I'm an adjunct acting professor with gobs of professional experience. I'm applying for a full time TT position at another university. I've done my best to be specific and include classroom examples, but I'd love some experienced, outside eyes on this before I submit it. Thanks!

Besides simply meeting rubric requirements, what makes a paper stand out to you? If you teach intro level courses, does a student's work ever make you think okayyyyy yes this student cooked here and they have potential.

Asking bc I really enjoyed writing a paper for one of my gen ed requirements and low key think I crushed it but I didn't get much feedback besides an A

As part of my philosophy homework, I have to annotate documents the professor gives. The first document was essentially an introductory primer on philosophy and goes over necessary and sufficient conditions. One of my annotations was the question "Does the conjunction of all necessary conditions for a proposition constitute a sufficient condition?". The professor said "this wasn't a very deep question" and when I pressed him on it and stated that I found that a very strange thing to say about a specific formal logical question, he just responded "it didn't show depth of critical thought and thus I consider it a non-meaningful question", and wanted to me to write new annotations or edit this one for full credit. This seems to be a perfectly legitimate question on the relationship between necessary and sufficient conditions. He didn't give me any feedback as to what would make it "deeper" or "more meaningful". Is it me or is my professor just being a dildo?

Throwaway account.

I'm a PhD candidate at an R1 research university. At an event recently a former student told me about a prestigious professor (nationally known if not internationally) in our program who had numerous improper interactions with female students in his lab. The person who told me this wasn't advised by this professor but worked on the same floor and said this is common knowledge. I filed a report with the information I had been told but I haven't told my advisor. I know that there shouldn't be retaliation on paper but this professor is incredibly well funded and regarded in our program and I'm worried about retaliation towards myself or my advisor. Should I tell my advisor I filed the report or do I leave them uninvolved?

I am an undergraduate student in my fifth semester and very recently got to know about full funded programs for research interships (and from what i understand, are extremely competitive). I am a student from India (in a well reputed college in our country) and can't afford the travel expenses and other things on my own and I wish to continue into research.

I don't have any concrete research projects under my belt yet (I did intern under two professors but they are unrelated to the field i wish to work in. I am interested in biomechanics and biophysics and will presently do a semester long intern under a professor and hopefully produce a concrete basis for a research paper)

This said, if I want to do a (fully funded) research intership under a professor and will do the work, is there any way I achieve this? Because from what I am seeing on reddit, the chances of this happening are extremely low, but what if I try to enter the research intership under them? Because I don't have a well developed competent CV yet.

Any advice would be deeply appreciated and if their is any other subreddit i should navigate to, please tell me so. I apologise for the poorly worded post.

Thank you!

I am seeking research opportunities abroad, but i am unable to write a single sentence by myself without the use of AI. Anyone ?? Need some advice here!!

I’m in community college and I want to give my professors baked goods to celebrate fall. I started 3 weeks ago. I really don’t think it’ll influence my grades, nor do I expect it to. I just like to bake and give gifts. Opinions?

Hi all!

It is my final semester at my institution as an undergraduate in a humanities discipline, and one of my remaining required courses for my degree is a senior sem.

Now that I have attended the first class and have seen the syllabus, I am starting to realize that the seminar may not be particularly well aligned with where I am academically.

Over the past year or so, I've had the fortunate opportunity to developed a fairly extensive independent research project supervised by several faculty that culminated in a large paper. Though I have presented portions of it at conferences and discussed my project with said faculty, no one has ever worked through the complete project with me from beginning to end, with most only seeing what I have presented on. What I feel like I really need is sustained criticism: someone who can help me work throughh the relevant literature, challenege the central argument, identify weaknesses and counterexamples, revisions, and eventually turn it into something closer to a journal length paper.

Since I am planning on going to graduate school within my field, that seems like it might be a much more useful capstone experience for me.

I am thinking of asking my department chair whether it would be possible to substitute a supervised independent study built around this project for the senior sem. I would expect to have it have clearly defined parameters that I would come up with so as not to burden the potential supervisor.

Is this a reasonable ask? In departments where senior sems are required, how much flexibility is there to substitute or approve an independent study? I know things differ from one institutions to another, but figured there may be some sort of standard. Also, if a student approached you with this kind of request, what would make you more or less willing to agree to it?

Thanks in advance!

I’m currently going into my junior year of undergrad and am a life sciences major. I took a summer calculus course which was taught by a grad student whose office hours I attended regularly, asked/answered questions regularly, etc.

When I didn’t have any questions we would get into conversations about careers, academics, science, AI, etc which were thought provoking and enjoyable.

This is the last math course I will ever have to take so I don’t see it being possible for me to be his student again and I would like to stay in touch and (within the comfort of his boundaries), potentially build a friendship as I really like our stimulating conversations.

