As I always say, don't gamble if you can't afford to lose.

Many of my students were shocked to discover that I not only took attendance, but I had no "decent week"s to skip - I had them working every class period. Part of their grade was made up of in-class quizzes and assignments which you could not make up if you skipped. And yes, I checked to see when students joined the class so I could determine whether or not that zero for the first quiz would count against them - obviously, if you had not registered for the class I wouldn't include that first week's grades. You just shouldn't ASSUME . . .

Yikes - you all are hardcore! Even in med school we got more slack than that. :)

Maybe your professors hadn't been through what I certainly have -and it may be that in more lecture intensive classes it isn't a big deal. But in my English classes I set aside time each week to go over rough and first drafts. I've got to be hard core or I'd spend all the REST of my time reading and discussing the drafts of those who couldn't be bothered to attend class in the first place. These are the same students who never e-mail me, come see me during office hourse or after class, ask for "extra credit" (!) but who will then complain when they fail the course.:mad:

Or maybe I'd just rather put the fear of God into the class early and get the slackers to drop quickly so they don't waste my time, and distract from the students who really want to learn. It's hard to say.:rolleyes:

Ditto everyone who said check with Panhellenic. I went to a school where you would be removed from recruitment if you skipped class for the parties (since parties only overlapped classes on Thursday, and the cuts didn't start until Friday). Also, if you skipped the first day of class without talking to the professor, you forfeited your position in the class.

At my school missing the first week of classes wasn't an option. Attendance was taken, and if you weren't there you were dropped!!!! No, ifs, ands, or buts about it! There were also tons waiting to get into the classes!

Ha. OK, think that.

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there is no doubt that school should come first. your organization should understand that. just talk to the exec board and i'm sure they'll excuse you.

Med school is a completely different story. In the past (when I was in med school) you had required attendance for 8hrs of class per day. The powers that be saw that this was too much considering how much studying an average med student must do outside of class. They began cracking down on schools. My med school was one of the last to cave. Keep in mind also that in med school, the entire curriculum is scheduled such that they control exactly what a student is doing at all times, whereas in college, the student controls their own schedule. If a student schedules 8 hours of class a day, that's their own fault...which professor should be okay with letting them skip since it's too large a load?