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Will Nap in Class Hurt Prospective Student's Admission Odds?

Written by Sally Rubenstone | April 5, 2018

Question: Hi, I visited my first choice college and sat in a class. I slept very little the night before due to the prescription medication I took keeping me awake. I dozed off during lecture and I was sitting in the far corner of the front row, I'm sure the professor saw I was dozing off. I'm just wondering, will that hurt my chance of admission? Does admission normally communicate with the professor in the class opened to visitors?

The professor may have been a bit insulted that you dozed off during the lecture, but it won't have any impact on your admission chances. Admission officials don't check in with faculty members to evaluate a routine classroom visit. However, if you want to be a good guy, it wouldn't hurt to write the prof a note (if you know his or her name) and apologize for the cat-nap, explaining that you were taking medication that hit you weirdly. This extra effort on your part won't affect your admission chances either, but it might be good for your karma. ;-)

Hopefully this episode will serve as a “wake-up call" for you to talk to your doctor about the impact of your meds, for the sake of your health and safety now—if not your college future.

Sally Rubenstone

Sally Rubenstone knows the competitive and often convoluted college admission process inside out: From the first time the topic of college comes up at the dinner table until the last duffel bag is unloaded on a dorm room floor. She is the co-author of Panicked Parents' Guide to College Admissions; The Transfer Student's Guide to Changing Colleges and The International Student's Guide to Going to College in America. Sally has appeared on NBC's Today program and has been quoted in countless publications, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Weekend, USA Today, U.S. News & World Report, Newsweek, People and Seventeen. Sally has viewed the admissions world from many angles: As a Smith College admission counselor for 15 years, an independent college counselor serving students from a wide range of backgrounds and the author of College Confidential's "Ask the Dean" column. She also taught language arts, social studies, study skills and test preparation in 10 schools, including American international schools in London, Paris, Geneva, Athens and Tel Aviv. As senior advisor to College Confidential since 2002, Sally has helped hundreds of students and parents navigate the college admissions maze. In 2008, she co-founded College Karma, a private college consulting firm, with her College Confidential colleague Dave Berry, and she continues to serve as a College Confidential advisor. Sally and her husband, Chris Petrides, became first-time parents in 1997 at the ripe-old age of 45. So Sally was nearly an official senior citizen when her son Jack began the college selection process, and when she was finally able to practice what she had preached for more than three decades.