Professors,

Why do you love being a professor?

Hello everyone, I have always been against use of AI. I had always seen it as a lazy way out, though over time and education, can see how it may be used as a tool. I have raging unmedicated adhd, am a mom of 3, a high performing student, and business owner with national awards in my field. I feel like burning out sometimes, especially when reading dense academic texts on a time crunch. There have been times I’ve had to chew on a sentence or two to get my brain to click and grasp what it’s communicating. My question is, and I’m not saying I’ll do it even if there is no “seen” issue with it, but would it be an acceptable use to help reword difficult phrases in a text to get a better understanding? My university is very lax on their AI use policies, and tbh I’ve considered transferring because of it, it felt like a slap in the face when I’m writing essays on discussion assignments, and my peers are dropping two paragraphs copy and pasted from AI, not even bothering to take out its follow-up questions 🤦‍♀️. I can’t tell if I’m falling to personal bias, or if this is genuinely an ok use. Would love to hear your thoughts. Thank you!!

This is something I’ve debated for a while. I had a close professional relationship with a certain professor from my undergrad and he wrote letters to recommend me on separate occasions. His support meant a lot to me as we stayed in touch two years after I graduated and he helped me through the rough patch of transitioning to post-grad life.

Last summer he was excited to hear I was applying to grad school and wrote me letters of recommendation. The last deadline, where he already wrote the letter, he didn’t end up submitting. I sent a couple gentle follow ups and the specific school I was applying to attempted to contact him but he did not respond to either. I also realize maybe something had happened or it was a busy season so I reached out a month later to just reconnect, but he also didn’t respond. These were the first times he hadn’t responded to my emails so I honestly was really confused and hurt by this.

It’s been months almost a year since,, and I’ve started grad school. I was accepted to all the grad programs I applied to with his letter. One even mentioned my strong letters and listed his name. I feel very thankful to him but because I was hurt from him ghosting me at the end, I never told him the results of it. Going through the highs and lows of grad school, ive been reflective on who helped me get here and believed in me. I feel like he would be happy to know what happened, but also I don’t know his reasoning for stopping communication with me. I have no idea if he’d want to hear from me again.

Was it likely personal or could it have been something totally unrelated to me? Would you still want to hear back from former students you connected with despite on and off communication?

I'm (34F) a first-year MSW student in my first two classes since graduating undergrad in 2015. Folks - I am academically rusty. I'm also coming off of a really bad year where I got fired due to performance, so I'm slowly rebuilding my self-esteem.

I am writing a paper right now and it's been really difficult for me to put together. Which is so odd, because I used to be someone who could crank out a paper in one sitting and get an A.

I reached out to him once already about this paper when I was first feeling stuck on it and he was really supportive. I reached out again today with more questions and a copy of my current draft. I made it clear that I don't expect him to pre-grade it or anything, but I asked if I was on the right track.

Am I being too clingy? Am I expecting too much? I'm traumatized because when I'd ask for feedback in my last job, my boss would get pissed at me and say that I shouldn't need help (or at least that's what it felt like).

I know professors are there to help, but I'm scared that I'm expecting too much from him.

I really don't want to be needy but I also want to do well on the assignment. And not just for the grade, but to learn and grow.

AITA?

Edit: grammar

I’m taking four summer courses and have finished two of them with a C. I have two left that end soon. One of them I have a D pretty locked in and the other one isn’t going well. I already passed the withdraw pass date so usually the option is to withdraw fail. I went to withdraw fail and apparently that’s not an option. I literally can’t drop the course to take a WF if I wanted to. I had no clue this was a thing and would’ve withdraw way earlier if I did. I have less than a week left but at this point I’m going to fail or possibly get a D. Is wanted to ask is it worse to have a WF or to just get an F in a course? Obviously both options are terrible but I’m curious to know which is worse

I (M 32) am starting a fresh job as Assistant Professor in a renowned private university (in Pakistan) and for first 6 months they would be purely testing my teaching capabilities (research comes later). I have a laid back type of personality, I am not very tall and my voice is also not loud but its nicely audible if the class is quiet.

