Rules for Interacting with College Professors - Office Hours, Email, Letters of Recommendation

This is part of a series of lectures, intended for first-year college students, on 'How To Do Well in College" or university! This video covers Rules and Norms for Interacting with college professors. Topics include:
Office Hours
Email Etiquette
Letters of Recommendation
How to Dress
What Questions to Ask

[@JamesGarner-dn2mk]

Thank you professor. Disabled 60-year-old getting an online education, your videos have helped my perspective so much. Grateful for your work.

[@hemeraxo]

Thank you! As an autisitc person who struggles with social norms, this was really helpful.

[@ThePhreakass]

Lmao

[@nedberg3399]

My wife is a professor and this video is 100% correct in RE: how profs think about their content. It's in the syllabus. Every class is essential. Yes you have to read the textbook.

[@JohnSmith-ds7oi]

Your wife is just a roadblock to a piece of paper that lets them get a job.

[@user-fr7zm1hr7v]

Ah! It is very useful for international students, especially the formality part. Wish I saw this video before I finish my BA.

[@katieb4314]

Thank you for this. It can be hard as a neurodivergent student to understand university norms.

[@jackieraye1998]

Your videos have been the saving grace for my son who is a sophomore in college. Your videos are short full of info and delivered very very well!!! Thank u for taking the time to share your knowledge with students I have even gained insight on note taking and I love your method. Thank u again your doing an amazing job!!!!

[@francoisbelangerboisclair]

One important point when you interact with a professor is to know what bias they have and how it will tint the course. But it's also really important to know the bias of the department. Some will "prefer" some philosophers or schools of thought. It can play a great role how they would grade your paper but also how they would react to your "opinion" or question.

[@msbrevity1534]

Thank you. As an online student all videos are informative. Because study is online it is sometimes difficult to receive a straight answer from a lecturer if struggling with a particular section in a lecture or reading. It would be wonderful if you would assist by recording another video on the best way to interact with online lecturers to enable clarity. Thank you

[@jerryd.5385]

Excellent video! Straight to the point and very well delivered. Keep up the good work, professor Jeffrey!

[@inksikarnl.7421]

Thank you so much! This is incredibly helpful. I work as an EFL lecturer at a university in Thailand, and I've been encountering the same issues in my class. Your video inspired me to create a similar tutorial for my students. I believe it's important to provide students with clear expectations and guideance so that they know what to expect.

[@simonbrandl1972]

Not even 5 seconds in and I already have to give you a thumbs up😂😂

[@arzee7482]

Professor so and so, I find this very interesting. Thank you very much.

[@javier123454321]

I find this really entertaining even if I have been out of university for like 6 years

[@euphoria1942]

Can you do a video on Rawls’s Theory of Justice please?

[@pinecone421]

Keep up the good work! I’m very excited for the philosophy of language videos.

[@NeuronCode]

Thank you professor. You help me a lot to undestand how to do well in college and i learned so many things important to me and my future!

[@barbaradonohue4822]

This was helpful. I may get up the nerve to stop by my ethics professors office to find out why I don’t understand these abstract ethic dilemmas.

[@philipoakley5498]

It's probably why Natural Philosophy is seen as a science ;-) precision and pernicketiness...

[@beegreene9744]

This is so helpful, thank you.

[@chrisb5086]

This should be required viewing by all college students…

[@jan_v_ier]

I've officially watched the entire playlist. very helpful for someone(me) about to go to college. i would def support on patreon

[@purplepigment4283]

Every professor should put this on the syllabus to save themselves time. Not only do you get to say, "Its on the syllabus" but you also get to add, "did you watch the video at the top of the syllabus"

[@zochbuppet448]

No a professor should not have to teach students how to write a basic email or other very basic things

[@leo1365]

@@zochbuppet448yeah that’s the point, have the students watch the video instead.

[@ekner]

Glad that I got this recommended to me, what a good and timely refresher! I remember watching some of your videos when taking a Philosophy of Consciousness course - they may even have been in the reading list of the course. So this was a welcome surprise, to get as a recommended video here. One thing I'm curious about though: I was struck by how unique your filming setup seems to be. Do you have a pane of glass between you and the camera? Can you write like da Vinci, or do you flip the image after recording? Have you made a video about your filming method, or are you planning to? Did you come up with it yourself, or where did the inspiration come from?

[@CZOM027]

Check the videos on the channel, some of your questions have been answered there.

[@jeffreykaplan1]

I explain how it works in this video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/bJDHZWeYocaSfaM Unfortunately, it's not as fun as it might otherwise be.

[@brianeckley968]

Speaking as a fellow college professor (Lecturer, technically), you are doing God's work with this video.

