What's with the add/drop period at college?

pshreck · #1 01-27-2005, 05:50 PM

Due to a late decision change in Major (verly late decision), and really disliking my courses, I decided to change 4 out of my 5 courses this semester.

The add/drop at UConn is two weeks (meaning add or drop courses freely), and this means I will have missed about 2 weeks for all these courses.

So I just went to one this morning for the first time, and the teacher gave me a real hard time. I made the mistake of pointing out that it was my first time in the classroom, and he went as far as to imply I shouldnt even be allowed to be in the class. I told him I already purchased the text and was within my add course rights, and he let it go.

Now, in 6 semesters of college, Ive never been the type to skip classes and just show up for tests. So, Im baffled as to how to explain myself... although I just have the feeling I shouldn't need to. I know kids do it all the time, but do you guys really get away with it?

To those who may have 'experience' in not going to class often at larger state schools, do you usually get crap about it, or rarely?

I don't want to have to put up with this for another 3 classes tonight and tomorrow. All within the add/drop period, no less. Arghh.

jakethebake · #2 01-27-2005, 05:52 PM

pshreck · #3 01-27-2005, 05:53 PM

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<insert lame QLC joke here>

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bastard

istewart · #4 01-27-2005, 05:58 PM

The add/drop period is all of 5 days here. It sucks majorly.

Edge34 · #5 01-27-2005, 05:59 PM

St. Cloud State here in Minnesota isn't the BIGGEST school, certainly nowhere near UConn (maybe 15K?), but in my experience, any class that is small enough for the professor to notice my absence has an attendance policy. However, I've added and dropped classes a lot in my time here, and I've never gotten crap about it from anybody, if anything, they've offered to help me out if I needed assistance catching up. Then again, I've always made it a point to bring it up first and not just go without making my situation known.

Sounds like the prof in that class is an old dude, who probably went to all his classes and never changed his mind once. More power to him, and you shouldn't have to take crap from him, but just tell him you wanna do your best in there (if that's true - if not screw 'em)...this normally helps with all but the absolute nittiest of the profs.

-Edge

tech · #6 01-27-2005, 06:07 PM

As long as you were within the regular a/d period at the university, your prof should not be giving you a hard time at all. Add/drops are part of the game. Your prof needs to plan his class with the expectation that there will be people coming and going during the add/drop period.

P.S. I taught at the university level for eight years, so I am generally on the other side of most student/prof issues. But your prof is out of line here.

mmcd · #7 01-27-2005, 06:08 PM

I didn't go to a big state school or anything, but for a fair amount of my classes, my attendence was: First class, midterm, last class, and final. For 1 class (ethics) I even missed the midterm because I thought it was on a different day. I went to the next class to talk to the guy about it and he didn't even he care. He just told me to come by his office some time within the next couple of weeks so I can take it. I ended up with a B+ in the class. Some professors just don't give a [censored] about attendance while others take it real seriously. You should research these matters ahead of time when signing up for classes that you don't think you will be particularly interested in. Although in your case it doesn't seem like you had much of a choice in the matter.

Ulysses · #8 01-27-2005, 06:15 PM

I multiple times had professors ask me who I was when I showed up for final exams.

Sponger15SB · #9 01-27-2005, 06:18 PM

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I multiple times had professors ask me who I was when I showed up for final exams.

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I usually either 1) don't go 2) sit in the very back of lecture halls so I would probably have a hard time picking most of my teachers out in a line up of 5 similar looking people.

I thought my Art History teacher last quarter was this young looking lady, turns out she was a 50 year old hagish looking person when I went to hand my final in.

Thythe · #10 01-27-2005, 06:27 PM

Attendance is almost never required in my classes (Northwestern). Usually they're medium sized, 20-40 people. There have been quarters where I just show up for tests (if the class is boring and all the info can be learned from the book), and some quarters when I go to every class. No one has really cared either way.