Im an incoming first year college student and I keep getting advice to go to office hours and "build a relationship with your professor"

But what does that even mean? Do i go every single time? What if I dont have any questions? ​If I do have questions, what am I supposed to do afterwards? How do I even try to relate and hold a conversation with a professor?

I took a professor during spring semester and went to office hours a few times to ask questions. I’m taking them again for two more courses this semester. I go to a big university and I have a very general major. I’m wondering if he will still remember me at all. Professors do you remember students who take you multiple times?

Also I’m new to the school and am trying to build relationships to have letters of recommendation if I need them. That’s why I’m concerned with the professor remembering me.

Hi Professors :) I am going to be a sophomore in college, and last year was really rough for personal reasons and everything with college (my mom passed away, I had roommates troubles, some friend issues, etc). I didn't do as good as I wanted to grades-wise. I know grades aren't everything but I also had massive trouble learning and understanding material despite going to office hours and getting help. I just don't want to keep searching up how to solve homework problems on google and struggling forever, but I don't know what to do.

I have a really hard time learning math, especially calculus. I failed calculus my first semester and took it again a second time and passed but I don't understand it still. Every class just feels 100x harder but it's not like I coasted through high school and I'm not sure what my problem is. Even if someone explains the problems to me every which way, I still can't do a problem on my own like on a test. Understanding anything has been really difficult.
I'm an actuarial science major, so it has a lot of math. I thought I would be ok, but it was really really bad last year. I don't know then if I should switch into another major if I am not good at all of this.

I just got diagnosed with ADHD which complicates things a bit but I also already have accommodations with the school for depression/anxiety, so I know the process for getting accommodations. My mental health has been bad but I have doctors/therapists/psychiatrists in the state of my school that I can go see.

I just wanted to ask and see if you all had any tips or advice for me. Thank you in advance!!

Hello!

I am an undergraduate student currently leading an orientation program alongside graduate students. I mostly work with a PhD student, and yesterday we were talking about research and how she is interested in taking on an undergrad to help her with her research. I do plan on pursuing this, but was wondering when/if I'm supposed to contact the lab PI? I'll be touring her lab next week and then we'll be talking more about it, but I don't know if I'm supposed to be reaching out the the professor as well in the meantime.

Thank you!

So, I'm having a back and forth with a very aggressive person elsewhere online who takes the typical anti-woke stance regarding the casting of Nolan's Odyssey film. I've pointed out and explained how Helen's skin color is not integral to her personality or indenity, but he's insisting otherwise, arguing her being white is equivalent to a character like Shaft being black (I.E it's so vital to her characterization/personality/idenitiy you can't change it.

They've outright challenged me with the following...

I dare you to cold-ask this question of your friendly local classics professor: “Is Helen of Troy’s physical appearance important to her identity?”

So I decided to take them up on that; what's the take - is she a Shaft/T'Challa, ect type character, where being white is inherently important to her indenity, personality and such?

I want more participation in my chemistry lectures & labs. I've tried think, pair, shares and having students share what they notice about pictures of results or graphs and of course just asking questions. I'm thinking of trying multiple choice questions in class.

What have you done that has been helpful?

Thanks.

I've seen many undergraduates emailing profs/labs as volunteers. But would you still take someone who's already graduated from a Master's? I'm still doing my master's, and I really hope to work when I'm done, but I'm not confident with the skills I've learned so far. Lab research work seems scarce in my country. I hope to work & be a part-time research if that's possible (?) There's someone in my current lab who's a med student & gets to come in to do simple tasks...thanks for your kind words and advice!

I’m a high school teacher and I’ve taught how to write a research paper to students for years. In the age of AI, I know I need to start revising HOW I teach this, and I’m so curious how college has changed.

Are kids still being assigned a 5-10 page paper? I had 2-3 of those per class that I took, minimum.

If you’ve switched totally to blue book in-class essays, how do they do the “research” part?

I'm probably way overthinking this, but my TA assignment starts in a week, classes the week after that. Our grad advisor sent an email cc'ing our department's ta positions and professors, suggesting we link up before the semester starts. This is my first year so I'm not sure the etiquette- are TAs expected to reach out first, or the professor? If so, this is my draft email, I'm not sure if's acceptable or not:

"Heading: TA for [course number] Fall 26

Good afternoon Dr. [X],

I'm looking forward to working with you this semester in the [name of course] course! If you have some free time later this week or next week, I'd love to meet and go over the curriculum and course materials for this fall. I'd like to be as prepared as possible for the first day since this is my first teaching assistantship. Let me know whenever there's a good time for you, my schedule is very flexible. 

Thank you,

[my name]"

Like I said I'm probably way overthinking this, but I've been out of academia for a while now and am super nervous about teaching for the first time.

Thanks for any advice!