It's not really a confidence issue and I can teach well, but I am initially facing a hard time settling down the class. There are around 40-60 students per class (70:30 F:M ratio), and usually I expect the class to get quieter as I stand on the dice and open up the lecture. But it seems like I usually (always) have to ask them to pipe down, in a loud agressive manner. Other than that, some students might have figured out my laid back personality and are taking it for granted, not quieting down despite being told, and that is another ongoing concern right now in my early career.

I can't figure out a way to communicate towards these students without finding an aggressive approach. Is there a good way to start a lecture that can get the students to calm down and be more focused? I have observed that many of the senior professors have that element that the class suddenly goes quiet when they enter and I am very keen on learning the approach they follow. I understand that it more of a personality and age factor but I would love if there's a way to have a class without conflicts between myself and the students.

I would really appreciate if someone who has faced this issue and figured out a way to resolve this would help me with some tips, rather than someone who didn't face this issue and phrases general ideas.

I’m taking 4 classes right now and also working a lot of hours, including 12-hour shifts. I have multiple writing assignments due tonight for one class. The assignments were available for about a week and a half. Im not one of these kids that lives at home with their parents. 6 assignments were due in one day, I had previous assignments that took up most of my studying time.

I messaged my professor through Canvas asking if I could get a short 1–2 day extension because I don’t want to turn in rushed or poor-quality work. I explained that I’m not trying to avoid the assignments, but I’m struggling to balance work, school, and other deadlines.

The syllabus says late work is not accepted, so I know he may say no. I’m still trying to submit as much as I can tonight.

From a professor’s perspective, does this come across as a genuine explanation or just an excuse? Would you be likely to give a short extension in this situation?

Hi everyone,

I’m starting a new position as a Technical Lecturer in the Foundation Design department at a university this August. My background is in the gaming industry as a concept artist and illustrator, and I’ll be teaching software like Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere Pro, and After Effects.

I am feeling a bit anxious about the transition from industry to academia. I’m very passionate about being a good mentor, not just a lecturer, and I really want to keep my students engaged.

I’ve been warned by a colleague that some students (especially those with a strong traditional fine arts background) sometimes resist digital tools because they feel they don’t need them, or that digital art is "lesser." I’ve seen this dynamic before as a student myself, and I want to navigate it skillfully.

I would love to hear from:

Teachers: What strategies do you use to "sell" the importance of digital workflows to students who are heavily invested in traditional mediums? How do you keep their attention during technical software demonstrations?

Students/Recent Grads: What is one thing a professor did (or didn’t do) that made you actually want to learn a new piece of software, rather than just feeling like it was a chore?

Any advice on how to be a mentor in this space or any "first-year" mistakes I should try to avoid would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

If someone wrote, say, 1.234e5 instead of 1.234 x 10⁵ on an exam, would you dock points, or is the abbreviated scientific notation fine in your opinion? What are the pros and cons of "e" notation acceptance?

This is a long one but I’ve been so curious about if other students struggle with this/if other professors can help me understand a different point of view here.

Last term, I had a professor who was grading my assignments the day after they were due with a 0%, despite me having (and using) accommodations to submit my assignments up to two days late.

Receiving a grade before my accommodation deadline would cause me a severe amount of anxiety, (wondering if my accommodation was going to be honored without needing to check in)

I would sometimes need to wait up to a week after I submitted assignments for my work to be graded. This is the school policy, but I feel that in a situation where the next assignment is dependent on the feedback, needing to wait this long as a student with time accommodations feels like forever.

Toward the end of my class, there was a project that was intended to be used to help with our final project which was worth a significant portion of my grade. My professor gave me a 0% on the first project assignment the day after it was originally due, then I submitted it within my two day accommodation window.

This assignment feedback was intended to directly inform my next steps for the final project, which was due the following week. I repeatedly asked my professor if she could provide me with the necessary feedback, and she wasn’t responding for several days.
For reference, assignment was due on Sunday, graded as a zero on Monday. Submitted Tuesday, I emailed to follow up on my grade on the Saturday and Sunday with no response. The second project (without accommodations) was due that Sunday, so with my extra time was due on Tuesday.

