Absence Limit

[Falcon010101]

Is it acceptable to have 50 excused absences per semester?
Personal opinions unless USAFA has posted information on this.

 

[T-37IP]

I can't imagine 50 absences per semester, excused or otherwise, would be a positive. You will certainly need to address this, perhaps in your additional essay and your interview.

 

[Clar]

I want to say I had something similar junior year, and no one has ever asked about it. My school counted every class missed as an absence and team sports/extra cirrculurs have a lot of abscences in one season.

 

[HOUND-DAWG]

My counselor told me that USAFA doesn't ask for this information any more. They used to apparently. But not anymore. Does anyone have information that points otherwise?

 

[A1Janitor]

When I was in school, I was in detention all the time. Chiefly from absences but also behavioral issues.

My son would get mad if he was late to school. He had perfect attendance every year. He only cared about the award they give out at the awards banquet.

That wouldn’t have been enough to motivate me.

I don’t know anything about acceptable or not. But if I were interviewing you or reading your package, I would want to satisfy my curiosity of why so many. Don’t explain it here - but there could be good reasons for it, there could be a good essay about it, etc.

 

[bopper]

I think there are about 180 school days... what is causing these absences? Is your student keeping up with the classes?

 

[Iwutke]

Is it acceptable to have 50 excused absences per semester?
Personal opinions unless USAFA has posted information on this.

Is that 50 entire days, or 50 classes (6-10 days)?

 

[flieger83]

As an ALO, years ago, I was asked by admissions to look into something like this about a candidate they were evaluating.

I discovered that the kid, for better or worse, didn't like some of his classes, and he just didn't go.

The academy was all set to "cut him loose" until they read the part of my report that said: "The school administration is fully aware of his activities and has elected to take no action. They have filed no documentation of any offense."

That told admissions..." nothing to see here, move on." So they kept him in the process.

This was at least 20 years ago. Today????

Steve
OLD USAFA ALO
(Evaluator and Mentor)

 

[USAFA10s]

I probably had upwards of 50 absences - not all full days, but many of them

I enrolled in study hall and never went - needing that time to do physical therapy to rehab an injury for tennis. In later years, I missed almost every other Friday, some Mondays and a couple full weeks here and there for tennis tournaments. USAFA never asked, but it did come up in my ALO interview (not sure where he got that info - must have been on my transcript or something). I explained it and it wasn't an issue. My grades didn't suffer at all and it was necessary to get to the level of tennis I was at.

So in short - probably not an issue if there is a good reason. Perhaps even a good topic for an interview. For me it was all about time management. I could stay on top of school without always being there, so my time was best spent being where I needed to be for tennis.