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I received an updated copy of my transcript and it had 22.5 absences on it!! I know I have not had this many absences, and my mom is trying to straighten this out, but I am not sure if they will change it. will an extreme number of absences reported kill my chances at selective colleges?

By Encomium (Encomium) on Tuesday, September 30, 2003 - 07:39 pm: Edit

your life must be very boring

By Neo (Neo) on Tuesday, September 30, 2003 - 08:06 pm: Edit

Thank you, Encomium. If 22.5 absenses from high schools made today the shock of your life, I'm surprised you don't die whenever you get an A- on a test.

By Writer (Writer) on Sunday, October 05, 2003 - 07:54 pm: Edit

Wow, that must have barely edged out the time the people at a restaurant put mayonnaise on your sandwich when you specifically said not to. Scary.

By Soozievt (Soozievt) on Sunday, October 05, 2003 - 08:32 pm: Edit

You guys are harsh on her.

Sadeyed....first of all, I doubt colleges are examining the absences. In any case, I am not sure why this is coming up now but I know each school is different. But our report cards each marking period and year state the absences so I am a bit surprised that it took til now to learn of what was listed for you. But no matter. Let me assure you that it likely IS a mistake. The thing is that it might be hard to go back and document things from that far back. I can tell you that at our school mistakes about absences happen ALL THE TIME to an extreme. Here, as with most schools there are limits on the number of times you can miss a class and still pass. So, every once in a while, I will get some printout from the office that has a list of my kid's absences from certain classes listed and it will say the excuse, using a code and this comes if she is over the limit and asks the parent to send in documentation if there are any errors. Here, if absent, a written note of excuse must be sent to the office. A phone call does not suffice. I am pretty good about sending in the written notes. But the school messes up very often on other things. For instance, my child is on three varsity sports teams and when they are dismissed early, there is a master list of students that the office should have, but often my child still has teachers marking her down as unexcused absence in error. Often my kids are on school sponsored field trips, be it All States for music or some jazz festival or what not, and even though we have done all the paper work signing off on it, they have had each teacher sign off that they are aware of the field trip, etc. etc.....time and again I will get these dates from the office listing my kid as unexcused absence, even though the excuse was from WITHIN the school. It is mostly a pain in the butt but is always ironed out. I just have to send in a note, reminding them that was the school trip, the team game, etc. etc. that every form was signed off on, and it is always taken care of. But I am sharing this that if I never got these notes (these ones in error) it would then have my kids absent (unexcused) way more than they were for the record. So, the record screws up a lot and we have had to just send in the notes to explain to them the messups. I mean I can thinkof times when there was an all day in school musical rehearsal and every teacher signed the form that they were aware of the kid missing classes for this and still I got the note from the office that the kid has some unexcused absence even though the school itself made my kid absent. So, it is just a matter of the school doing all this paper filing and it does mess up (often in our school). Now, you would have to have them give you the dates and go back on some old calendars and figure out what the mistakes were and have your parents send in documentation of any errors if you can.

Ideally, you would do this several times per year when report cards come out. It is harder now to go back four years. I am not sure it is an issue however, certainly not for colleges. I mean that is like five absences per year, certainly not cause for alarm ! The only issue I could see is like the one I explained at OUR school where they sent notes of too many classes missed according to policy per marking period to get credit for the course. Ours was in error, like I said, for school sponsored absences that they just could not get straight within the building. But it would be an issue if credit was at stake. YOURS is rather a nonissue to me, unless you just really want the record straight. I am sure colleges are not looking at this and if they were, five absences on avg. per year is a good clean slate....not negative AT ALL.
Susan

By Xyz155 (Xyz155) on Sunday, October 05, 2003 - 08:38 pm: Edit

I am sorry but that is just pathetic, if a college is that anal that they would even reject you for having 22.5 absenses then y would you want to go there in the first place?