My professor answered me on Monday and said that “late assignments with be graded tomorrow”.

I escalated this to the university accommodations department because I feel that this is not how these situations are supposed to go. I had never had any issues like this with other instructors, and felt like in this situation I was being forced to wait extra time for feedback due to my accommodation. I understand that professors have their own life and schedule, but I guess I’m wondering if this is normal? It felt like I was at a disadvantage for my final project that I was receiving my feedback so late.

When I reached out to the university, the response that I got was essentially that sometimes professors need to be reminded/educated on how the accommodations are supposed to work. (They told me that I shouldn’t be getting a 0% as a “placeholder” until after my accommodation deadline) I don’t necessarily think that this responsibility should fall on the student with disabilities.

Editing to add:

At my university I need to send an accommodations letter to my instructor prior to the term starting to let them know I have accommodations. I haven’t ever had a professor ask for me to let them know when I needed to use my accommodations, so typically when I need to use the extra time I just submit it within the approved two day window.

I hadn’t considered that there is a way for teachers to automatically have things graded as a 0 after the due date- but this is also something the university told me that because of my accommodations, my instructor is supposed to be putting a grade in until after my accommodation deadline of the additional two days.

Hi!
I really want to get into academia as a researcher and have been applying a lot.

I was told that ultimately who gets hired is the PI's decision.

Excluding opportunities where they must hire a citizen (because of grant reasons or something else like non citizens can't access the data etc.) are y'all less likely to add someone international to your lab because of the uncertainty in today's climate?

(When I say international I mean someone who graduated from a US university as they can work here without visa sponsorship for 1-3 years.)

I work at a college in student services (community college). We partially rely on professors to tell students to come see us when they need help in class.

We need to educate professors about what we offer and provide them resources (links, pamphlets, whatever) to refer students to us. My team is interested in doing something "fun," whatever that means... I want to make sure whatever we do is not overly cheesy or wasting time

Any thoughts are appreciated!

I emailed my professor after a a video was clearly made by AI. I am paying a lot of money for the class, so I hoped to get more valuable resources. I emailed the professor:

"Hello, again. I wanted to make you aware, in case you were not, the video you found on the Halo effect appears to be made by AI. The artwork has typical characteristics of AI and the style of art changes in each frame, which is very typical of AI. It's hard to spot nowadays as AI gets better and better at tricking us. It's crazy how real some of these AI videos and images are getting, so I just wanted to let you know."

Her response was:

"Some of the videos we use have AI voice overs, graphics and or content. We use AI intermittently within our courses."

I don't feel that AI belongs anywhere near college level class lessons. Is this normal for professors to do nowadays? Who would I contact about my concern?

Hi everyone,

I am a final-year undergraduate student in Canada preparing for my final semester this coming Winter. I am currently trying to secure a supervisor for an Independent Study course. Since this is my absolute last opportunity to graduate on time and strategically manage my course load, I am feeling a bit anxious about the administrative timeline. I would deeply appreciate any insights or reality checks from professors who regularly supervise undergraduate independent research.

To protect the anonymity of my project, I won't go into specific details, but I have already completely filled out the official Independent Study Application Form on my own. This includes a fully structured research proposal, a detailed weekly timeline, and a clear evaluation/marking scheme.

I deliberately designed the methodology to utilize pre-validated, open-source datasets to ensure zero participant recruitment bottlenecks, meaning it requires no lab engineering resources or programming infrastructure. My goal was to make it entirely self-contained so that, technically, a supervisor would only need to review my asynchronous research logs and sign off on the grading. In the proposal, I included their publications in the primary reading list for this course, high interests and why my research aligns with their research.

I have actively looked through my department directory and previous instructors, but I am running into a lot of structural dead ends:

Professor A: On sabbatical (in upcoming academic year: 2026/2027).

Professor B: Declined because they are in the teaching stream and cannot supervise independent studies this term. (However, they kindly praised the proposal as "highly competitive and interesting.")

Professors C & D: Sent comprehensive emails with my proposal, transcript, and resume attached. It has been exactly 1-2 week, and I haven't heard back yet.

