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Hot Tips for college students! PANDEMIC EDITION! 1. In any email address your professor by name. If you are unsure if they have Dr. as their title use “Professor” — that’s the proper title for someone teaching a college class (if you are in America).
2. In any email it’s helpful to put the COURSE NUMBER and SECTION number in the subject line of the email. Some professors teach 200+ students a semester. I once taught 5 different Kayleighs across 4 classes, it gets confusing.
3. Sometimes you will get terse emails back. No I’m not condoning that. Rudeness is not good. However professors are stretched thin and please do not think that response is any reflection on you. Most likely they are sacrificing warmth to get you critical information faster.
4. Please come to office hours, don’t feel like you are bothering us. This is what it is for! I’ve had students come by just to show me comics they like that were related to research I was doing. Let us help you!
5. Also! Any requests for something you mentioned verbally should be followed up with an email. This is to remind both you and the professor but also to have a time stamp. Like if you ask for a rec letter and they say yes, follow up email can be a thank you and more details.
5. (cont.) Also if anything serious is going on documenting everything helps you down the line. I’ve had great students that needed to withdraw for personal reasons and I could pull up the emails and share dates where they let me know something was wrong.
6. Do not freak out if you haven’t gotten an email response in a few hours. I personally get the most emails in the evening but I try not to respond past 7:30 and go to bed early. Give at least 24 hours.
