Cutting class is a common college ritual. Even if you're the model student, who is always 100 percent diligent in your work and would never miss class, face it: you've at least thought about taking a break from that 8:30 A.M. lecture. And who wa't take attendance as there are that do. So what's the harm in giving yourself a little breather? A little indulgence here and there never hurt anybody.

The Good

College students are bombarded with the work from their professors. Either through the sheer workload or through some fault on our parts, we are often awake until the rooster crows. So it's understandable if you're not really up for going to that morning class you have in the next three hours. Right?

Skipping this class may just give you the time to rest and fuel your battery for the day ahead. If you want to play the "good student card," you can always justify it by saying you wanted to be well-rested for the classes you have later in the day. Better to miss one class and be alert for another than to not be alert for either! Maybe you actually need the time from one class to do work for another. It would be way too embarrassing to go into your next class empty-handed! By missing one class, you're just prioritizing the work you have to promptly finish for your next one.

The Bad

So now you cut your class, you're rested, and you caught up on work for some of your other classes. You're feeling good until the thought of you having just wasted some of your parents' hard-earned dollars on that class you missed settles in your head. But if this is all the bad, then consider yourself fortunate (or maybe you're a veteran class cutter). However, chances are you missed out on some note taking and you'll have to find a classmate who will share theirs with you (hopefully, they take good notes too). Beyond just the notes, you may also want to find out exactly what happened at the class you missed, just in case your professor gave some surprise extra work that wasn't included in your class schedule. Fact of the matter is, with most classes being four credit hours and usually only meeting two to three times a week, missing class means you'll have some catching up to do.

The Ugly

Okay, so maybe you're fine with wasting your parents' money and playing the catch up game, and that's cool until there's something you can't fix. Oh, you forgot that there was a homework assignment due in class? You better have a doctor's note to explain your absence, because it's a common practice among professors to lower the grade for assignments turned in late. It gets worse if you missed a quiz or exam. Some professors won't even allow for you to take them if you don't have a proven legitimate excuse for missing them in the first place. Which means you failed...badly. Oh, and let's not forget attendance policies. Professors can only take so much truancy. After a certain number of unexcused absences, it may actually start pulling your grade down, and no amount of good test scores and completed homework assignments will return those lost points to you.

The only thing that can make this worse, is if your professor personally knows you beyond just a name on their roster. As if it weren't bad enough that your grades are slipping, you now have to deal with the embarrassment of having to speak with them after class and explain to them why you were absent last time. Hopefully, you can come up with a good story on the spot because most teachers don't like to hear "I was sleeping and didn't hear my alarm."