If you’ve had a bunch of absences during high school and are trying to figure out if they will impact your applications, or if, conversely, you’ve had something close to perfect attendance and are hoping that will reflect well in admissions, then you’ve come to the right place.
Below, we’ll cover the basic question of “Do colleges look at attendance?” and also get into some nuance regarding how attendance can indirectly play into admissions.
Do colleges look at attendance in high school?
The short answer is “no,” colleges don’t really care about your high school attendance when making admission decisions. Colleges tend to prioritize the other parts of your application (your GPA, the classes you take in high school, your extracurricular activities, and your application essays).
But (and there is almost always a “but” when it comes to stuff like this), colleges most definitely care about the things that attendance (or a lack thereof) can impact, so you should go to class, be present and engaged, and (hopefully) LEARN!
When you fill out your college applications, you’ll notice that you won’t see questions about your high school attendance. You won’t have to list the number of absences or tardies you’ve had in a class or explain why you had to go to the dentist during Chemistry.
The people reading your applications understand that life happens! Sometimes you get sick, or you have to schedule an appointment during the school day. Maybe you got held up at lunch and were five minutes late to History. That’s ok! Colleges really don’t care about the nitty-gritty details of your attendance AS LONG AS YOU DO NOT HAVE EXCESSIVE ABSENCES (more on that shortly).
Do colleges even see attendance? In most cases, colleges don’t have access to your attendance information unless it’s listed on the transcripts your school sends to the colleges you’re applying to. But even then, those are not the numbers they’re paying attention to (They’re more focused on things like GPAs).
Armed with this information, you might be thinking, “Cool! I can skip AP English every once in a while!” And while it’s true that a missed class here or there isn’t going to ruin your chances of getting into your dream school, showing up to class is about more than just ticking off that attendance box every day. And it’s those other “boxes” that colleges DO care about.
Why is attendance important in class?
It’s important to think about WHY you go to class. Sure, you’re enrolled in these classes, you need to take them in order to graduate, and you’ve likely been told since you were maybe 6 years old that you just have to go to school.
But as you embark on your college application process, it’s important to think about what you actually gain from going to class, as these things can have a direct impact on your college readiness and, by extension, your college applications (speaking of which, here's a link to our College Application Hub ... super helpful!).
Let’s talk about why attendance is important, even if colleges don’t look at this too closely:
1. Developing skills and habits of mind
Learning can happen in a lot of ways, and it certainly happens in places other than the classroom, but being in class is generally one primary way to develop things like critical thinking skills, the ability to engage in academic discourse, a honed written voice, and the skills that come with class presentations. Being in class also gives you the chance to flex your leadership muscles, and at the same time often requires you to collaborate and be a productive member of a group. Do these sound like things colleges think are important? (Just in case: yes, yes they are!)
2. Learning the material
It’s true you can read a textbook and learn the basics of a subject, but to gain a deeper or more nuanced understanding of what you’re reading, it often helps to be in a room with people also working toward a deeper understanding. When you’re in class, you hear answers to questions that can clear up your own confusion (or questions you maybe wouldn’t even have thought of on your own), your teacher will supplement the basics with their own expertise, you’ll learn different ways to approach the material, and you’ll likely get the chance to pull together the threads of what you’re learning in new ways. None of this important work can happen if you’re not actually in class!
3. Engaging with your peers
Let’s face it, at this stage in your lives, you spend the bulk of your day in school. It can be stressful and exhausting, but a huge perk of going to class is learning from your classmates (you know, the people around you who are also stressed and exhausted). Learning to navigate peer relationships is just an important life skill, but it can also have an impact on your college applications because the schools you’re applying to want to know how you engage with community, with people who are different from you, who have different life experiences and perspectives. A lot of this inter-personal navigating and negotiating happens in class (let’s acknowledge but not get started about the social nightmare that can be high-school lunch!).