By Quarky (Quarky) on Sunday, October 05, 2003 - 08:58 pm: Edit

ROFLMAO! OMG, I RECEIVED THE SHOCK OF MY LIFE TODAY!!! I have even more absences:

31.4159265358979323846264338327950288419716939
9375105820974944592307816406286208998628034825
34211706798214808651328230664709384460955058223
17253594081284811174502841027019385211055596446
22948954930381964428810975665933446128475648233
78678316527120190914564856692346034861045432664
82133936072602491412737245870066063155881748815
20920962829254091715364367892590360011330530548
82046652138414695194151160943305727036575959195
30921861173819326117931051185480744623799627495
67351885752724891227938183011949129833673362440
65664308602139494639522473719070217986094370277
05392171762931767523846748184676694051320005681
27145263560827785771342757789609173637178721468
44090122495343014654958537105079227968925892354
20199561121290219608640344181598136297747713099
60518707211349999998372978049951059731732816096
31859502445945534690830264252230825334468503526
19311881710100031378387528865875332083814206171
77669147303598253490428755468731159562863882353
78759375195778185778053217122680661300192787661
11959092164201989

By Rubenizm (Rubenizm) on Sunday, October 05, 2003 - 10:22 pm: Edit

wait was that supposed to be funny?

HA HA HA

By Hsimpson2k4 (Hsimpson2k4) on Sunday, October 05, 2003 - 10:35 pm: Edit

a) For those of you who think he is weird, it is just pi. I know that some of the readers wouldn't have realized that.
b) stop ••••••• im-ing me quarky and then warning me
c) rubenizm, u the man. Well, not really. I find your acerbic remarks funny, but it's really not nice to always be putting people down.

By Sadeyedlady (Sadeyedlady) on Sunday, October 05, 2003 - 10:39 pm: Edit

you guys don't get it..it's 22.5 absences for this ONE year. that's a month off school without having serious illnesses. this was on my transcript not my report cards.

i did get it fixed, though.

By Trombonist (Trombonist) on Sunday, October 05, 2003 - 10:43 pm: Edit

isn't pi 3.14 etc instead of 31.4 . . . ? Oh well, it was still sort of funny, I guess

By Hsimpson2k4 (Hsimpson2k4) on Sunday, October 05, 2003 - 11:09 pm: Edit

Trombonist, 3.14 wouldn't be more than 22.5, so he changed it.

By Becks777 (Becks777) on Sunday, October 05, 2003 - 11:16 pm: Edit

hey,
i just called up george bush to tell about the problem and i think hes gonna declare a state of emergency!!!!!!!!......
maybe a terrorist changed the absences on your transcript................or maaaybe its saddam hussain.......u never know!!

By Bear363 (Bear363) on Sunday, October 05, 2003 - 11:30 pm: Edit

Actually, given the current state of George Bush's right wing, fascist regime, I would not doubt that he would do such a thing. If George Bush will not look into the situation personally, I would think that his lapdogs Tom Ridge and John Ashcroft would. Not to worry!!! The government will get to the bottom of this, especially with the power of the Patriot Act!

By Valpal (Valpal) on Sunday, October 05, 2003 - 11:39 pm: Edit

Oh GAWD... Can we please NOT derail this thread with a George Bush trashing? Sadeyed, I understand your concern. I'm glad you got it all ironed out.

By Quarky (Quarky) on Monday, October 06, 2003 - 02:16 am: Edit

n

By Jason817 (Jason817) on Monday, October 06, 2003 - 02:46 am: Edit

If you aced the class/5 on AP with a month absent, I'd think they'd be even more impressed.

By Quarky (Quarky) on Monday, October 06, 2003 - 03:07 am: Edit

I dunno Jason, you raise an interesting question. Do colleges want to see workaholics who aren't that smart but work their asses off, attend 100% of classes and do all the work? Or do they prefer smart students who dont attend all classes and still perform well just because they are smart and know the subject matter?

By Andy7733 (Andy7733) on Monday, October 06, 2003 - 03:24 am: Edit

smart and subject matter, so ive heard. here's the rationale: a college will see a 1600 and a 3.4 and see someone who isnt being challenged in school. this same college will see someone who gets a 4.0 but a 1300 as someone who works hard. neither are bad, but ive heard colleges go for the former more often than the latter.

By Becks777 (Becks777) on Monday, October 06, 2003 - 12:57 pm: Edit

no........the fbi just denied on cnn that its not a terrorist attack...........

