Photo credit: Toa Heftiba, unsplash.
I am not the type of student who goes to office hours every week. I’m eternally jealous of my friends who are able to just go chat with their professors about anything and everything, but maybe I’m too scared, maybe my school didn’t give me a lot of student-teacher interaction. To be frank, I don’t know what the answer is but no matter how much I tell myself that it’s worth my time to go to my professors’ office hours, I’ve just never been able to do it unless I have a very specific reason.
Therefore, all of the personal relationships I’ve made with my professors are due to those five minutes (okay, fine, it’s more like 2 minutes because I never remember to factor in the amount of time it’ll take me to climb up those evil Hamilton or Schermerhorn stairs) before class begins when you’re all just sitting around your seminar table, or those 5-minute breaks when your professor also goes to grab a coffee from Blue Java. That’s how my professors have gotten to know me not just as a student, but as a person. And it’s through these relationships that I’ve gotten most of my research opportunities in college. In fact, I found out that my neuroscience lab was looking for an undergraduate researcher through a graduate student TA of mine. I had a quick question to ask after recitation ended and happened to mention to him that I was thinking of getting involved in research. The lab that he worked for happened to be looking for undergraduate help, and just like that, I got my position.
These types of connections are obviously rendered impossible, or pretty near impossible, due to the ‘zoom-ness’ of our classes this semester. I’m sure there are many freshmen out there who are worried about making connections with their professors. And for those of us who are terrified of office hours, I’ve got some advice from you. For the past couple of weeks, I’ve been ‘interviewing’ some of my other senior friends who, unlike me, love going to office hours. One of my friends suggested first going to office hours where groups of people all go in at the same time as opposed to office hours where it’s one-on-one interaction with your professor. Once you’ve eased into that style of office hours, start going to office hours with your TAs. It’s often a lot less intimidating to speak with somebody who is closer to your age as opposed to your very established and very esteemed professors. Another friend suggested that you first start up a communication with your professor by emailing them. By beginning a conversation through email, you can take your time crafting responses, giving you lots of control over what you say, thus helping to alleviate any anxiety. Lastly, try coming up with some questions to ask beforehand if you’re going to your professor’s office hours to ask about career advice. Try out some of these tips and let me know what you think!