Do professors care if you drop their class? (PROF answers)

If you are considering dropping a course, and you are wondering if your professor will care that you dropped their class, you’ve come to the right place. There are a few reasons why professors will care that you got out of their class.

As a former professor myself, when students dropped my classes, I never personally cared because I knew students had lives of their own and things come up that impact their college education.

It would be really selfish for me to care that students dropped my class because most students have legitimate reasons for dropping that are completely unrelated to me or my course.

Now, when students do drop, the college is going to want to know why and you’ll probably have to select a reason for dropping the class.

These reasons are typically general like a personal illness or emergency. However, there is usually a reason listed for students who are dissatisfied with the college.

If you select that reason, your professor may feel bad because it might indicate that you weren’t happy in their class and you didn’t like it.

Otherwise, your professor will just move on with their semester as if nothing ever happened. But there are a few reasons where professors might actually be concerned if you drop.

Do professors care if you drop their course?

Professors might care that students drop their class if it impacts their paycheck, gets the administration’s attention or if they have too many students dropping their class.

As a former professor, I never took it personal if students dropped my class. Seriously, it wasn’t even a thought when a student would drop my class.

When I was a professor, I would only CARE if students dropped my class if there were a lot of students who ended up dropping at the same time. I would start to wonder if there was something wrong with my course.

Oversight

The college may run some data on their courses and if there are too many students dropping from one section of a class when other sections still have full enrollment, it is going to raise some eyebrows.

So, if a professor has A LOT of students dropping compared to other courses, the administration may start to investigate and figure out why students aren’t completing that course.

Bottomline, professors might care that students drop their class if they have too many students dropping too often. If it’s a random occurrence, then they won’t care, but if it happens too often, someone is probably going to be asking why.

Also, colleges don’t want students getting out of a class that they need for graduation because it is only going to delay their graduation and cost the student more in the long run.

Therefore some professors might care because it can hurt their numbers and bring lots of attention to them.

Pay

Another reason why professors might care that you drop their class is if you drop before the census date. This is because a professor’s pay MIGHT be impacted based on the class enrollment numbers.

For example, some colleges might pay their professors based on the enrollment in the course. The bigger the class, the higher the pay.

This isn’t always the case and it really impacts adjuncts and overloads for full-time professors.

This can get a little too complicated so I will just keep it simple. Most professors won’t be impacted by this, but it could be an issue in really small classes (less than 10).

Even though there are some reasons when professors will care about students getting out of their classes, when you decide to drop a class, you need to do it for yourself and don’t worry about how your professor will feel.

This should be a personal decision.

READ MORE : How to tell your professor that you are going to leave their class.

Is it rude to drop a class?

No, it is not rude to drop a class as long as you are doing it for valid reasons. Students drop classes all the time and for a variety of reasons. You won’t seem disrespectful for dropping a course as it is a personal decision.

As a former professor, I never took it personal if students dropped my class. Seriously, it wasn’t even a thought that a student dropped my class because I just assumed they had something important going on that needed their full attention.

I would get a little bummed because I liked impacting students’ lives with more knowledge and when someone stops attending and unenrolled, that is one less student that I could teach.

But I NEVER thought a student was rude for dropping my class and your professor won’t think that either.

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