By Gigglz (Gigglz) on Monday, October 06, 2003 - 02:16 pm: Edit

omg..you got your mom to talk to them about it???? lol

By Neo (Neo) on Monday, October 06, 2003 - 02:58 pm: Edit

Quarky and Andy raise some fine points there. Especially Andy -- if colleges truly do interpret high SAT scores and less than stellar-GPAs as signs of a smart, unchallenged student, then that would explain why valedictorians are not often the first choices for top tier colleges when it comes to admissions -- perhaps they're more willing to accept people who "get it, even if they don't care for it" over people who appear to do nothing but study night after night(valedictorians).

It's kind of funny. In my school, I'm the only student I know of that's applying to an Ivy-level school, or even to an out-of-state school. Our valedictorian's got almost a dozen APs as well as the weighted GPA of 4.+, but she's planning on going to a small religious in-state school a couple of hours away. Everyone else is aiming for the local U State that everyone could have gotten into sophomore year. And by the way, I'm nowhere near val. position (92nd percentile), but I've got a heck of a higher chance of getting into say, Stanford, than anyone else. I'm not even going to get into how everyone takes the ACT almost to a man/woman, over the SAT. Quite strange.

By Quarky (Quarky) on Monday, October 06, 2003 - 03:19 pm: Edit

Yeah, well at my HS I graduated ranking 3rd, but I had higher SAT and ACT scores than anyone else in my class. 1st rank had 27 or 28 ACT and around 1200 SAT, 2nd place had 30. I had 34 ACT, 1350 SAT (800M, 550V 'cause English is my 2nd language). 1st place is going to U Nebraska, since he is originally from Nebraska. 2nd place is going to BYU for mormons ;). I'm going to U Idaho, so yeah my school's output is pretty sad. At least I got into some rather good schools, I just didn't have money to afford them. Oh well, *sigh*

By Neo (Neo) on Monday, October 06, 2003 - 03:34 pm: Edit

Quarky, is that a jellyfish in your profile? It looks awesome. However, I know what you mean about the high school thing -- we're not one of those private ultra-selective "exter academy" types that send 30 students to Ivies each year, but it's school all the same. At least you're doing well in Idaho now. But how come you didn't apply for fin aid? Or was it an international situation?

By Alimshk (Alimshk) on Monday, October 06, 2003 - 03:41 pm: Edit

This post gets ••••[ier] and ••••[ier] with every comment. And no, none of it was funny.

By Dkm (Dkm) on Monday, October 06, 2003 - 03:53 pm: Edit

no...actually i think ppl on these boards r really funny...i never realised really smart ppl could be so cool and funny as well...it doesnt happen in my skool the smart ppl r total retards who study 24/7

By Dkm (Dkm) on Monday, October 06, 2003 - 03:53 pm: Edit

no...actually i think ppl on these boards r really funny...i never realised really smart ppl could be so cool and funny as well...it doesnt happen in my skool the smart ppl r total retards who study 24/7

By Bbstlchi (Bbstlchi) on Monday, October 06, 2003 - 04:27 pm: Edit

DKM......same is true with smart poeple in my school too......total book worms........would never socialize or even talk to anyone.
that probably was one reason why i had little interst in the ivies. always thought i would meet only those kind of people in the ivies

By Rubenizm (Rubenizm) on Monday, October 06, 2003 - 04:55 pm: Edit

george bush doesn't need to be trashed. all the job is done once he opens his mouth

By Quarky (Quarky) on Tuesday, October 07, 2003 - 03:15 am: Edit

NEO:
Nope, that's not a jellyfish. It's a quark (gotta have something to support my username ).

RUBENIZM: HAHA GOOD ONE ABOUT bush +111t (free cookies for anyone who solves my puzzle :P)

By Quarky (Quarky) on Tuesday, October 07, 2003 - 04:02 pm: Edit

bump

By Valpal (Valpal) on Tuesday, October 07, 2003 - 10:49 pm: Edit

The point, Reubenizm, is about the integrity of the thread topic. If you want to Bush Bash, start a topic that's just for that purpose. Please!