[@user-cg5lo4zy6f]

This guy is good.Hes funny.

[@elhoucinetariat5196]

Welcome back It has been while

[@davidniverloer5540]

Thank you professor.

[@Sonex1542]

Brilliant video.

[@tokehead]

my right ear enjoyed this !

[@edmundorahternotsay7207]

Oh ps great lectures all around. Some of the best I have seen.

[@BigBameSmallBrain]

Adressing people by their respective title seems way more important in the U.S. than what I am used to in central & northern Europe. Good to know!

[@zane4682]

I wish I had seen lectures like these before I went off to college (back before email had fonts). It would have saved me a huge amount of grief. I think of all his recommendations, I did just about every one wrong at least once and sometimes many times in different ways. I think it's a big reason I went from being a favorite student in high school receiving awards to barely graduating college. The point about not dressing too casually brought back a forgotten memory from my very first week, being scolded for wearing a hat into a professor's office. To my credit, I never wore an open-sided nipple tunic to class -- those are gross even in the weight room.

[@ajmosutra7667]

The ending 😂😂😂😂

[@captaincanaveral]

Hello there, I hope what I want to ask hasn’t been covered yet. But failure, whether it’s missing an assignment or failing an entire class, I mean… any advice on how we can bounce back from this?

[@joshuadowling3930]

Thank you for this video @JeffreyKaplan - I wished I'd had a video like this as an autistic guy for whom social rules/tact doesn't come easily!

[@StopWhining491]

I received an email that could have been written in 25 words or less to make the student's point. I think the student may have been trying out their ChatGPT chops: 5 paragraphs, many multisyllabic words, no discernible point. Students reading this: Don't do that. Instructors will think you're weird.

[@lealee6717]

One of my professors rarely replies to my email, I guess it is either because I never told him which course I am in, or he was just lazy...🙃

[@philipoakley5498]

Weird fonts? One awkward font I've noticed is those who need to use "Asian" fonts so as to include their native (is that the modern term) character set. Sometimes one has to accept such international norms ;-)

[@scutterify]

I had an errant student, that I had cause to request him meet with me about his classroom behaviour. He came to the counter and said.."I've got a meeting with the old-fat-dude with the comb-over". The office staff reported to me he was waiting to see me and also how he addressed me. The meeting went downhill from there.

[@DoctoRenee]

Good advice. I tell my students they can address me as "RS" in email. :)

[@duongchi3720]

- Email: Dear Professor... Remind what course im in, course schedule, follow their style (if they replies in casual tone, adopt that style in the thread). use default font - office hours: feel the intimidation. can ask about reading, assignments, course materials, dont ask things appear on the syllabus. - LoR: pay attention to the rank of position - inform ahead in case absent: self introduction, in what course, inform the absence, make request

[@matthewgregory8218]

I half to submit my assessments on bright space.

[@Paraselene_Tao]

Dr. Kaplan, I'm not a student at UNCG. My mother earned a BA in Philosophy at UNCG in 2004. I get the UNCG email newsletter. I love to listen to online lectures on almost every imaginable topic. I listened to nearly all of Dr. Adam Rosenfeld's lectures already. I was excited to find more online philosophy lectures from UNCG, and I'm working through all of your content. Anyhow, should we adopt more formal practices in the youtube comment section too? I mean, wouldn't it be nice if the quality of these sections was higher-to the point of being like college class? Is this just too much for me or us to expect on KZbin? Also, I like to say "Hello Dr./Professor So-and-So". Is it bad etiquette to have the "Hello" in my salutations? Thanks for everything, Jesse H.

[@jeffreykaplan1]

I think it is too much to expect on KZbin. Different modes of communication have different norms. The expectations for how one writes a formal letter are different from the expectations for how one writes a text message. That's the way it is, and I don't think there is anything wrong with that. I think you can say "Hello Dr./Professor So-and-So", but starting an email with just "Hello" without the person's title/name is thought by some to be too informal.

[@redvelvetsprinkles]

I have advice about the etiquette for how to ask for letters of recommendation from professors 2+ years after graduation. (2020 Berkeley pandemic graduate here) is it overbearing to email asking for a letter of recommendation and attach in that same email a resume, coursework from the courses they taught you, etc? Should we wait until they say yes before sending over those supporting documents?

[@jeffreykaplan1]

Probably yes. I would send a first email asking for the letter, reminding them who you are, and saying something like "If you are willing to write the letter, then I would be happy to provide blah blah blah to make the letter easier to write." And then send that stuff in the next email.

