Wanna know the real beauty of college? It’s that you get to choose your class times and still not show up. If you’re like me who went to a high school that lets you do the same thing you might think that you got this, that you are one reasonable adult… you’re not. I used to be an extra good nugget, a good nugget that never missed class even if I was sick… and then Spring semester of my freshman year happened. I was involved in a show and we would practice seen hours everyday and I would get home around one in the morning; I’d be up until three or four doing homework and chores like laundry. That’s when I got the class skipping disease.
I just finished my fourth semester of college and although it’s been my hardest semester so far, it was one of my best semesters. Grades are up which means it’s time to register for classes soon. I’ve learned that there’s definitely a more efficient way of doing things. Here are some tips that help me become an extra good nugget again with way less stress:
1. One class a day = NO.
Unless that class is a once a week lab or something that requires 100% attendance, DO NOT DO IT! You will get lazy. Why would you want to set foot on campus for one class? It’s just not logical.
2. Importance Sandwich
If you have a class you couldn’t possibly care less about, like a GE class, sandwich it between two important classes. Let’s do me as an example: I have my Business Law class as my first class of the day. My Blaw professor checks attendance everyday and my grade is 45% midterm and 55% final, you know I’ll never skip it. My third class of the day is my Accounting class. Not only is it my major, but my professor does not use a book or posts his presentations online. And to top it off, a B- in that class means I have to retake it (college policy), you bet your ass I won’t skip it. What’s my second class? A GE that I couldn’t care less about. My classes are back to back and if I have to show up for the first and last one, why not go to my second one? What can you possibly do in the hour and a half between the first and last class? Nothing because parking sucks.
3. Multiple Requirements = YES
If you have a degree planner available to you, I suggest studying it heavily because chances are that there are several classes you can take that kills two or more requirements. Why would you skip a class which grade counts for two or more? It just wouldn’t make sense.
4. No friends allowed
If you know that you have a tendency to not show to class, DO NOT TAKE CLASSES WITH YOUR FRIENDS. I don’t know if you know this or not but peer pressure is a thing. Trust me, I have influenced a lot of people to not go to class because they see my skip and still pass. Also, if you have no friends in class, where would you get the materials you missed? Nobody. Nobody is good in this case.
College acceptance gets crazier every year that by the time people are in their freshman year of high school they are already loaded with AP classes and Honors classes. If you’re still in high school or just fresh out of it this Spring you might think you’ll forever be done with honors classes… you’re technically wrong.
Because there is a maximum number of units you are allowed to take in college each semester or overall (which you are forced to graduate once reached), being in the honors program might not work to your advantage. My university is very impacted hence why people generally take 5-6 years to graduate; we even joke around that it’s easy to get in our university you can just never get out. Priority registration is the key that will help you unlock the door to graduation. People who get registration are those in DRES (disability), sports (they need to wrap their schedule around practice), honor students (because almost always only one section for each honors class), freshmen, and graduating students..
In my university there are two kinds of ‘honors’: one is general electives, and the other is college (major) specific.
GE Honors is what I’m a part of. They only require students in the program to take at least one honors class every three semesters to qualify for the priority registration. However, if you would like to get the certification and special stall when you graduate, you need a total of 15 units of GE Honors classes passed with at least a B and a cumulative GPA of 3.5. It’s one of the best programs students can be a part of because some classes they would need to take anyway are available as honors class and is about 95% similar to the normal class anyway. The first two years were easy to fit those honors classes because a good chunk of lower divisions is GE to begin with. The struggle starts now that I am at my upper division. My major is heavy on business core classes so I am only required to take two upper GE classes. I looked at the schedule and it could’ve worked, I could’ve fit two more GE classes- one this Fall and the Fall after… BUT if I want to graduate within four years, which I really do to stop raking in more student debt, I’ll have to skip those honors GE classes and just take those core classes that satisfies two requirements each.
The college of business at my university is heavily impacted, we have various filter classes- for example only around 150 students can take advanced financial accounting I which is a prerequisite for almost all upper division classes. If I don’t take those honors GE classes I’ll lose my priority registration. Of course there’s always option 2 which is the Business Honors Program but here’s the problem.
If you’re a part of BHP, you have to take specific classes in honors and each of those class only has one section that fits 35 students each semester. Not only will it mess with your semester’s schedule, especially if you have a job, but it will add a semester or few to your projected graduation. I’ve also looked into the professors to those honors classes and majority of them fall in the ⅗ rating with a very low student passing percentage while those classes not in honors have professors tha are rated 5/5 !
