How much does attendance count for in college admissions?
I'm a junior in high school and have missed 5 days this year and 7 days last year. Will this be frowned upon by college admission committees? How harmful do you think this would be on my college applications?
That's not too awful. It may have been vacations, but could have been the flu. it's only an issue if there are just way too many. More importantly, your GC may have something to say about it in her/his recommendation letter if it's an issue with your teachers.
Well this year, I missed 3 days because I had the swine flu. The other two days I missed because I went to a debate competition out of city. But of course, an absence is an absence. And I'm hoping to apply to Ivy league universities. I'm not sure if these absences show up on my transcript.
Where did you get the idea that an absence is an absence? "I was out because I had a debate competition" is very different from "I was out because I didn't feel like coming to school".
My transcript had my absences on them. Upwards of 15 days a year in ninth and tenth grade. It also had my elementary and middle school attendance records, when I regularly missed 20+ days of school. It wasn't a problem, and those were probably 50% "I don't feel like going to school today" days. As long as you don't get in trouble with your school, I can't figure how it'd be a problem.
There are so many reasons for students to miss school, that colleges aren't going to spend a lot of energy worrying about it. If you have good grades, strong test scores, and great recommendations, then you have demonstrated that you should be able to handle college level work regardless of how many days you miss.
I've never seen a college application that asks about school attendance at all. It would, of course, be an issue if you cut a lot of class in high school, but usually this doesn't come up at all if you only miss class for being sick (= you are kind enough not to infect your fellow students) or for activities (= you are actively engaged in challenging activities). Who has ever seen a college application that even asks about high school days of attendance or absence?
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Do you know whether your school includes absences on the transcript that is sent to colleges? Both of my sons (two different high schools) had absences noted on their report cards, but NOT on the transcripts that were sent out in support of their college applications.
