‘I’m sick’: The complete guide to student excuses for forgotten assignments, all-nighters, oversleeping

Kasey Campbell Contributing Writer

Midterm season is almost here at Iona College. At this point, the typical college student is tired, stressed and probably coming down with a cold. Students tend to break most if not all of their new school year resolutions, ultimately crying to their professors for an extension on an assignment because they have not slept in days.

Excuses are common among college students, especially when it comes to schoolwork. With a five-to-six-class workload, it is hard to keep up and some students have found ways to successfully—or unsuccessfully—get out of doing work. Some Iona students shared with us their most common and memorable excuses for tardiness, absences and missing assignments.

Sophomore Erin O’Donnell believes that a common excuse that students make is simply saying, “I’m sick.” Although this is a valid reason to miss an 8 a.m. class or hand in a research paper one day late, it gets old quickly. Germs are surely floating around campus come this time of year, but how many times can someone be sick enough to miss class?

Professors can see right through this excuse, as it’s the oldest trick in the book. Some students are actually telling the truth, as the weather can be quite harsh on our immune systems, but most of the time it’s nothing a few cough drops and a cup of hot tea can’t help.

Another common excuse made by students is simply blaming the internet or slow Wi-Fi connection for turning in late assignments online.

“Sometimes I blame it on Blackboard, or even say the wireless connection was down,” sophomore Sean Kane said.

Currently, the reliance on technology has become a huge factor in education, so the uncertainty of the internet can be a great excuse for those pesky deadlines. The introduction of Blackboard—essentially the online classroom—has greatly contributed to not only college learning, but college excuses as well. Although slow Wi-Fi connection is a valid excuse, if everyone else in the class were able to access Blackboard, it may be hard to believe that one student could not, especially since colleges are surrounded by technology.

While not necessarily an “excuse,” sleep deprivation is something that all college students know and frankly, despise. Sometimes you just sleep right through an alarm for a morning class or pretend not to hear it at all. Sleeping late is probably the number one culprit for missing class, assignments or tests, even if it is by accident.

“I can’t even count the amount of times I’ve slept through my morning classes,” junior Sarah Eckhardt said. “It has happened even when I don’t mean to.”

Sleep deprivation tends to be a harsh reality for college students—a good night’s sleep is not that common, whether it is because students are staying up doing work, procrastinating or busy with other activities. Chances are, using this excuse on a professor won’t be that effective. Instead, alarm clocks, coffee and some cold water on your face should do the trick!

With college comes stress, and with stress comes excuses. Obviously, a little self-care and extra sleep time is sometimes needed to finish an assignment or paper, but try not to rely on excuses for too long. Life coach Maureen Killoran has a quote that may provide some inspiration:

“Stress is not what happens to us. It is our response to what happens. And response is something we can choose.”

With this in hand, college is a time for exploration, so choose your excuses wisely.