Academics: What Happens If I Blow Off an Assignment?

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Do you want the CliffsNotes answer to this question? Laurel Cooper (Duke University) has it: "You'll have to deal with the consequences," Laurel says. "Talk to your professor about it. He or she might cut you some slack. MIGHT. Or maybe she or he will fail you. That's just how it goes in college."

Laurel knows what she's talking about. The only thing certain about blowing off an assignment is that you're leaving your fate"whether it's 5 percent of your grade or 50 percent"in someone else's hands. It's a most uncomfortable feeling, with good reason: The blown-off assignment very often ends up as a zero grade.

Two aspects of blowing off assignments make it especially painful to receive that zero:

• The assignment's usually something you could have taken care of if you started it earlier. Think about it: Students don't look at their class syllabus and say to themselves, "Nah, I don't think this paper is for me" a month before it's due. It's more likely that they procrastinated until it was too late, and then couldn't find the time to get it done at the last minute. Or they didn't realize that professors mean business when they set a due date. Some professors make no distinction between papers handed in a day late and those never handed in"both get zeroes.
• Grading approaches vary wildly, but it's not unusual to have only a handful of assignments each semester. Skipping one could easily drop your class grade by a full letter.

"Assignments are easy points," says Jessica Smith-Kaprosy, "The more points you have going into exams, the better you'll feel. They're also good practice. If you review the material when doing the assignment, that's less studying you have to do later."

It makes no sense to toss away those easy points. "It will come back to haunt you. Seriously," says Jessica Xan DeLoach (University of Arkansas at Little Rock).

Deadline extensions are only given when students have a verifiable excuse, such as an illness, emergency, or religious observation. Otherwise, most professors won't even consider waiving penalties.

Kristina Ihlenfeldt (Clemson University, Class of 2003) saw a broad range of policies during her years at Clemson. "It's not like high school where all the teachers know you and you can usually persuade them to let you turn things in late," she says. "Usually, if you blow it off, you get a zero. Still, it all depends on the teacher. They all have their own policies for accepting late work. Some don't have problems with it"usually the minority. Some subtract a percentage for each day late, and some just give you a zero without a chance to make it up."

Some homework assignments are optional, which can put students in a bind"on one hand, the teacher must be recommending the activities for a reason; on the other hand, it might seem better to focus on the assignments that count toward one's grade. Jeremy Armstrong (Purdue University) faced this situation in Chemistry 111. When he received the syllabus for the class, he saw that homework did not count toward the final grade.