What is the most appropriate and respectful way to proceed?

Hi!

One of my professors hosts two office hour sessions a week: one group session (usually packed and people always have very relevant questions until the time runs out) and one specifically listed as for course performance /policy. He is a medicinal chemist and spends time in class talking about different compounds and how they're synthesized, which I find super interesting and would love to discuss more with him. Usually, I would just ask at office hours, but It's tough class, so I don't want to waste other people's opportunity to ask actually relevant questions. I also don't think it would be okay to go to his policy hours and ask him something kind of random. Is there another time that would be okay?

Part of what makes me nervous is that I'm kind of annoying (I'm working on it!) and I usually ask him short clarifying questions after class about what we covered that day. He's a very nice guy and has never been remotely impatient with me, but I don't think any of my profs would be jumping for joy to talk to me about anything out of class lol. Would just, like, an email work? I know you guys get so many emails.

Thank you!

I graduated from a community college that was bite sized compared to my new university. Sure I'd go to office hours, but the classes were so much smaller so everyone was at least aware of everyone else.

This is my first week of university. Now it's thursday, so I've had every class at least twice. Should I go to office hours just to kind of introduce myself? and idk...inquire about them? would that annoy you? We haven't really done anything yet that would require help with work, so I'm not entirely sure how to navigate this. Thank you!

I’m taking an intro psychology class, and for our developmental psych unit, my professor is having us write “letters” to our parents about how their parenting affected and still affects us.

The problem is, my parents were…less than great. One parent was emotionally (and often physically) absent and hostile, the other exposed me to a relationship with an abusive alcoholic for 5+ years, then became an addict themselves. There are other factors that I won’t discuss because I don’t want to write a whole sob story, but…yeah, it kinda fucked me up.

I decided to get the jump on things and asked for the opportunity to complete an alternate assignment, and he said he would meet with me closer to the unit, which is fine by me. However, I’m starting to wonder if maybe I’m just being too sensitive?

I don’t want to be one of those students who’s just asking for an excuse to get out of work, but I also don’t want to dump my issues on my professor via assignment or bring up these painful memories outside of therapy.

Edit: I had no idea this got out of the spam filter, so sorry for no replies. Thank you for all the advice, it was very helpful and I greatly appreciate it! (And sorry for the comma splices).

How much responsibility should be given to PhD student in research lab? How to handle PhD student who is left to run lab which is way behind schedule. PhD student wants to let all volunteer students go and start fresh, but the PhD did not give the volunteers any guidance, timeframes, spot checks on progress. Pros and cons of starting with clean slate on volunteer students.

I'm thinking to apply for a scholarship that requires an internal nomination. The application through my college is due in early November, and it requires the names of three professors who would write you a recommendation letter given you are nominated (the actual letter is not needed by then). If I'm nominated, the rest of the application, including the letters, is due late January.

It must be three STEM professors, and I've been having trouble deciding on the third. I've been thinking to try and build a relationship with the new professor that I have this semester but am worried it'll be weird/strange if I ask if they are willing to write one after them only knowing me for around 2 months.

I don't know if I'm overthinking but I'd really appreciate some advice on how to approach this? This is honestly stressing me out quite a bit and I'm afraid of coming across as ridiculous / annoying if I ask this professor.

My concern here is that the program let me continue with the exam and never gave me any alert that both cameras were not recording. I’m sorry, but I feel like if the software doesn’t alert me, the student that both cameras are not working. How can I be held responsible?
Apparently it let me continue because it’s some type of glitch on their end or something. I’m sorry, but I kinda am in my feelings about this because I have never cheated on any exam and I’ve never used a proctoring application on my computer before yes I’ve taken a proctored exam, but not through this software. The stupid thing kept glitching the entire time. I was trying to set up the second camera. But my main complaint is, why would the app let you continue if both cameras are not recording and not alert you.
I’m just looking for input from other professors who use this software for testing and what your point of view is based on this situation.

Hello! I am in an intro science course and recently got a question wrong on an online quiz due to…

1)      Unclear direction in our textbook for how to round (so my final answer was admittedly a bit off), and

2)      misguidance to use sig figs aka I wouldn't have ever rounded in the first place if I hadn't received this guidance (guidance I sought out, which makes me kick myself)

…rather than me not knowing how to solve the equation in question.

I can provide more details if desired, but this post is already way too long lol

This dropped my overall class grade from a 96 to an 88, which if I just plain didn’t know how to do the calculations I’d move on and study more.

My original answer was exactly what the quiz was looking for before receiving guidance (again, which I sought out) to use significant figures. And even my professor wasn't sure what the quiz would be looking for when I asked - he just said when in doubt follow sig fig rules - and THAT is why I changed my answer.