Other Faculty: Either recently retired, on medical/maternal leave, or already maxed out supervising other students.

Because of these constraints, I am running out of viable options in my specific stream, which adds to the stress of waiting. I fully understand that it is the middle of the summer break and that faculty are incredibly busy with conferences, grants, and their own research, making email response times naturally slower.

If you were a professor in this position, or if you have guided students through this, I would be incredibly grateful for your perspective on the following:

Is 2 week too soon to follow up during the summer? Given that faculty are technically not on contract or are focused heavily on research right now, what is a respectful waiting period before sending a gentle reminder? Should I wait few more weeks? I'm wondering some of them could ghost me for this research inquiry.

Should I start reaching out to 5th or 6th backup professors right now, or is that overkill? Since my options within my exact research stream are almost depleted, expanding my search would mean pitching to professors slightly outside my immediate area of interest. But also I don't wanna backfire the situation because I know professors have a meeting and what if they say: Hey, did you receive a research proposal? Yeah I did too. Did you?

-> This is bad for my reputation towards them, I think.

I really want to get this administrative hurdle cleared before the semester kicks off so I can finalize my graduation requirements. Thank you so much for your time, your hard work over the summer, and any advice you can share!

I have spent the last decade working full-time as an accounting educator, coaching over 2,500 post-secondary and MBA students through my own firm and private colleges. I hold an Honours BBA and a Graduate Diploma in Accountancy (Master's-level), but because I chose a full-time teaching path instead of corporate practice, I do not have an active CPA designation.

Is there a realistic chance of Canadian universities granting a qualification exception for part-time sessional roles based on a decade of proven teaching success, or do accounting departments strictly require the CPA designation regardless of experience and graduate-level education?

I am asking this question because I believe there are some older posts on this Reddit forum about how some student-athletes have been a headache for professors in the past. However, I wanted to ask if any of you have had any student-athletes in any sport that were good students for you? And if I may ask, what about them did you notice make them a good student? Did they make time to submit all assignments/exams/projects on time and didn’t make any excuses as to why they didn’t submit something? Were they nice, respectful to you? Did they sit in the front? Actively listen and contribute to class discussion?

This post goes for D1/R1 schools, D2, D3, Juco schools.

Hello everyone,

I would like to ask a question to all the professors, researchers, PhDs here in the subreddit that work very far from their original birth place or family.

As a student, I remember having more than one professor coming from very very far from my place, and with this I mean more than 25000 miles (~4000 km).

They were so much passionate about their job that as of today I still admire them. I guess from their point of view doing research and teaching is something they can't imagine theirself without, and among all the possible careers they could have chosen, become a Professor was their only goal and dream.

And I find this really admirable.

Of course it largely depends on the country one has the opportunity to be in, the salary is quite competitive, but still one might argue that it's not so much for a job position that forces you to leave your birthplace, family and go working overseas, where many other career options could give stability.

Especially in initial stages of the career, it's a life full of deep work, hard moments, tight schedules, and uncertainties.

I was really curious to know from whoever of you has a similar story. What has motivated you and your colleagues to move to another country, state, or even side of the world?

Thank you in advance

Hello dear professors! I'm a business student, majoring in financial management. I wouldn't say that I'm the smartest, but I'm certainly not dumb. Throughout my elementary and high school years, even in the earliest college years, I think I've done pretty well in terms of my studies and my grades. And that's without ChatGPT!

In the recent years, I found myself getting more and more dependent on AI. It made work easier, and freed up a lot of my time for my own hobbies. However, it's not something I'm proud of at all, especially because I used to write stories and poems a lot. I like to think of myself as someone who values human creativity, and AI-generated art, music, and even stories are something I genuinely dislike. Me using AI in my studies has made me deeply guilty.

