How to talk to your professor? (advice from one)
About the author
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.
What should I talk to my professor about?
Are you nervous about approaching your professor or just plain confused about how to start a conversation with your professor?
I am here to help you. I was a professor for 15 years and I have had lots of interactions with students. I will tell you about some of the most memorable conversations I have had with students, and how to start a conversation with your professor. I will tell you what I liked, and what I didn’t like about conversations I had with my past students.
I know it can be intimidating to talk to your professor because they have power and authority. It’s even more scary because you are afraid that your interactions with them might sway the way they grade your assignments or change they way they think of you.
But please don’t fear them. It’s really easy to talk to us. Most professors would welcome conversations with students. I will help you understand how to approach them and how make small talk.
I think it’s important to learn how to talk to your professor because you may need them for a favor later.
How you talk to your professor is going to depend on the way you are communicating with them too.
How do you make small talk with a professor?
If you want to make small talk with your professor, you need to first consider their professional or educational background. You can start by discussing your professor’s research, or something that has happened in their field of expertise recently. This will get the conversation started.
But before you start a conversation with your professor, do a little research about your professor’s experience and education. You can find information about their research and experience by looking at their faculty website or their curriculum vitae.
Take a glance at this information to give you an idea of topics that interest them.
And then answer some of these questions before starting a conversation with your professor. These can be great starters to a conversation.
Did something happen in the news recently within their field?
Was there some new invention or advancement in their profession?
Do you share some of the same interests as your professor?
Was there any recent course material that interested you?
After you have answered some of these questions, make a mental note for future reference. You can then discuss some of these topics with your professor later.
And if you don’t want to talk about these topics, you can specifically ask them about their professional experience in the field or their research interests. This would really impress your professors.
It will make the conversation a lot easier because they will take the lead, and they will love talking about themselves because they are likely passionate about their field.
When is the best time to make small talk?
As a former professor, I think the best time to make small talk with your professor is BEFORE class begins. You can quickly talk to your professor about something that is related to the subject, but keep it short. You don’t want to get in the way of them preparing for the class.
Typically professors arrive a little early for classes to prepare the computer and their materials. I always arrived around ten minutes early to get everything setup for class.
Students would normally use this time to ask me questions but sometimes students would communicate with me about things that have been going on in our field too. Maybe it was a news story they heard or some advancement in our field.
I loved these conversations because sometimes I learned something new myself. These were some of my favorite conversations with students because I felt like they were truly passionate about my field.
If you feel like the conversation could take more time than allotted BEFORE class, you could always visit during office hours. I have a complete guide on visiting your professor during office hours here.
You don’t want to keep them too busy before class because they may need that time to prepare for the class. Also, if you have other students who talk to the professor, this may give you little time to talk to them before class.
And if you have a class full of other students, it might make you too nervous to make small talk with your professor in front of them.
You could always meet with them directly after class if they stick around for a bit. There were plenty of times when students would hang around for 5-10 minutes to talk to me about something.
But be mindful that your professor may have another class to get to or need to get back to their office for office hours.
If you plan on approaching them after class, I would recommend that you ask them if they have a few minutes to talk before you start the conversation.
How do you keep a conversation going with a professor?
After a conversation has been started with your professor, you can keep the conversation going by asking follow-up questions or providing your own opinion and feedback. As a former professor, I find it’s best to ask additional questions to let your professor continue the conversation.
The easiest way to keep a conversation going with a professor is to be prepared. The more you know about the potential topic, the easier it will be to keep talking about it with them.
When in doubt, think about some questions you can ask your professor to continue the conversation but let them take the lead. And after that, you just continue the conversation like you would with anyone else.
My biggest tip is to NOT pretend that you know something when you don’t. These were the conversation I didn’t like as a professor. Students would state information that was inaccurate or simply agree because they didn’t know what else to say.
I would rather students ask me for clarification than pretend they know what I am talking about.
So, if you don’t know the answer, or have no clue what they are talking about, be honest but professional. You can say something like “I didn’t know about that, can I send you an email for more information later, I’d like the look into it more.”
This is a great way to end the conversation if you are clueless about the topic or are confused. You can just ask them for a follow-up conversation, and you could send them an email later.
What are good questions to ask a professor?
Some good questions to ask a professor are things that are related to their field or research. You would need to check your professor’s faculty website or curriculum vitae and see what experience they have or what research they’ve done.
After you have that information, you can create your questions around these topics if you have nothing else to start with. Here are some examples of questions you can ask your professor.
What was your favorite part of your job before academia?
Would you recommend this field and why?
What made you interested in this subject?
How can I be successful in this field?
What would be your biggest tip for students pursuing this degree?
These are some great starters for conversation with your professor. Of course, your questions may be entirely different depending on why you want to talk with your professor in the first place.
But these are general questions that would be a good place to start.
What NOT to say to your professor
When you are having a conversation with your professor, it is best to avoid insulting them or their profession. Keep your conversation professional and polite. Avoid saying things that are rude and impolite.
When I was talking with a student, they made the comment that they would never want to be a professor because the pay was too low. This was definitely insulting because I was a professor. Plus, they didn’t understand faculty pay to know how much professors really made. They made two mistakes. They were kind of rude, and they didn’t know the facts.
Sure, professors aren’t typically rich, but it was still insulting even if the student wasn’t trying to be.
Another tip for students is to avoid arguing with your professor. Now, I always recommend that students have scholarly debate, and I have no problem with students talking to their professors about controversial topics but come prepared and be professional.
But I wouldn’t go out of my way to argue with your professor. There are definitely professional ways to disagree with your professor, but don’t make it into a heated debate. No one usually wins. You are very unlikely to change your professor’s mind any way.
This is especially true if you don’t have any scholarly data to support your opinion.
Now you should be more knowledgeable about how to start a conversation with a professor and things to avoid.
RECENT POSTS YOU’LL LOVE