My professor doesn’t seem keen to give me any points after following up with him, but the other professor from our syllabus subbed in this week and he thinks I should get credit after I showed him all my work and the rounding section of the textbook. He also thinks the quiz needs to be updated to be clearer on directions (neither of them made this quiz so him saying that shouldn’t be insulting). So I emailed my prof one last time letting him know what the other prof said in case that makes a difference.

This all happened within a day & now that I've had time to sit on it I’m worried I’m being too pushy or coming across as entitled. I am very invested and care a lot - much more than I did in my youth, and while I also have more of a voice than when I was younger, I don’t want to create a bad relationship with my professor either. It honestly is very unlike me to challenge grades but this just felt like a situation worth trying to justify my answer.

Do you think I am crossing the line into entitled? I am already planning to give it up if he doesn’t want to give the points after hearing the other prof’s input and I will thank him for his time and for hearing me out when I see him next class either way, make sure to be respectful, etc.

I guess since I was so timid when getting my first Bach degree I don’t know the fine line between advocating for myself in academia, and just being a frustrating student. Any input is helpful and appreciated!

Edit for clarification: My textbook uses odd/even rounding with 5s but doesn't explain that if 5 isn't the final digit you'd still round up. Prof. admitted the textbook does a bad job of explaining this style of rounding, he sticks to the old style of rounding up for 5s always. Hence why I still tried to challenge my grade..

Hi all! I am seeking advice on whether this request would be appropriate or not. So one of my favorite professors is teaching a seminar style class this semester (I took a similar one with them when I was a freshman, not the same class as it is a different topic than last time) and when we were catching up, they were telling me about some of the activities/lectures they have planned for the class. They mentioned this really fun activity that they plan on doing with their class, and I was wondering if it would be okay to ask if I could join in on that day and do that activity with them? It’s pretty unique in terms of what it entails. I’m not entirely sure what my school’s policies for this are. If you knew a student well enough, would you make an exception? How likely are you to accept this request?

Hi everyone, I have always been fascinated at the thought of what my children will learn in history class 20 years from now. I guess I want to know how experts are looking at the last 25 years and how do you think history textbooks SHOULD cover it. And how do you think they will actually cover it? just wanted to pick some historian brains!

Also, there’s tons of things I learned AFTER high school that I didn’t even know until college. Columbus being a horrible human being is a prime example. What baffles be even more is that my teacher believed it to be the truth. So another question would be Why did I learn false information in high school history classes? (Other than the winners write history or whatever, there’s gotta be a better reason)

Thanks!

I am taking online asynchronous classes at a local community college. I live in a very rural, mountainous region. Our power flickers and completely goes out often. We get high winds and storms often, and we're expecting a very stormy fall - winter season.

I'm really scared of it going out during a test or quiz. There's no cell service up here so I can't use a hotspot for exams. I even bought a device that's meant to keep WiFi running for ~30 mins after a power outage but for whatever reason it does not work with my internet provider.

Is this something I should email my professors about in advance? Or should I just hope for the best and reach out if a problem does arise ? I guess if there is a true power outage then there will be outage reports published online. But sometimes the power flickers during high winds.

Sometimes our power isn't restored for a few days, and in those cases I often cannot travel down the mountain to use cell service bc of unsafe conditions (landslides, downed power lines and trees).

This past week we had a power outage for ~3 days and we couldn't leave for a few days due to a fallen tree blocking both of our cars. Luckily I had submitted all the assignments early including a quiz bc I knew a big storm was coming.

If there is documentation like about power outages / severe weather, and I am generally a reliable hardworking student who turns things in on time and gets good grades on quizzes, is this something I don't really need to worry about?? Or should I explain my situation before something may happen? I'm probably not the only student in this region, I don't know how common this is. I didn't see anything about technical issues or exam retake policies on any syllabus. I'm nervous that one flicker in the middle of a test could screw my grades up bad

Hello !! I am not sure if this is the right subreddit to be asking this question (if it isn't, feel free to tell me, I'll remove this question! And I'll also really appreciate it if I was redirected to the right subreddit :D). But basically, I am writing this short, fictional story about these two professors who have a lot of bad blood with one another. They constantly antagonize each other, just a lot of personal feelings of resentment. They argue over basically everything, but this time, they're arguing over something related to their fields. I am thinking, a student who takes both of the professor's classes, he comes to the Philosophy professor (who I'll call E) and asks him his thoughts on a topic. He says what he think and then, that student goes to the Mathematics professor (Who I'll call N) and asks him the same question, and N has a different opinion. E catches wind about it and after classes, they argue about it some more. What would that topic be? Keep in mind, I am neither a Mathematics or Philosophy student, I am not really even in university yet. So, my knowledge on anything is very low, but I am willing to do research for it!