[@tomanderson4131]

@@jeffreykaplan1 Is it too much to specifically ask for a "good letter of recommendation", rather than "a letter of recommendation" ? I feel like it gives the prof an out that way if all they're going to do is write a generic letter, rather than a really good one. Also, thanks for explaining how to respond to the 'initials' signature. I never really knew what to make of that. NEO

[@Chris.4345]

@@tomanderson4131 Professors, of all people, understand what is being asked for when a rec letter is requested. Asking for a “good” letter of rec is redundant, bordering on overbearing. Akin to asking your spouse, who is making you dinner, to make it a “good” dinner, or your stylist to give you a “good” haircut. That it’s good is implied. An infamous example: if your professor’s rec letter for you is just going to say that you have a good handwriting, they will almost certainly tell you that. You have to determine with conversation if the rec letter will be glowing. It is not something to request.

[@paladinsorcerer67]

What do you do if you ask a question in office hours but you still dont get it? Do you keep saying "Sorry I dont follow, can you explain what you just said?" Or do you say "Sorry I dont follow, can you suggest to me how I can find the answer myself so that I dont waste your time"?

[@edmundorahternotsay7207]

Practical lecture question: how does the glass board work that you use? Do you write backwards or is there a camera setting and if so what setting that makes it work for the viewer?

[@brixan...]

Pretty sure he is writing backwards lol. He doesn't seem to have a video explaining how/why he can do that

[@zochbuppet448]

They used to say that you guys would be the most technology and computer savy ever. Retired people are probably doing better than you guys by now. The fact that you cant find the answer to this tells us that you dont know how to the internet

[@REGjr]

Misspelling Arial actually reinforces the gist (deemphasizing the less-material) of this video IMO

[@dans6046]

It got to thirty seconds remaining and I'll be damned if I didn't think you were going to leave that cold open just completely uncontextualised

[@craftthewords]

The method of interacting with pen and paper is not be compared with screen typing. It is the most efficient and relaxaing way to take notes

[@jesusdiedforyouproofjohn3.16]

Praise the LORD for creating kind attitudes!

[@naftalibendavid]

You rule.

[@Ogcal1k]

Did anyone else chuckle when he randomly said "they don't get healthcare..."😂

[@kimberlynguyen7370]

I am say I had Professor speak different than you. Maybe is they accent or something. Can you letting me know what talk so different.

[@zane4682]

If you notice differences in speech between yourself and a professor, it could be due to various factors. These may include variations in accent, with professors having diverse regional or native language influences. Additionally, the use of specialized vocabulary and technical terminology in academic settings might contribute to a more formal and distinctive speaking style. Variations in pacing, articulation, tone, and emphasis could also play a role, along with cultural influences and the formal nature of an educational setting. Overall, these factors collectively contribute to the perceived differences in how you communicate compared to a professor.

[@carlodonnell146]

What about.....Hi!!?

[@lulairenoroub3869]

I work in IT, and have to send a lot of emails, often to people that would really prefer to hear something other than what I have to say If I started with just "Team Member Michael". That would come across really gross "Professor" better, because it's at least a nice title, but still? Cold starting with someones name? Not even a "Hi"? That's weird, man. It makes you sound like you're exasperated with the person you are addressing. Add a hi from now on. I get that you need the name, you're not actually friends, that makes sense. But you need the hi. You're not enemies?

[@scrooglemcduck1163]

Yo, college administration bozos. As a tenured professor and author, it is my professional opinion that this guy should be made a tenured professor.

[@pablogubert]

Ariel is the way a sea creature would write

[@ajmosutra7667]

But why have rules

[@ajmosutra7667]

Jk... Its a great vid

[@barryboner1332]

This guy is an enigma. Only 1 out of 20 professors will give you a decent response. 2 seconds is too much of a bother for them so don’t waste your 20 minutes watching this.

[@bcx1138]

i prefer receiving links to google docs over pdf/doc attachments and i’m much older than you. less time wasted opening and going through the docs

[@hugo-garcia]

Everything you said makes no sense at all in my country. If I follow this I will be seen as an absolutely idiot

[@zane4682]

Cara, ele fala de onde é, incluindo país, estado, cidade, até a escola específica. Você provavelmente poderia ter adivinhado se o conselho daquele local é relevante para sua situação antes mesmo de assistir a um vídeo.

[@Kinging76]

lot of red tape, teacher are getting easily offended these days, very egoistic uni environment in USA.

[@whatdoesthisthingdo]

100%. The uni environment in the US borders on being an oppressive regime. To even express an unpopular opinion risks academic suicide. Students ultimately end up bending over backwards paying the undue price for their professors’ failings (which are disturbingly frequent, obvious, and unchecked). It’s Animal Farm. The sad truth is that the power differential is so large that the responsibility for students’ education/future amounts to little more than trampling insects on the sidewalk for some of these people.

[@MauritaSteuber]