The aim of this study was to determine the opinions and attitudes of the freshman students in Erciyes University Faculty of Medicine towards absenteeism. It was a descriptive and cross sectional study, which was conducted in May 2015. 81% of 310 students were accessed. A questionnaire including an absenteeism attitude scale was applied to the students. For the analysis of data, Chi square and Mann Whitney U tests were used. 7.2% of students said that they always attended the theoretical lessons whereas 71.1% of them reported that they sometimes did not attend these lessons. 21.7%, on the other hand, stated that they mostly did not attend these lessons. 81.1% of the students indicated that they always attended the practical lessons. Another finding was that foreign students attended the theoretical lessons more than Turkish students. The most common suggestion made by the students for preventing absenteeism was linking the basic courses with clinical information to be used later. The mean score obtained from the absenteeism attitude scale was 54.6 ± 15.0. The mean scores obtained from necessity, responsibility and obligation subscales were 19.6 ± 5.5, 21.4 ± 6.7, and 13.6 ± 6.1, respectively. 73.5% of the students indicated that attendance should not be controlled in the Faculty of Medicine. At the end of the study it was revealed that medical students had negative attitudes towards attendance and there was a need to organize activities that would increase their motivation and prevent absenteeism.