MONMOUTH, Ill. — Over the course of his four years at Monmouth College, Rahm Pandey has attended roughly 1,500 class sessions without missing a single one.
"Number one, I love school," he said. "But also, class is between 50 and 75 minutes. I'd rather spend it with the professor instead of trying to catch up. Just go to class. I feel like some people get a little too extreme with their quote-unquote 'excuses.'"
According to a press release, not only did Pandey keep a perfect attendance during college, but he also kept a perfect record throughout his time at Global Citizenship Experience Lab School in Chicago.
"Rahm is the epitome of spirit, drive and humility," classics professor Bob Simmons said. Simmons had Pandey for "a mere 23 courses" at Monmouth, many of them for partial-credit. "There are things that he absolutely loves - classics prominent among them - and he is indistractable in his commitment to them."
Pandey was a senior in high school when the COVID pandemic began, so he started college and had at least five weeks of class remotely.
According to classics professor Bob Simmons, Rahm attended 270 quarter-and-half-credit individual classes and 165 full-credit classes.
"I don't think anybody can top that," Pandey said.
Of the 50 or so courses Pandey has taken at Monmouth, he said that his current capstone course in accounting is the hardest he's had. Along with two classmates, he presented a poster about environmental, social and governance regulations that stemmed from a 6,000-word paper he co-wrote for the class titled, "Reflecting on New ESG Regulations' Impact on Business Financial Reporting."
Pandey will now pursue a Masters of Business and Science degree as a Hawkeye, at the University of Iowa.
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