By Staff Writer Sawyer Pollitt.

Everyone skips class. It’s a part of college. I’m skipping as I write this in fact. Renaissance History, I love the class, but man do I have a lot of work to do. This article will explore the proper time and place to skip a class, as well as some tips and tricks to bring the best results possible.  

First, the most important thing to keep in mind is how skipping a class will impact your grade. No amount of extra sleep or study time will help you if a professor takes off a letter grade with every absence after three. This kind of professor is one that you should not skip unless in a dire, life-threatening situation.  

Now, one needs to move on to the professors who either don’t take attendance, don’t factor attendance into the final grade, or who say they take attendance but never do. This is the best type of class to consider skipping. There will be a minimal amount of consequence when compared to the benefit that one could gain from this action.  

In the eyes of this writer, there are few reasons that would warrant skipping a class. In an ideal situation, one should go to class during every scheduled meeting time. This is the guaranteed best way to get a passing grade in a course. However, as every college student knows, ideal situations are few and far between.  

The classic reason to skip class is to work on papers or projects that the individual deems to be “more important”. While this situation is valid, it pales in comparison to the single most important reason that someone should skip class. Maintaining their mental health.  

School is stressful. Sometimes one needs to spend some time outside of the claustrophobic concrete halls of UMass Dartmouth to keep from going insane. Maybe you’re forgetting to eat, or foregoing sleep to get work done. In cases like this, a day off from classes may be the best course of action to improve your grades overall.  

If skipping class for mental well-being seems like the path for you, it’s also important to keep in mind that skipping too much just causes work to pile up and overwhelm even the most responsible student. There is a delicate balance between giving yourself a break and digging yourself a hole.  

Now that you have committed to skipping class, we will discuss the best ways to go about doing it.  First, do everything in your power to avoid running into the professor of the class you are skipping. If, for any reason, you run into them in the halls, the mission must be aborted. They know you are there. They know you are fine. Continuing to skip in this situation is only for the bold and experienced.  

Importantly, one should be sure to have a friend who can catch you up on any missed information. There is nothing worse than showing up to a class not knowing that an assignment is due. God forbid you get called on for a reading you didn’t complete. Especially if the professor is a stickler for class discussion.  

Overall, taking the day off from classes is sometimes the best option. It can help reduce work load by providing more time to catch up on assigned work. It can also allow one to take a break – something that is often overlooked in college. Regardless of what people say, it is completely possible to occasionally skip and still pass with flying colors. Either way, we at the Torch can’t endorse skipping class, but here is exactly how to do it.