Do profs CARE about students (PROF answers in 2024)

Do you wonder if your professor even cares about you? You aren’t alone because lots of people have the same question.

As a professor of 15 years, I am going to tell you exactly how we feel about our students.

Students often question professor’s feelings about them because it can seem like they just don’t care at all. So, are you just a number to your teachers?

You might be asking yourself, do they even notice you or care about what you are going through or are they just trying to get a paycheck?

Students may develop this perception for a variety of reasons.

Maybe students are struggling and their professor isn’t concerned or students try and talk to their professors about personal issues and they shrug them off.

It doesn’t feel good to think that your instructor doesn’t care about you as a person. You do have a life outside of college after all.

However, I have an interesting perspective to share with you. I think they do care, but not in the way that students want them to.

Sure, we care about your well being, but we really have our focus on your learning.

Let’s get into to some more details.

Do professors care about their students?

Yes, most professors care about their students, to a degree. We care about our students learning the material, if they are having trouble in our class or are struggling with personal issues.

However, professors likely have hundreds of students each semester and it would be emotionally draining to get too personally invested.

What I hear most professors say is that they have empathy but they try to not get involved in their students’ lives because it can feel too heavy for them.

It isn’t that professors don’t care, but it sure can look like that to students.

It’s just that we have hundreds of students each term, and we can’t get too concerned because new students will soon replace the current ones. We don’t have the emotional capacity to care too much.

The semester is a fast turnaround.

As a professor, we also get lied to on many occasions. When students come to us with their problems, it can be hard to know how honest they are being. Sometimes students would lie to get an extension or makeup an exam.

So we are leery sometimes.

It isn’t that we don’t feel sorry for your circumstances, it’s just that it can be hard to believe sometimes when we have been manipulated before.

We also don’t know what to say sometimes. And aren’t the best at conveying feelings so perhaps we look like we don’t care but we are just bad at showing it.

If you are trying to explain to your prof about your recent struggles and they still deny you the opportunity to catch up on coursework or deny you extra credit opportunities, it isn’t that they they don’t have a heart, it’s just that they are trying to abide by their policies.

Don’t read too much into it.

Why do professors rarely care about their students?

Professors may seem like they don’t care about their students because they have lots of students in their classes and if they get too emotionally invested in their students, it could be overwhelming.

Many instructors take a professional approach to their position. And this means that they have to stay neutral. If a student comes to them and starts talking about their personal lives, the professor needs to keep their emotions out of it.

We need to make objective decisions and if we are too subjective, that can make it difficult.

Let’s say that a teacher has a policy about attendance but a student was in a car crash earlier that prevented them from arriving to class. But there are no exceptions to their policy. The professor probably seems incredibly harsh if they don’t allow the absence.

I know it looks like they aren’t concerned, but they just don’t want to treat students unfairly and allow special treatment for some and not others.

Also, many professors don’t want to be friends with their students so they draw a line. They avoid talking about personal things and this can seem standoffish.

Don’t get me wrong, it definitely looks like the prof is being rude but it is just because the professor is trying to be professional. It’s all business to them.

In my professional opinion, this is why it looks like professors don’t care about students but in reality, professors do care but are not able to show it to the extent that they would like to.

They could get taken advantage of if they do.

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