College meetings are making their way into the schedules of NDB juniors. These meetings present the perfect opportunity for students to learn about various colleges and universities that they may be interested in applying to. However, the meetings are often scheduled during classes, forcing students to miss class instruction.

This brings the importance of junior year into perspective, as it is also a time for students to start their college search. While the meetings serve as a great introduction to education beyond high school, missing only 45 minutes of a class can lead to difficulty in understanding that day’s lesson, putting students behind and jeopardizing their grades.

We as students can understand the negative impact missing a class can have. There will be homework to complete which will not be clear to us, so it will be both time-consuming and difficult to finish. We are already expected to juggle school with extracurriculars and may not get as much sleep as a result of the time spent catching up on missed work. 

Skipping class is an action that leads to negative consequences in the long term. It is already a known fact that students who intentionally skip a class tend to fall behind on assignments, so why are they being encouraged to do so to learn about a college? These meetings are counterproductive because rather than accomplishing their sole purpose of helping students stay ahead academically, they actually put students behind.

Students who prefer not to miss class are unable to take advantage of this opportunity that NDB presents as a big advantage to the juniors. Changing the times of the meetings will help to give students who are dedicated to class time a chance to attend.