To skip, or not to skip?

It all started with some old-fashioned procrastination.

Jim Filbert was lying in bed one morning last semester, debating whether or not to go to class, when he wondered whether there was a program online that could make the decision for him. When he couldn't find one, he created the "Should I Skip Class Today? Calculator."

"I was kind of used to running the risk of skipping class in my head and weighing the pros and cons," Filbert said, who graduated last semester from Bowling Green State University in Ohio. "When I couldn't find anything online like a survey that could tell me when to skip class, I decided I would make one."

The tool, hosted at skipclasscalculator.com, asks students 10 questions about the class they're thinking about skipping. After answering such questions as how many times a week the class is held, when the next major test is and how easy it is to get notes from a fellow classmate, the tool calculates how safe it is to skip class based on the responses.

In addition to telling students whether to hightail it to class or not even bother getting out of bed, the tool calculates how many days away your next test is and the percentage of the semester's classes a student has already skipped.

For Filbert, the website's success was unexpected.

"It started out as a joke between me and some of my friends," Filbert said, who created the website in February. "It wasn't until April that I saw there were more people using the calculator than I thought."

The skip class calculator has become increasingly popular with college students and had completed about 18,000 calculations as of last night, according to the website.

Although some students were interested in using the website, others were hesitant to actually follow its advice.

"I think I would use it but not fully trust it," sophomore journalism major Gabby Siskind said. "But I would be interested to see what it says."

Sophomore journalism major Claire Yan, who used the calculator last semester, said the website's failure to see her personal circumstances led her to ignore its advice.

"I just really didn't want to go to class, so I skipped even though the website told me not to, and it turned out all right," Yan said. "It really just depends on how you're feeling that day."

Professors also had their doubts about whether the website would be a hit.

"No student makes it to every class, but it's surprising to me that students would use this website," agricultural and resource economics professor Kenneth Leonard said. "It's surprising that this website would give you an answer you couldn't think of yourself."

"I think there are some occasions where students will skip class, but [the site] doesn't take into account all reasons a student might skip," said communication professor Edward Fink, who tried out the calculator with hypothetical information. "It's more important for you to weigh the pros and cons yourself."

Although Filbert said the site is taking off again now that school has started, he doesn't expect it to grow for much longer, adding that most people who check out the site don't come back.

He said he has plans to build a new website that will "revolutionize the way students skip class," but he wasn't willing to discuss it.

"Students can take away from skipclasscalculator.com whatever they want," Filbert said. "The reason I made the website was because I thought it would be an interesting project a lot of people would check out, and so far it's succeeded."

saravia at umdbk dot com