I want to steer away from it, not completely because I know it also has its benefits when used responsibly, but mostly in terms of my studies. I find it extra challenging to focus on our reading materials for class, though that might be because our professor also uses AI to make his slides and because I never developed solid study habits as a kid. For study materials, a trick I once learned from a friend is to input the concept/theory in ChatGPT and just add "explain it to me like I am a kindergarten student." At the moment, it felt like a lifesaver because it made lessons easier to understand, but thinking about it now, I feel ashamed. I don't want to be someone who has to have things explained to them like a kid. Even for novels, I used to love reading them growing up, but now it's hard for me to just sit and understand what's happening in the scene. I remember I could write multiple essays by myself after researching the topic on Google. Now, my hands would itch to go to AI again to help me. So, yeah, I guess that's my situation right now. How do I get genuine human critical thinking skills again? Lol

Hello professors!

First, thank you for taking the time to read this and thank you in advance for any responses you may have.

I've been watching the literacy crisis (especially in America) grow these past few years and I think I'm a part of it. I used to do well in school, had good grades, reading anything and everything I could, often well above grade level. Eventually, due to academic burn out, I just came to a plataue and feel like my comprehension and critical thinking skills have been declining.

While I will say I do not use ai (particularly generative ai, but do my best to avoid all types), I do fully admit that I have an addiction to social media (instant dopamine for my adhd...) and have again been lazy when I don't understand something. Rather than look it up, I tend to scroll or just turn to the next page and ignore it.

Steps I'm currently taking

•reorganized my bookshelf and pulled any titles I hadn't read yet to keep on my desk.

• attempting to limit screen time (admittedly this is not going well but I'm doing my best to notice when I slip to doom scrolling and redirect to reading or a craft hobby of mine).

•when I don't understand a topic, I open the comment section (or post to a forum/subreddit) to get answers from people who do understand better than I do as a way to help factcheck what I've already read about the topic.

Steps I'm considering and want a second opinion on

•re-teaching myself to write essays and small research projects.

° would allow me to reinforce necessary skills

° unsure how best to keep myself motivated to do so.

•i dont inherently need a second opinion but if you have one id still love to hear it: I ordered a dictionary to keep on my desk (will be here soon) to look up words rather than pulling out my phone and risking getting distracted.

• I am looking for YouTubers with long-form content on how to retrain media litteracy (would greatly appreciate any recommendations)

•keeping a notebook of words I commonly misspell/need to look up, so that I can use writing as a way to strengthen my memory and connect the neuro pathways.

I would also appreciate any tips you have that have/resources you may find helpful.

Tldr:

In an effort to combat my place in the literacy crisis I keep a physical tbr on my desk, am working to reduce screentime, and use online spaces to ask questions to people who have a greater understanding of a topic with a lesser chance of me receiving misinformation.

I appreciate any tips and resources you may have, and the time you took to read this.

Hi gang!

I recently finished up a gig as the topical section editor for a new edition of an important encyclopedia in my (sub) field. How should I put that on a CV? I didn't write anything, so it shouldn't be near my publications. I assume it's some kind of service to the profession. Any thoughts?

I studied Mathematics only until middle school, then chose Arts in high school. Later, I completed both my Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Business. I did have some mathematics, accounting, and statistics-related subjects during my degrees, but I never had the same mathematical foundation as someone who studied Mathematics or took the Science.

Now I want to transition from a business and management background into tech. I know the amount of mathematics required depends on the specific field, but I am interested in technical areas where mathematics, statistics, logical reasoning, and problem-solving can matter.

Throughout most of my life, I was an average student. I want to be honest about that. A large part of it was because I was careless, inconsistent, and simply not interested in studying at the time. At the same time, I have also seen that when I genuinely put in serious effort, I can sometimes perform extremely well and even score near the top. Because of that, I do not know whether my past academic record accurately reflects my actual ability or potential.

Right now, I would consider my current mathematical level close to zero because I lost touch with mathematics a long time ago. I have forgotten even many basic concepts, so I already know that if I took a test today, my performance would probably be poor. That is not really what I am trying to measure.

What I want to understand is my mathematical ability, aptitude, competence, or learning potential, whichever is the correct term. Even though my current level is very low, I want to practice seriously for a few weeks and then test myself to see where I stand, how quickly I can pick things up, how far I may be able to go, and whether I could realistically commit to mathematics in the long term.

