Do Colleges Look at Attendance? [Do Colleges Care?]

Do colleges look at attendance? This depends. A lot of the time, they don’t look at individual attendance sheets. However, not regularly showing up to classes affects your GPA. College admissions require specific grade point averages to get in.

Discussed below is a thorough look at how university admissions view attendance, as well as everything else they look for. Keep reading to find out.

Do Colleges Look at Attendance?

The answer is yes and no. A university’s admissions team would not go through applicants’ attendance sheets one by one. However, missing classes would affect your GPA. Each college requires a specific grade point average to get in, so less than excellent attendance ultimately affects your enrollment chances.

Also, if you have taken months off school at once, this would be on your permanent record. Depending on how competitive the program you applied to is, how perceived the months you took off would differ.

If you have the habit of regularly bunking classes, don’t continue to do this in university. You’ll end up failing, as you need to be there when your professor explains more challenging topics to you.

What Do College Admissions Look At?

Now that you know that colleges don’t really look at attendance, here’s what they do look at.

A Dip in Grades

Are you a straight-A student? University admissions will go through your high school transcripts. If they see that you went from straight As to getting Cs and Ds, you’ll be questioned about this.

There is usually an Additional Information section on college applications. Explain why your grades dropped. Make your school counselor address the drop in grades in your recommendation letter as well. If you have a good reason, like an illness, you need not worry.

Curriculum Changes

College admissions like it when students take advanced classes. However, you may have taken AP classes and then switched to regular classes mid-way. This would be alarming, as it would show the admissions team that you can’t keep up with more challenging lessons.

Something else that would be of concern would be you dropping subjects related to the program you want to study. It wouldn’t look good if you drop “major” classes either.

Once again, use the Additional Information section on your application to explain yourself.

Inconsistent Information in Transcripts

Admissions teams would go through every single document you’ve submitted. There’ll be a problem if there is conflicting information on your transcripts.

There is no solution to this, just preventive measures. Double-check everything you’re submitting, and don’t lie to pad your application.

If you focused on your studies too much didn’t do any extracurricular activities, this is fine. Make sure you make a compelling story about how you wanted to focus on your studies in your personal statement.

Any Disciplinary Infractions

If there are a few minor disciplinary infractions on your record, this won’t be a big deal. That being said, you may have suspensions and expulsions on your record. They would be of concern, and you probably wouldn’t be let into the program you applied to. The college could see you as a danger to others.

Even if you have perfect grades, a suspension or expulsion would negatively affect your chances of getting into a good school.

You could use the Additional Information section, once again, to explain the disciplinary infractions. Meet with your guidance counselor when creating your personal statement too. They will help you use the disciplinary infraction you faced as the subject for a good college essay. Hopefully, your guidance counselor can write about how much you’ve matured in your recommendation letter.

How Do You Improve Your Attendance?

Remember that if you keep missing classes, your GPA would be negatively affected. You could be missing classes when your teacher discusses complex topics, making you not do well in your final exams. You need a good GPA if you want a scholarship or to get into a competitive program.

Moreover, you would have a lot of catching up to if you keep getting absent. Ask yourself if this work would be worth it.

The school you’re going to maybe a private school. Even when you’re missing classes, you’ll still be paying the semester fees. This would be cash down the drain.

Final Thoughts

College admissions don’t really take attendance into account. It would only be taken into consideration if it’s on your permanent record, and this might only take place if you’ve missed months of school at a time.

Some things universities do look at are your:

• Grades
• Change in curriculums
• Disciplinary infractions
• Inconsistent information in transcripts

Luckily, there is an Additional Information section in most college applications. You can use it to explain why your grades dropped, or why you changed from AP classes to ordinary ones.