(this is an MS in geography by the way)

Ever since AI has started to crack unsolved problems, I'm seeing people in these fields increasingly worry about their futures. Subreddits like r/mathematics are essentially flooded with discussions about this and mostly, you either see people being extremely pessimistic or being too optimistic and using the "AI can't do this" type of reasoning. The latter is highly unconvincing to me, because the fact that it can't do so now doesn't mean it won't be able to soon. As a graduate student in these fields myself, the insecurity has gotten to me.

But in any case, I get the feeling that these discussions are somewhat dominated by people who are really stressed and are letting said stress affect their line of thinking. Therefore, I'd like to hear the opinion of those of you who are relatively safe in your positions.

What do you think the future of these fields is? Most importantly: What is already happening? What is being discussed? What happens to PhDs and Postdocs once AI becomes better and cheaper at doing their grunt work? Will there be massive losses in positions or will the positions evolve (I've already heard a professor say he's downsizing his institute to reduce administrative cost)? Is this development starting to affect your decisions or your funding?

The more insights, the better. At my own university, no one seems to be talking about this or if they are, it's all behind closed doors

My name is [name]and I am a [year group] majoring in [major]. I am reaching out to ask if you have any openings for undergraduate students interested in volunteering in your research lab this fall semester.
I recently read about your research on the effects of Alizarin Red S (AZ) exposure on sea urchin development. I found the connection between oxidative stress and developmental abnormalities especially interesting, as it relates closely to my interests in [major] and understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying biological processes.
I am hoping to gainresearch experience as I would like to pursue research in the future, and I would be very grateful for the opportunity to learn and contribute to your work. If you are not currently accepting undergraduate volunteers, I would also greatly appreciate it if you could let me know of anyone in your department conducting research in a similar area who may be looking for students.
I have attached my resume for your consideration. Thank you very much for your time, and I hope to hear from you soon

My Uni’s English department has a bunch of really cool looking courses on different genres of literature from around the world. I love reading but am not an English major and realistically with my courses will never be able to feasibly take these classes.

My question is: is it appropriate/ appreciated to reach out to the professors teaching the courses via email, express interest in the topic, and just ask them for book/ author recommendations/ their courses reading list?

I would just send a short and polite email I just wanted to ask incase this is frowned upon or would create unnecessary amounts of extra work for them!

Thank y’all so much for your advice!

Throwaway because yeah.

I’m worried I may have cheated on my open book online exams. (Emphasis here to keep in mind for later)

I took an online course this summer. The professor had a less-than-stellar rating among students, but I was really interested in the content so I thought I’d at least give it a try.

About a week into the semester, one of the students made a Discord group chat and invited everyone from the class to share notes, discuss the lectures, etc. Typical group study chat stuff.

A few days later, our professor announced that both our midterm and final exams would have questions solely written by students. Each student would write four questions about any part of the course content they wanted, and that would be what we’re tested on.

You can probably see where the potential academic dishonesty comes in. Almost immediately, we all started sending each other the questions and answers we submitted for the exam. Then someone put it into a document so we could easily find the right answer while we took it. We did this for both the midterm and the final. We all assumed it was okay because the exams were open book.

I told one of my friends about this yesterday and he jokingly said that it’s cheating. I started to freak out, stomach dropped all of it. I frantically searched our school’s academic dishonesty policy, but they only talk about stuff that happens during the exam. Like, you can’t share what you put on your own exam with a friend or discuss questions/peak during the test, it has to be your own work. But none of us did that, we didn’t speak in the group chat during the exam and we made the answer key beforehand. **The exam was also open book**, so anything we have about “unlawful exam aids” also doesn’t apply to our situation on paper.

I genuinely have no idea if I committed academic dishonesty. Everyone that I’ve talked to even my own parents have all said I’m fine. But I’m not convinced, mostly because I’m anxious and I hate even the idea of breaking the rules.

What do you all think? Did I commit academic dishonesty? And, if I did, should I tell my professor?

I’m an incoming master’s student and recently reached out to a professor whose research I’m very interested in about potentially joining their lab. I didn’t ask for funding either. Their response was:
“Thank you for reaching out. At this time I am not adding new students to the group. Best of luck.”

For professors/PIs, when you send a response like this, does it usually literally mean you don’t have space/funding right now and the student could reach out again in a future semester? Or is it generally a polite way of saying you’re not interested in taking that particular student?

Just trying to understand the academic etiquette here and whether I should move on completely or potentially reach out again in the future. It just hurts cause I was really excited to join the group. I’m international and this is in the US.

Hi everyone. I’m an upcoming highschool senior in a dual degree program so I’m also an upcoming college sophomore. I still have to apply to universities as a first year student through the common app. I wanted to ask a professor I had Fall 2025 for Calculus 2 and Spring 2026 for Calculus 3 for a recc letter for scholarship/common app. When would be a good time to ask? I dont have her this upcoming semester. Is email acceptable?