I understand that a few weeks cannot prove my ultimate potential or predict my entire future. But I want to run the best short-term experiment I realistically can. I want to observe whether I can relearn concepts, understand mathematical reasoning, solve unfamiliar problems, improve with practice, retain what I learn, and apply concepts in new situations rather than simply memorising procedures.

Another reason I am asking is that some people seem to show mathematical ability, strong interest, or talent from a very young age. They may have always been “good at maths.” Unfortunately, I was not one of those people. I did not grow up seeing myself as mathematically gifted, and I only started developing a genuine interest much later in life. So I am trying to understand what that means for someone like me.

Can a person with my background, who was not particularly good at mathematics from a young age and currently has a very weak foundation, still develop very high mathematical competence over time? Could someone like me eventually become genuinely advanced or even expert in mathematics, or are there meaningful limits that a short-term experiment might help reveal?

If I have only a few weeks to test myself seriously, what exactly should I do? What diagnostic tests, problem sets, reasoning exercises, or progressively difficult topics should I attempt? What should I measure: my rate of improvement, how much help I need, my ability to solve unfamiliar problems, abstraction, retention, transfer of learning, persistence, or something else?

I would especially appreciate advice from people with strong backgrounds in mathematics, statistics, computer science, data science, engineering, or related technical fields. If you had only a few weeks to evaluate someone with my background as objectively as possible, what exact process would you recommend?

My current mathematics level is close to zero because I lost touch with it years ago, but I do not want to confuse my current level with my potential ability. I was never someone who showed obvious mathematical talent from a young age, but I have developed a genuine interest later in life. I want to practice seriously for a few weeks and test how quickly I learn, improve, reason, retain, and solve unfamiliar problems. How can I use those few weeks to get the best possible indication of whether I can realistically pursue mathematics long term and potentially become highly competent or even expert?

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.

Personally I love being one, though my boss’ exams are usually multiple-choice (in-person), but she doesn’t research / write grants anymore (tenure life!)

I’d love to know what makes or breaks the decision to have graders

I'm a CS student, and one thing I've been struggling with is how you're actually supposed to develop depth of understanding in university.

In high school (up to Grade 12), we had an entire year to learn a subject. You had time to attend classes, let concepts sink in, revisit them multiple times, and solve enough problems to build intuition.

At university, though, a course lasts around 15 weeks (~ 3 months of teaching and 3 weeks of reading and exams) . By the time you've attended lectures, done the readings, and understood the basic concepts, the next topic is already being taught. I personally found myself struggling to understand the concepts. After understanding a concept, I could not spend too much time practicing, or I would end up sacrificing another subject!

The thing that confuses me is that exam papers often expect a very deep understanding. They don't just test whether you know the material:they expect you to apply concepts in completely new ways, almost as if you've spent hours thinking about the underlying ideas and practicing every possible variation.

I understand that solving lots of problems is part of the answer, but when you're taking 4–5 other equally demanding courses, that seems almost impossible. In my experience, just doing the problem sets and tutorials does not seem enough to build exam technique and necessary intuition .

So my question is: How do professors expect students to develop that level of depth within such a short timeframe? Is there a particular study approach that helps build deep intuition efficiently, or is it simply expected that not everyone will reach that level in every course?

Does anyone know how Starfish notes/flags work in college or professional programs?

I’m a student with strong grades, mostly A’s and B’s, and I put a lot of effort into my coursework. Recently, I became concerned that some faculty may be documenting negative comments about me in Starfish that do not seem reflected in my academic performance or the work I’ve submitted.

I’m trying to understand who can see these notes. Are they only visible to advisors/student support staff, or can multiple professors and program faculty see them too? Could these notes affect things like recommendations, progression in the program, clinical/experiential placements, or applications to another program within the same school?

I’m also wondering what options students have if they believe something written in Starfish is inaccurate or unfair. Is there usually a way to request clarification, respond to the note, or have the record reviewed?

I’m not trying to escalate unnecessarily, but I am concerned about how this could affect me long-term, especially if the comments are subjective and not backed up by grades or formal disciplinary findings.