Soleilpie said:
What is the attendance policy for med students at Duke University? Is it mandatory for all classes or pretty lenient? Any info will be much appreciated!
I'm not sure if there's an "official policy," but in practice students generally do whatever works for them. Sometimes that means skipping lectures during the week before a big exam, to squeeze in enough study time. For some of my classmates that meant never going to anatomy lab, because they felt their time was more efficiently spent reading a color picture atlas of anatomy at home (and they did VERY well in the course!). I've found the administration and advisory deans to be very supportive of students doing whatever they need to do in order to succeed. The fact of the matter is, we all learn differently, and the administration seems to really recognize this. Of course, if you're skipping classes like crazy and then failing exams, I'm sure someone would step in. But as long as you're doing well I don't think it's really an issue at Duke.
But there ARE some settings where attendance is at least informally taken, such as in small group settings like pathology lab, neuroanatomy lab, pharmacology small group, etc. I'd estimate that these account for about 1/3 of curricular time in the first year. Attending these makes good sense though, as your grade for these components is based on your interaction with the instructor and your participation, so if you skipped too many of these the professor wouldn't even know who you were! It's also pretty necessary to attend these sections, otherwise you'd never get to see the path specimens, for example, and would probalby fail the practical exam at the end of the course.
Does that make sense? Just out of curiosity, why did you ask this question?