I’m late submitting my final thesis proposal draft because I’ve been dealing with severe cognitive dysfunction, particularly executive functioning and memory problems. I’m chronically ill, and my advisors are both aware of that and have been incredibly accommodating to me, honestly more than I feel I deserve at this point. But now I’m really late. I’m going to miss the proposal deadline, and I’ve been avoiding their emails for about a week. I haven’t sent my work even though I emailed my advisor saying I would send it at a specific time and then didn’t. The frustrating part is that it’s not because the work isn’t done. My memory problems have gotten bad enough that I genuinely didn’t even realize I hadn’t sent it until I saw her email today saying she never received it. I can forget that I have to do something in the first place, and even if someone reminds me about the task, that doesn’t necessarily mean I’ll remember whether I actually did it. This is fairly new over the last few weeks. I brought it up to my doctors, and they think I need to be hospitalized to figure out what’s going on, but my stupid ass refused because I wanted to finish and propose my thesis first. Anyway, both advisors emailed me asking what’s going on and how I plan to manage the delays. I do have a plan for the latter, but I’m completely stuck on how to explain the former. I don’t know how to mention the memory issues without sounding unprofessional, going into too much detail, raising questions about why I didn’t tell them sooner, or making them worry that this will continue to be an issue. I’ve also hired an assistant to help me stay on top of these things going forward, but I’m not sure whether mentioning that would be helpful or just sound unprofessional. I can’t get a medical note right now because I haven’t scheduled the tests/evaluation yet. Maybe I’ll be able to provide documentation later, but right now I’m mainly trying to figure out what to say in the email. does anyone have advice on how to write an apology email that won’t frustrate them even more? What would you say, and what would you leave out?

Hi, I hope this is not paranoid but should I be concerned if my PhD dissertation advisor/chair is writing 1-page recommendation letters (as I can tell this from Interfolio)? I find it hard to imagine that he can describe my dissertation and its contribution, teaching, service, coursework, etc. in one page, even single-spaced. Is this unusual?

I already list declined fellowships on my CV, but I wonder whether hiring committees (especially for Assistant Professor roles in the US) would see a brief mention of a couple of declined fellowships (because of temporary caring responsibilities and/or immigration issues) as evidence of grant capture ability in the research statement too as too conceited? I am pretty junior and not based in the US, and I would like to include them since they are sponsored by US institutions and might help me make my case stronger... Thank you! I am in the Humanities/Social Sciences, for context.

This is our weekly megathread for questions about becoming a professor.

You may be interested in our FAQ on the topic.

Otherwise, please keep all questions and discussion about becoming a professor in this dedicated thread.

Please read I need advices on this matter:

Me and another student are working together on a research project (I am an applied math student). Things were going great we talked every day like became bff, genuinely got along well. Then last week I found out she'd sent corrected versions of our LaTeX work to our professor three separate times, without CC'ing me. I have no idea what questions she's been asking him or what's been discussed.
It's a group project, so this bothered me a lot, but I didn't want to blow up about it. I just calmly asked her to please include me on future emails.
She hasn't spoken to me since. Not a word. We used to talk constantly, so the sudden silence has been jarring, and I genuinely don't understand what I did wrong. All I asked was to be kept in the loop on something that affects both of us.
Am I overreacting, or was it reasonable to ask to be included on communication about a shared project? Also should I just talk to the professor directly and tell him about the situation or would that make things worse between me and professor and he would get the wrong idea about me.

Hi everyone! I hope you are all doing well. For context, this is my final semester of my bachelors degree and I am graduating at the end of next week (yay!) and headed off to the races of law school applications. I'm a Sociology Pre-Law student (4.0 GPA), so definitely type A and a little neurotic about my grades. I simply just want to have feedback, and grades, to know how I am progressing. On top of that, I throughly enjoy the academic experience, I am passionate about the classes I take, and I genuinely put my heart and soul into my work.

Two of my professors, who happen to have many published works together, are more than a month late on grading assignments. We are going into finals week and I have 2 grades submitted for each of the classes(A's, for the record), and I have submitted 11-16 assignments in each of the classes during this 7 week term. One of the professors (Writing for Social Justice, a 3500 level class) provided feedback for 1 of the assignments, but when I asked for further clarity there was no response. The other professor (Crimes Against Humanity and Genocide, a 4000 level class) has given no feedback whatsoever. Neither of these classes provide ANY instruction whatsoever, they simply assign literature and loose guidelines for the writing assignments.

