How does one go about shirking work?

[rinnia]

I come from Caltech, the land of "They don't take attendance - just get someone else to turn in your set for you and you're good," so I'm not sure how this stuff works in reasonable places and with grad students. But. What's the standard policy for missing class? How much advance notice do you give? Is it totally unreasonable to want to take three days off (not now, obviously, but about seven months from now) to go to a crazy awesome convention? Actually, looking at flight possibilities again, it would only be two days - the Friday and Monday surrounding a weekend. Is that a completely boneheaded thing to want, or am I entitled to a bit of personal indulgence? Augh, the conscience! It weighs!

Comments

[mummimamma.livejournal.com]

Shouldn't there be something in the guidelines about this?

Personally I do not like mandatory attendance, but I like students telling me, after class or by email, if they plan on missing more than two classes in a row. And I usually tell them that it is all righht, as long as they keep up with whatever I assign of work and sweeten the deal with chocolate and/or postcards from far-flung places.

[draconox.livejournal.com]

Here, it typically depends on the professor and the course load. If you have an exam one of those days, skipping might be a problem. Otherwise, professors understand that grad students are busy and sometimes even have lives... they know you're going to have to miss occasionally. If your advisor wants you in the lab certain hours, clear it with him/her, but after that you should be fine. :)