Sitting in Statistics 100 last Friday, I took a look around me and couldn’t help but realize how the class has dwindled in numbers since the beginning of the semester. Only about 65 of us, in a class that’s typically 200, barely followed along with our teacher as she desperately tried to get stats assignments to relate to our lives as college students. In that moment, I realized something big: My peers are skipping class.

When I wanted to skip class in high school, I had to come up with an elaborate reason as to why I just could not get out of bed. My mom would usually believe me, and I would stay home eating ice cream and watching “Gossip Girl.”

The consequences were clearer, though, when you skipped in high school because you needed a “mental health” day. You would be loaded with homework the next day, your teachers would send you angry emails about “consequently only getting sick on Mondays” (maybe that was just me), or you would face penalties from missing an after-school club or sport.

In college, however, it is more difficult to see the repercussions of our actions because we do not have to put on the show of a lifetime in the morning to prove our sickness and get out of class, especially when many professors don’t take attendance.

All we have to do is turn off our ringing alarms and roll over to the other side of the bed.

“If I go to class, I will sleep there anyway because I’m hungover and it’s a waste of my time,” said Kevin Johnson, senior in Business. “I’d mainly skip gen. ed. classes that I don’t care about. I take those classes ‘cause they’re easy in the first place.”

Freshmen are so new to the college experience that they seem to get caught up in the complete freedom that college life gives them. Erhan Kudeki, professor and associate head for Undergraduate Affairs said, “Some fraction of (students) see their new social setting more interesting and exciting than their classes and forget that they came here for education.”

Students may not realize how much tuition money they waste by skipping class. According to EducationOnline.net, the current average cost for a year of tuition at a four-year public college is $6,585 a year. For an average student who takes 15 credit hours a week, this comes to $14 per hour of class.

This money does add up — just count how many classes you skipped this week. I can’t imagine you intended to spend your money, or your parents’ money, sleeping in your dorm during class.

In some cases, missing class means not only missing valuable material, but also participation points. Lots of professors will dock points for simply missing three or more classes.

The regularity of missing a class on the account of a hangover or other similar reason is a waste on your GPA, especially when you’re missing required, 100-level general education classes. Excelling in these easier classes could kickstart your GPA at the University.

College is about developing a work ethic that will serve you for the rest of your life.

When you start in the workforce, it is not acceptable to skip your job that day just because you aren’t “feelin it.” You will get fired.

If you create a system early on that works for you, the next seven semesters of your life (at least) will be that much easier. You have the opportunity to set habits that will stick with you for the rest of your life, even beyond schooling, and the decision is yours on the habits you develop.

Whether you party or not, make sure you’re getting to your classes.

Thinking strategically; you want to begin college with an awesome GPA to leave room for harder classes down the road.

It is easy to do this in your first semester; you just have to get out of bed and go to class.

?Leah is a freshman in Media.?

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