Hey, what's up guys?
So today we are tackling the age old question,
is it ever worth it to skip a class?
Now, you're probably expecting me to say something like,
"Always go to class, eat your vegetables, I'm your dad,"
because I have a beard and I'm probably a bit older than you
but if I said that this video would be five seconds long
and it probably wouldn't be worth your click.
So instead let's look at this a little bit more objectively
because this is a question about skipping classes, yes
but it's also a more general question
about opportunity costs.
So let's get this out of the way right up front.
If you're in high school,
I'm not going up against the truancy laws here.
You should go to class, just deal with it.
Yeah it sucks sometimes.
Go to class if you're in high school.
If you're in college though,
the question becomes a little bit different
because in college now you're an adult,
you can make your own choices,
and you are choosing to pay money for more education
that is not legally required of you.
And that's the big thing here.
You're choosing to pay money for these classes
and every class you decide to skip costs you money,
and in fact, using some simple math we can break down
exactly how much money you're throwing away
if you decide to skip a class.
So let's say you're going to a university
like the one I went to
which charges a flat rate per semester
instead of charging per credit.
And let's also say
you're taking the standard 15 credit per semester load,
which means you're gonna have five three-credit classes,
each of which meet three times a week
and an average rate for semester tuition at this point
is about $4,000 for in-state public tuition
so we're gonna use that here.
So breaking all that down your cost per credit
is $266.67, which means each three-credit class
ends up being about $800
and since you're gonna go to each of those classes 48 times
over the course of the semester,
that means you end up with a per class cost of $16.67.
Meaning every single time you decide to skip a class
by the straight math you are throwing away $17
that you already paid
and you're no long getting the value for.
That example is the simple math-based way to put it
but it breaks down
when we consider a couple of other things.
Number one being not every class is considered equal.
For one, you're gonna have general education classes
which you don't care about as much as your major classes
and then for each individual class
you're gonna have certain sessions that are really important
because they're either tests
or the professor's giving away some vital information
you need for the tests
or on certain days you're just gonna have classes
that go over like edge cases or case studies
or something you really don't need to know about
in the future.
So, each class
is not gonna be worth as much as the other one
and furthermore, you need to think about
what the actual value of these classes is
because the value isn't the time you spend
sitting in the seat.
The value actually is the signalling value
your degree is going to give to potential employers
in the future.
Basically saying this person is qualified
to do the job they wanna do
and also the knowledge and skills
that your classes and your other college experiences
are gonna give you,
which will help you get those jobs as well.
Basically, your focus should be on the value of each class
as it applies to your earning potential in the future
because, make no mistake about it,
college is a business decision.
It's an investment on your part.
You're choosing to spend thousands of dollars
to sit in classes and take tests
and you're also choosing to sacrifice
many years of your life
that you could be otherwise working and making money,
and this is where the opportunity cost comes in.
You're sacrificing one thing of value
to gain something else.
So the earnings you make in the future from college
eventually need to outpace what you could've done otherwise.
This is the financial ROI, or return on investment.
And yeah, college gives you other benefits.
You learn things, you gain experiences, you meet new people,
but as Matt Damon so eloquently put it
in Good Will Hunting, "You coulda gotten all that
"for a dollar fifty in late fees at the library."
So, we're not gonna get off into the weeds
about all that stuff.
We're just gonna keep the focus on the financial ROI here.
Keeping that in mind, for any particular class
what's gonna happen if you skip it?
Well, you might miss some vital information
that's gonna be really important on a test
or maybe you miss a test altogether
and that's gonna lead to a lower GPA down the line.
You also might form a negative perception
in the mind of your professor if you skip
and they're gonna think you're like some sort of lazy,
entitled millennial
and they're gonna shake their fist at you
and tell you to get off their lawn,
or maybe nothing's gonna happen, who knows?
On the other side of the equation though
you have to ask, "What am I gaining by skipping class?"
Because money isn't the only cost.
There's another cost to your classes and that's your time.
Yeah, you're paying tuition dollars
but you're also using 45 minutes of your precious time
every day that you walk into that classroom.
So what could you gain if you use that time somewhere else?
If you're just feeling lazy
and you really don't wanna go to class
I'm not gonna sit here and tell you that's a good decision
because frankly it's not.
You've already committed resources
and it's a waste of your money and time
to throw away those resources
because you don't feel like it.
You probably know how I feel about not feeling like it.
But, if there's something else that you can do
instead of going to class and it's valuable to you
then that changes the situation significantly.
For example, when I was a senior
I actually skipped about three days of class
to go down to Texas for an event called Finish Up Weekend.
This was basically an event where lots of creative people
came into one space
and they were all working as hard as they possibly could
to finish up a lot of cool projects
and they were helpin' each other out
and I met a lot a cool people during that event,
people who I still talk to today,
and I also learned how to build iPhone apps in one weekend
through a course that somebody pointed me to
and for me, that was way, way more valuable
than a few computer networking classes.
Also, during my freshman year
I skipped a few of my general education classes
that were just not useful to me
and some days I would just schedule extra part-time work,
make a little bit of extra money,
and I would just keep my eye on the syllabus
to make sure I wasn't skipping any important days.
Though, for those of you who are thinking
this is an endorsement of skipping class
and who wanna follow my footsteps,
here are a couple of caveats.
Number one, I will say that after my freshman year
I made it a point to always attend class
and I never skipped class again other than those times
where there was a really important thing to go to
like the Texas trip.
And number two,
I really recommend getting to know your professors,
introducing yourselves to them
at the beginning of the semester, and if you do this
there's a higher likelihood
that your professor's gonna notice if you're gone.
So if you're skipping because you're lazy
or you just wanna sleep in,
you're not gonna make a good impression.
Anyway, those are the facts.
That's all I've really got to say about this
and it really comes down to your own values and priorities
and your own decision if you wanna skip class or not.
It's an opportunity cost decision
and you need to weigh the costs and the benefits.
However, if you're gonna skip class at least do it smart.
Have a friend who can fill you in on any details
or maybe let you copy the notes
and make sure you're staying as up to date
on the out-of-class work as you can
so you're not falling behind.
You also wanna gauge the class to see if what's on the test
is kinda mirrored from the textbook
or if there's a lot of really vital information
you can only get in lectures.
And lastly, make sure you're paying attention
to the syllabus as much as you can
and write down any test dates, quiz dates, or homework dates
in your calendar, I mean, you should be doing this anyway,
but if you're gonna skip it's vitally important,
like doubly so.
Though I will say that it's not foolproof
because I've had times
where the professor's had to change the location
or the time or the date of a test
and they've only told the people
who were in the lecture hall.
So, if you're gonna skip a class
there's inherent risk built into it no matter what you do,
no matter what you do to mitigate that risk
there's gonna be some there.
So, just keep that in mind.
And one last thing, if you're gonna be going to a class
where you have to work on a group project
don't skip, don't be a jerk.
Right there, yeah.
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