through through the syllabus line by line. I can read, talk about something else!

See, I don’t mind the line-by-line reading, because chances are that someone will have a question about even “obvious” things. Also, I’ve already had enough professors who either made a mistake in the syllabus or did not explain something correctly in it to appreciate the first-day syllabus review.

[capybara]

I don’t think the university gave Fuji an appointment to stand in line to complain about missing textbooks while his class was meeting. I mean, dealing with the bursar because of dropped classes, I sympathize with. But waiting for a parking permit?

13-year college veteran

[bordelond]

@capybara

If anyone comes up to me after the first day and asks for a syllabus, their face is remembered.

Late additions being an exception, yes?

[vix]

From the catalog at the college where I work:

{College} values instruction that begins at the first class meeting and/or lab session. Students who do not attend the first day of a class may be dropped from the course, depending upon the invidual faculty member’s attendance policy. It is the student’s responsibility to read the course schedule notes and/or visit the course Web site.