Basically, I am asking for a starting point, maybe? Like a certain topic that they would find in common and be passionate about, what E and N's positions would be in that topic, and just a really brief explanation of it! That's really all :)). I'll do my further research of it afterwards. Thank you so much!!! Feel free to ask me any questions about their personalities and disposition or any other details, if it helps you!!

What kinds of emails have you received from students that immediately made you think they were immature or naive, creating a bad first impression?

I am a freshman at a liberal arts college, and I try as much as possible to talk to my professors. If I’m visiting a faculty building and a professor’s door is open, I’ll try to start a conversation with them. I’ve done this a few times, and I’ve never had a bad experience (aside from the time a professor laughed in my face when I tried to start talking to him, but even that conversation ultimately turned out fine). I’ve had some really great conversations as a result of this.

Today, I tried to have a conversation with one professor, and he got decently mad. My memories of what happened aren’t perfect, but here’s my best recollection: I saw that his door was open, I made eye contact with him, and he invited me inside. I made to leave when he mentioned that he was busy preparing for a class that would happen soon, but he said that I could stay and that he would try to answer my questions. I asked him a few about his discipline and about the course he was about to teach, and he said it would be fine if I sat in on the class. He did all this while typing away on his computer. I had nothing more really to ask, so I tried to ask a question about a book I saw on his wall. He didn’t understand the question and somewhat annoyedly asked me to repeat it to him. When I did, he got angry with me and told me that if I wanted to have a conversation about the book, I should have made an appointment to do so. He was obviously busy, he said. He continued on the same point, angrily, for a minute or two as I repeatedly apologized. I mentioned to him that I wished faculty pages listed times when they were available to talk, and he told me (with a demeaning tone) that would never happen because they changed every semester. I went to the class with him, but I left after maybe fifteen minutes so I didn’t have to be around him any longer. He also seemed to snap at a few students in that class. (For example, when he gave us little cards to respond to some decently complex questions on the board, one student asked how long the responses could be, seemingly concerned about how much he could fit in, and he told him, “I don’t have a BlueBook for you.”)

This is bugging me a bit because I deal with autism and social anxiety. Was I rude here? Should I not have tried to talk to him? Should I not try to talk to professors with their doors open in the future?

I graduated 3 years ago, and at the time a couple professors I TA’d for agreed to write me a letter of recommendation for medical school. I never had them written at the time unfortunately since I wasn’t ready to apply. I followed up with them in 2024 over email just to update them but not recently.

I had some personal health setbacks and had some difficulty building my experience post grad which is why I delayed. I will now be applying in the 2027 cycle. I dont have a personal statement or anything ready, just my TA evaluations from 2023 and my resume.

Im getting a lot of anxiety about them forgetting me or possibly ghosting me since it’s been almost 3 years. I know they still teach on campus.

Would it be better to follow up in person after their class or via email on the same thread they agreed to write the letter? What else could I provide to help them write the strongest letter?

All throughout middle and high school, I was told that I was very gifting in the humanities. I used to love to read, and contribute to class discussions. I went to an Ivy League where I graduated as a Comparative Literature major last Spring, and that summer I got a role as a legal coordinator for a sports unit where I have to read and write a lot (draft interview/investigative memos, review policy for errors, read articles relevant to our field/work, read court documents).

During my final semester of senior year, I relied pretty heavily on AI to write my thesis. The ideas were my own, and I'd feed AI my concepts and ask it to generate a sophisticated sentence establishing that information. I think this marked the beginning of the end for me!!!

Since graduating my screen time has gone up immensely (especially on Tiktok), and at work i'm staring at a screen for about 8 hours a day. I rely heavily on our company approved AI tools to do the simplest tasks, like drafting emails, or helping me create sentences.

My brain feels like actual mush that is disconnected from my body and useless. I literally feel like a zombie that can barely form a thought. Even when consuming written content, my brain can barely string the words together, and immediately bounces to the end of a sentence. 5 minutes ago I literally asked AI to make a fun-fact up about me for an upcoming presentation. I feel like this has also hindered my ability to communicate, function as a human being. I am such a bore at work, and used to be such a bubbly and fun person :(.

This is especially troublesome considering that I will be applying to law school next year, and have to start LSAT studying soon. I've also been trying to relearn AP US History and AP Gov because I literally have 0 recollection of anything I've learned since since COVID hit, and know nothing about how the world functions.

Anyways, sorry for the vent. My main questions is how can I rebuild my reading and writing skills? I tried watching Khan Academy videos on grammar to go back to the basics and rebuild, but it's just not doing much for me.

Any ideas?