4. Relationships with your teachers
We’re not suggesting you become best friends with your teachers, but remember these are the people who want to support your academic and personal growth (really and truly). You might have had the odd grumpy teacher who really isn’t your cup of tea, but we really hope that at some point in your high school career you’ve met a teacher who you respects and who inspires you, who makes you feel seen and valued. It’s important to have an adult in your corner, and if you don’t go to class, you miss the chance to discover who this person might be for you.
And from a college application perspective, you’ll also need to ask teachers for letters of recommendation, and if you’ve chosen or had to miss 10 classes in one semester, that teacher probably can’t write you a very strong and personalized letter.
5. GPA
This one is pretty straightforward … if you miss a lot of class, miss a lot of material, have to make up a lot of tests and quizzes, and miss the opportunities for everything else we mentioned in the rest of this list, your GPA will probably be impacted. While it’s true that colleges look at more than just your GPA, (and we’re thrilled by this recent shift) it is still an important indication of your academic progress and ability (the UCs still have a minimum GPA requirement, for example). In fact, GPA (in conjunction with rigor of classes taken) is generally the most important factor for most selective colleges.
What happens if I have extensive absences?
Many, many factors can impact a student’s ability to regularly attend class, and the good news is that colleges want to hear what these reasons are if you fall into this category. Sometimes a student has serious medical issues or mental health issues, or maybe a family member needs special care because they have a medical issue. Maybe your family’s financial situation is one that requires you to work or one that requires you to care for younger siblings while your parents work. Maybe you have transportation issues.
If you find yourself in a situation in which you’ve had to miss a lot of class, we suggest you first talk to your school counselor, who can often fill colleges in on your specific situation. You can also include this information in your application (either in your personal statement or in the UC Additional Information section if you’re applying to the UCs).
It’s important that you address this issue somewhere, and it’s more important that you are not ashamed to share these obstacles with the people reading your application. These are all part of your life experience and part of who you are, and it’s worth celebrating that you’ve had to overcome some challenges to get to the place that you’re even thinking about college! (In fact, that kind of resiliency is something colleges actively look for in students.)
What do colleges look for besides grades?
Luckily, grades are not the only determining factor in college admission decisions (take a look at Stanford's statement about holistic admissions). The colleges and universities you’re applying to are interested in who you are as a whole person. So, what ELSE do they look at? Things like …
The rigor of your classes
Your extracurricular activities
Any work and volunteering experience
Awards and honors
Examples of leadership
Examples of collaboration
Your values and priorities (and if these align with the school’s values)
What you can contribute to the greater school community
The things that make you unique
We want to be clear; grades are important. Colleges will still look at your academic performance because they want to make sure you are prepared for the level of academics you’ll be immersed in once you arrive.
But colleges recognize that grades alone do not make the applicant. You might be a brilliant musician who really struggles in AP US History. Or maybe you’ve dedicated your time to helping the unhoused but can’t quite get a handle on Statistics. These qualities and talents are ALSO an important indication of your readiness for college, and the good news is that your college applications give you many opportunities to expound on all the things that make you awesome.
So, do colleges care about attendance in high school?
From a straight-up numbers perspective, they do not. Can you imagine how long it would take to pore over each applicant’s attendance record? The admission process would be 3 years long!
But again, they do care about the things that your attendance helps with (they care A LOT). So don’t stress out if you have to miss two classes because you have a cold. But don’t think you get a free pass when it comes to attendance either.
This might sound weird coming from the people whose goal is literally to help you get into college, but we are equally invested in the idea that you learn for the sake of learning and growing and developing—going to class is an excellent way to make sure this happens! We don’t see college as the end goal: we see it as a great step on your path to becoming the human you want to be.
Special thanks to Jessica for writing this blog post.
Jessica B.
Jessica has a Ph.D in English from the University of Southern California and teaches English at a Los Angeles-area independent school, where she has also been English department chair and a class dean. Sandra Cisneros is her hero, and she loves books, her awesomely-sarcastic family, the beach, cozy sweaters, and more books. Oh, and her sweet pitbull/lab mix named Ruby.
Top values: Curiosity, equity, wonder
