Reply to Tell High School Students to Stop Contacting Professors

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I am horrified by this and would never allow it as a parent. But you are a business professor: they want something from you.

On the other hand, sometimes professors in severely undersubscribed areas are really the ones who should be wanting something from the student. After all, some humanities departments are dying on the vine.

For that reason, I did allow/encourage DC to write two very brief emails: one to a professor in a niche humanities major at a top 10 SLAC, and one to a professor in the same field at a very large but prestigious oos state flagship.

To my great surprise, the large school professor answered; he was lovely and informative. The SLAC professor did not.

Guess where kid did not apply?

[/quote]
Same poster. Should have made clear kid was not asking for anything, other than some insight/brief advice on what it's like to study there (to inform DC's decision whether they wanted to apply early).[/quote]

Most faculty do not have time to reply to random emails.  They are paid to teach and do research.  Many get hundreds of emails a day.  [b]The fact you think your child deserved a response is really thoughtless.[/b]  It was nice the professor responded, but think about if every single high school kid did that?  Already they get emails from graduate applicants which usually require a response.

Asking for insight/brief advice is asking for something and to act like it isn't, is not thinking of the other person.  I think if the professor replies, great, if they don't that is fine also.  Many assistants go through emails and might delete it or the professor is too busy/ might be teaching multiple courses and writing a book that semester.

Some universities have programs for high school students, so if your kid wants experience I would recommend looking into those programs and contacting those faculty who actually want to work with high school students. [/quote]
It is thoughtless that these so-called "professors" presume to know what being a SLAC humanities professor at a field "dying on the vine" -- did you not know they have no grad students? -- is like. Asked and answered but, no, these emails are few and far between for such professors. Nor was anything written about "desert." But I will say something about it now: students "deserve" professors who can read closely and write -- in any field. This thread only demonstrates how deficient most professors are in this regard. [/quote]

This is not the kind of comment that should be attacking anyone’s writing.[/quote]

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