Hello freshman and welcome to college, now please take a seat and be quiet. Despite the leniency of a college lecture hall in comparison to high school classes, singing the hokey-pokey to the dreamy guy in the back row of your biology class is still highly frowned upon!

For most freshman, college is the first time in life when they have the actual freedom to make their own decisions. You can stay up late, do your homework if you want to, and only go to class when the mood strikes. Which is great, you are now solely and completely responsible for yourself.

So, go wild, but a word of warning, your essential learning classes are a requirement for graduation. All the time you are spending in your biology class discussing how you can’t believe Jordyn Woods cheated with Tristan and that Justin Bieber is, hands down, the hottest guy on earth, is literally costing you money and future time.

Let me break this down for you a little. The average tuition cost at Colorado Mesa University is $9,243 for 15 credit hours in both the fall and spring semesters, according to the Tuition and Fees page on the school’s website. This boils down to roughly $308.10 per credit or $924.30 per class per semester.

For your average Monday, Wednesday, Friday classes, you’ll have around 46 classes each semester which equates to about $20 per class. Sure $20 may not seem like a lot, but when you show up and don’t pay attention or don’t show up at all to just one class a week, you have thrown $306 down the drain! And that’s just for one class! Now if you fail that class, congratulations, you get to retake it for another whopping $924.30. That’s $1,848.60 spent on THREE credits.

Your time is money; respect yourself enough to at least know your value and worth and not throw money away hand over fist. Include the interest rates of student loans, and you will literally be paying for your skipped classes, on average, for the next 21 years. Even worse if you have a scholarship that requires certain grades or GPA that you lose due to failed classes.

On the note of respect, even if you don’t care enough about certain classes “because how will Biology ever help me in my career to be an interior designer,” have enough respect for everyone else who is in the same boat. You’re right; Biology won’t help your Interior Design career, it won’t help my career in Journalism, but we have all decided to come to a liberal arts college that requires a broad range of general education classes as a part of the required curriculum to graduate.

When you signed on that dotted line, you gave your consent that in order to get your diploma, you will take these classes. Sure, some of these classes may not be fun, but if you are not here to learn, then why are you here?

As someone who took a science class with a lab, I know first-hand the repercussions of deciding to not pay attention when I should have. I took Anatomy and Physiology and the lab my freshman year. I passed the lab, but not the lecture due to my inability to commit to learning. Now, I am retaking both a lab and a lecture. Not my brightest financial move.

Remember, not only are you paying for your classes but so is everyone else. It’s incredibly distracting when you’re trying to pay attention in class and it’s impossible when the people around you are more wrapped up in rehashing their weekend than paying attention to the lecture. So please, have respect for your fellow classmate, your professors, and your future bank account.