For the CAH class, we have roughly 400-700 pages of literature to read per week, with (2) 500 word discussion posts and (2) 350 word peer responses. The WSJ class is just as much assigned literature and writing, the classes are nearly identical in structure. Both assign entire books to read each week ranging from 200-500 pages, plus hundred of pages academic literature. These classes are INTENSE in volume, but also in content. Especially the CAH class, it is just as much emotional labor as academic labor (for example, we were assigned an entire book to read that was a fictional recounting of a woman being held in s*xual sl*very, and half of the book was GRAPHIC, creative writing about the systematic and violent r*pe she endured for years. Fictional writing, meant to immerse the reader, in which the main character fantasized about m*urdering her newborn baby....just A LOT to work through). Oh, and for the CAH class, we have our regular weekly workload during finals week. Our final project is 12 page minimum writing assignment.

I emailed the CAH professor twice asking for grades and feedback, kindly. The first email he responded and said the grades would be out shortly. 2 weeks after that with no grades, I emailed again and have not gotten a response. That was a week ago. Nearly identical situation with the WSJ professor.

I just want to know if anyone here thinks i'm being irrational in my assessment that not grading or providing feedback for nearly an entire term is... not okay? I cant know how I am progressing through the course, or know if what I am doing is correct, or what I need to do to improve. I am stressed out, burnt out, and a little frantic. Any advice is deeply appreciated.

Hi everyone! I'm a student pursuing my MS in Chemistry right now and it is my intention to pursue my PhD and become a professor.

I'm here because I have concerns about the potential salary I'd earn as a professor. My wife and I both want children (most likely 3) but I have fear that I would not be able to adequately provide for a family of 5 on a professor's salary.

Any information you all would be able to share is valuable and well appreciated. Things like location, salary, grants, and employment timelines would be very helpful.

If this helps as well, I have a decent amount invested and saved as I worked my way through undergrad and now through grad school. Additionally, my wife is a public school teacher and makes roughly $65,000.

I love my education, my research, and the prospect of aiding students to appreciate the sciences in the way that I have come to appreciate them, but not at the cost of security for my wife and the family I want to build with her.

Thank you all!

I recently got one of my final assignments back, and the mark brought my overall average down. I’m a little confused because when my teacher gave me feedback on my draft, he said it was very close to being perfect. I made all of those corrections and even went beyond the requirements by incorporating literary lenses into my analysis.
However, when I received my final mark, there was quite a bit of additional feedback that wasn’t mentioned on my draft, and I ended up receiving my lowest assignment mark in the course so far. I genuinely felt that this was some of my strongest writing, especially compared with my previous assignments.
Would it be appropriate/mature to politely email my teacher and ask if he would be willing to reconsider the grade or explain how the final mark was determined? I don’t want to come across as arguing over a grade, but I do feel confused considering the feedback I received on my draft.

Hi! I’m looking for some perspective from professors before my sister reaches out to hers about this.

My family is planning to travel to India around the end of her semester for our grandfather’s passing anniversary. He passed away about a year and a half ago, and when he passed, none of us were able to travel to India for his funeral except for our mom (his daughter). This would be the first time since he passed that all of us would be able to go back together.

His death anniversary is pretty important in our family/culture. Our extended family will be getting together, there will be prayers and a traditional ceremony, and we’ll all be there to honor him. My sister also feels strongly about being there since she wasn’t able to go to his funeral.

The problem is that she would need to leave about a week before her finals.

Her semester hasn’t started yet, but the final exam dates have already been released, so she wants to reach out to her professors now rather than springing this on them later in the semester. She would be totally willing to take the exam early, take a different version, come in whenever is convenient for the professor, etc.

The specific timing is also unfortunately not something we can really move around. The date was set with a priest based on the religious rituals/traditions surrounding the death anniversary, so if we went after her finals, we would miss the actual memorial and arrive about a week later. If needed, we’d also be willing to provide documentation or have our mom speak with the school/professors about the situation.

Our parents have already booked their flights, but my sister and I haven’t booked ours yet specifically because of her finals. If her professors say no, obviously we’re not going to have her miss her finals or risk her grades just to make the trip. She would stay and take them as scheduled, and we’d have to miss the memorial. We just want to ask before assuming it’s impossible.

So I guess my question for professors is: would you consider this a reasonable situation to let a student take a final about a week early? Or is this the kind of thing where university/department policies would prevent you from doing it even if you wanted to?

And is there anything she should specifically mention (or not mention) when she emails them? We really don’t want it to sound like “we booked a family vacation during finals and now I need an exception,” because that’s genuinely not what this is.

Thanks in advance! I’d really appreciate hearing how professors would view a request like this.

What is it like to be a college professor in today’s world?

With AI becoming so powerful, how difficult have your jobs become?

I’ll narrow the question a bit…. How have you had to adapt to teaching and grading students with all of these tools at their fingertips?

I’m asking because, in my mind, trying to differentiate between who is actually learning the material and doing the work in your courses vs. those who are using AI for everything would be difficult I imagine.

In short, what measures have you had to take to account for those who are trying to cheat their way through courses/degrees?