7 things to consider before you think your professor is ignoring you

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Hi there. I am the prolific professor with 15 years of experience teaching online and in-person. I have a graduate degree. I have a passion for education. But I’ve also worked in the professional world (outside of education) too. Thanks for visiting.

Is my professor ignoring my email?

If you think that your professor is ignoring your email because you didn’t get a response, you should make sure that you sent the email to the right professor, check the spelling of the email address, review their response times, and consider the tone of your email first. If everything checks out, the professor might not be ignoring your email but instead they may have overlooked it, be out of town or at a professional conference, or forgot to respond. But don’t worry, I have ways to help you deal with a professor who has ignored your emails.

Have you sent emails to your professor and got no response?

You might be wondering if your professor is actually ignoring your email or if something else can explain the lack of response.

As a professor, there have been some instances where I have accidentally ignored a student’s email, but it wasn’t on purpose.

Before you start to get too stressed out and frustrated, I will give you 7 things to do first BEFORE you reach back out to your professor.

Because you might be scared to reach out again if they are really ignoring you.

And don’t worry, because I will tell you exactly what to do if you think your professor is actually ignoring your email.

How was the tone of the email?

If you are threatening your professor, being incredibly harsh and just being rude in the email, you probably won’t get a response.

Professors aren’t going to respond, and shouldn’t have to respond to an email that is exceptionally rude. If you send an email like this, and you know it was over the top, don’t expect a response. And if your professor wanted to, they could send it to an office to report it. But it needs to be really bad.

Did you email the right professor?

I have had students tell me before that they emailed the wrong professor, and was thinking it was me. I have even had students email me thinking I was another professor.

So this can happen. Check your syllabus, make sure you are emailing the right professor.

Is the email actually sent and sent correctly?

Did you send the email from your official college email? Colleges have fancy spam filters and if you send an email from your personal email, they may not open it for security purposes.

Did you spell the email correctly? Check every letter. It’s too easy to misspell an email.

Check your sent folder. Did the email successfully send to your professor or was there an error? Even worse, was it stuck in your drafts and it never sent at all?

Confirm these things first.

Review their syllabus

You need to consider your professor’s policy about response times first. The first place you should go is their syllabus to locate this information.

Review it and see if they have information about how long it will take them to respond.

If they do, see if you are past that timeline, and by how much. A day or two, not too terribly concerning, but beyond that, I would be worried that you won’t get a response.

Also consider holidays and campus closures, or even personal absences. While most professors will include messages to auto reply, yours may not have done that. They could be out with an illness or on vacation and you just not know.

How long should I wait for for an email response from my professor?

You should wait at least three full business days before you start to worry about receiving a response.

You should make sure that your professor is not out of the office, and that they are not on a break.

Only count business days, not weekends.

After a few days, it is safe to assume they’ve had a chance to read your email and you could follow-up. And I would definitely reach back out again if you’ve waited a week or longer for a response from your professor.

Professor didn’t reply to my email

If you think that your professor is ignoring your emails, you can follow-up with them again via email, visit them during office hours, talk to them before or after class, and as a last resort, you could contact their supervisor. It’s usually a misunderstanding and your professor isn’t intentionally ignoring you.

Okay, if you have done all these things above, and you still didn’t get a response and everything else checked out, it is possible that your professor is ignoring your email.

But wait, it might not be intentional. Your professor might not actually be purposely ignoring your emails. While possible, it’s not my first thought.

Let’s talk about how to deal with it now that you are here.

Think about timing

Okay, hear me out first.

Did you send the email over a break? During the winter and summer breaks, professors aren’t usually required to work. Most professors are contracted to work during the long semesters only.

So, if you sent an email over an official break, including summer, they might not even be checking their emails because they don’t have to.

Is your professor an adjunct or full-time professor?

You might be wondering what this even means. But an adjunct is part-time while some professors are full-time.

If you have an adjunct professor, they might have a full-time job, or might not work for the college anymore. Now, if this is during the semester and you are trying to get ahold of them, they are still employed, but if you are reaching out after a class had ended, they might not be working there anymore.

When I heard from students about their frustrations with professors ignoring their emails, it usually came from students who had adjunct professors.

Did you ask for a response in your email?

Sometimes students might think a response is needed, or their question was clear, but you should review your email again and see if you clearly asked a question and it was obvious that you wanted them to follow-up.

If you know your email was clear, and it’s incredibly obvious that you needed something, this isn’t the issue.

When I was a professor, some students would send me a second email about their first email being ignored, but it wasn’t really clear that they even needed anything. Sometimes students send emails about missing class and there isn’t a question so a professor might assume that it’s just being sent for informational purchases.

Now, here is what you should do to handle a situation where you can’t get ahold of your professor because you think they’re ignoring you.

Go to their office

I know that technology is amazing, and it is very convenient, but maybe stop by their office in person instead. This isn’t always entirely possible because you might be taking online classes, but if you can, stop by their office first.

Check their syllabus for their office hours and just check-in. I would try to avoid the very first few minutes of their office hours in case they are a little late getting to the office. And avoid visiting during the last 5 minutes of their office hours in case they left early.

You want to make your trip and time worth it. So stop by in the middle of their office hours, if you can.

Talk before or after class

My next suggestion is that you talk with your professor before or after your class. I know you might be afraid to approach them, but don’t be. That’s what they are there for.

So, wait for an opportunity to talk to them before class starts or after class is dismissed. And I suggest that you always tell your professor that you did email them but never received a response so they can figure out the problem.

Do a follow-up email

Here is your chance to reach out again. I am sure that your professor hasn’t ignored your email but rather overlooked it. We’ve all been there. We see an email, but then piles of other emails come in so quickly that one gets buried.

If you are going to do this, you definitely need to follow some rules. I’ve got everything outlined for you.

You want to do this right.

Contact their supervisor

If you have done all the things I said above, and nothing has worked, and you can’t find any reason why they shouldn’t have responded, then you could do this as a last resort.

You want to be careful about this because you aren’t looking to get them in trouble, at least I hope not, but sometimes you have questions that need to be answered.

If the response is crucial to your academic career, you can reach out to their supervisor.

You can check on the organizational charts on the college’s website to find out who their dean is. And reach out. If you don’t know how to find their supervisor, look for an associate dean or dean to the department of division.

If your professor teaches in the political science department, look for the associate dean or dean of that division/department. If you cannot locate it on the college’s website, call the information desk and get some help.

You should always explain your circumstances and just mention that you’re looking for a way to get ahold of them, or wondering if something has happened.

An important thing to remember is that you are trying to get a response to a critical question and not trying to tattle. Because if your professor is ignoring other students’ emails often, their supervisors are going to already know.

If it’s an isolated incident, it will seem like some misunderstanding or miscommunication. So, if necessary, do this as a last resort but don’t go without an answer to an important question.

Is it normal for professors to not respond to emails?

No. It is not normal for professors to not respond to emails because that is typically part of their job duties. But you should understand that most professors are on a 9 month contract and don’t work over winter and summer breaks. If students are out on break, professors are too.

And almost half of professors at universities are adjuncts, which are part-time professors who may have full-time jobs elsewhere and don’t check and respond to emails like full-time faculty.

But it is not normal for professors to ignore emails and not respond.

I know that you now understand why a professor may be ignoring your email and how to handle it. Just know that it is not professionally acceptable to outright ignore emails in academia unless the email does not require a response or it is incredibly vile. But sometimes emails do get overlooked and the professor didn’t mean to do it.

You’ve got this.


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