<p>For regular classes, absences aren’t a problem. I get the idea that most college professors leave it up to you to attend class or not. Although I remember calculating about $40/hour for classes so it doesn’t make good economic sense to ditch! As for being late, show up quietly and you’ll be fine.</p>
<p>I have a funny anecdote from freshman year. So I was signed up for two half-semester math classes: multivariable calculus II and linear algebra I. I naturally assumed that linear algebra would be the first class since it was freshman-level, and multivariable would be during the second half since it was sophomore level. Long story short, about halfway through the semester I get this email saying “So you haven’t turned in any homework or taken the midterm for multivariable. You should drop by the end of today before the deadline.” It turned out that I was supposed to be going to both classes simultaneously!</p>
<p>Moral: You don’t have to show up to class at <em>all</em>. Some Mudders use this strategy to save some time in their schedules</p>
<p>The homework load is huge. It is much larger than most other schools. For fun, I recorded about how much homework I did every day for about a week and it turned out to be about 23 hours worth. Don’t forget that you need to go to class too! On 16 credits this semester, I go to class about 21 hours per week. Homework is worth anywhere between 20 to 45%. The major difference from high school is that for most classes there are only 3 exams per semester, accounting for up to 80% of your grade - they’re a big deal!</p>
<p>Another observation is that the courses are more difficult than most other colleges too. I’ve talked to many of my high school friends and they don’t do nearly the amount we do!</p>
<p>As fiona mentioned classes aren’t broadcasted, but the majority have homework solutions at a minimum. Check out [HMC</a> MATH 115 FALL 2009 HOMEWORK](<a href=“http://www.math.hmc.edu/math115/hw.html]HMC”>http://www.math.hmc.edu/math115/hw.html) as an example: this is the course page for Mathematics 115 - Fourier Series and Boundary Value Problems. It’s fairly representative - practice midterm, homeworks and solutions, and course notes. Some classes don’t have posted notes.</p>
<p>FWIW - this is what I’m taking this semester. A little weak (this is 14.5 credits vs. 16-17)
MATH 61 - Multivariable II (1 hour, 3/wk)
MATH 115 - Fourier Series and Boundary Value Problems (1.25hr, 2/wk)
PHYS 51 - Electromagnetic Theory and Optics (1 hr, 4/wk)
PHYS 53 - Electricity and Optics Laboratory (2 hr, 1/wk)
ECON 52 (at Pomona) - Intro to Microeconomics (1.25 hr, 1/wk)
BIO 52 - Intro to Biology (1-1.25 hr, 3/wk)</p>