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

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

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

Thank you, Professor. I wish your video had been available during my formative years-it might have saved me from my eccentric tendencies.

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.

I wish someone had given me a tutorial like this thirty years ago. None of my family went to University, even distant relations, and I didn't have a clue. I had to learn just by accidentally offending people and working out why (if you were lucky enough that they weren't just the type to silently seethe).

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

thank you for this, very professional and very educational. i need you btw

This should be required viewing by all college students…

Is it just me but i always fall asleep to these videos, even though its so good

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

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

Ariel is the way a sea creature would write

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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!!!!

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.

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.

The ending 😂😂😂😂

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?

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.

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

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

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...🙃

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?

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.

i can't thank you enough professor Kaplan Jeffrey, keep up the good work!

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

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"?

In the beginning of the semester every teacher wil usually tell you what to use to address them and which platform to use. Write it down because they all want something else and it’s a mess. Some want email some want u to use canvas and others want Microsoft Teams. Then the greeting is also different for every one of them and if they don’t respond check what you wrote down at the beginning of the year because 90% don’t respond if you didn’t use what they wanted. Sometimes they will send a generic email to everyone in the middle of the semester with ‘information’ on how to send them an email. That’s when you know you really fucked up if they didn’t respond to the email you sent them. You are now in a zone where they remember your name but not for a good reason. It is stuck in their head when grading your shit. Make sure to be active the next lectures and be the one that answers their questions when everyone is falling asleep. Only problem is that they often don’t connect you the physical person with you who sent the awful email so there are 2 versions of you in their head. The email version is the one that they grade because they only see a name when grading. Physical you doesn’t have a name because they don’t even bother trying to remember your name in class. So be active until they start saying your name when you know the answer in class. I literally saw my grades go up because my teacher didn’t connect me with the person in class. He criticised my assignments in a way that was kind of strange to me stuff like I didn’t attend classes enough when I was always there. Problem was that he just didn’t know my name and probably mixed me up with someone else who didn’t attend classes. Always keep in mind: they have 300+ students. Even if you think they know you, they probably don’t because they only have space for 20. Make sure you are in the 20 for a good reason not a bad one. Also upload a recent foto of you on the canvas student profile that way they can recognise that your one of the students who always attends classes. Because a name without a picture is kind of useless. They usually only know 3 names even after 5 years they still do not know your name.😂😭💀 I think they just give up on trying to remember names.😂

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

Love your videos! Not only are you informative, but extremely HILARIOUS!!!

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.

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 ;-)

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

Welcome back It has been while

- 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

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.

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

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 RU-vid? 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.

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

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"

I half to submit my assessments on bright space.

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?

This is so helpful, thank you.

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?

my right ear enjoyed this !

Brilliant video.

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!

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

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

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!

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!

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

This guy is good.Hes funny.

Thank you professor.

What about.....Hi!!?

You rule.

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?

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

But why have rules

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

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

Praise the LORD for creating kind attitudes!

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.