Good Questions to Ask Professors
Questions for office hours or a research conversation: what your professor is working on now, what students get wrong in the course, how to get into research, the honest case against graduate school, and what graduates do afterwards.
The questions
Open any question for the note
What are you working on at the moment?
Why ask it
The easiest opener in office hours and the one most professors are glad to be asked. It also shows you whether their current work connects at all to the course you are taking.
Which part of this course do students most often get wrong?
Why ask it
Specific, immediately usable, and professors always know. Answers usually name one particular concept rather than a study habit.
If you were stuck on this problem, where would you start?
Why ask it
Bring the actual problem. Watching an experienced person decide where to begin is the part you cannot get from the textbook.
What should I read next if I want to go beyond the syllabus?
Why ask it
Ask for one thing rather than a list. A single paper you will finish is worth more than eight recommendations you will not open.
What is genuinely unsettled in your field right now?
Why ask it
Undergraduate courses teach the settled version. Asking where the disagreement lies gives you the shape of the discipline and sometimes a research topic.
How did you end up in this specialty?
Why ask it
Academic paths are less deliberate than they look from outside. The accidents in the answer are the useful part if you are thinking about the same route.
How do students here get involved in research, and when should I ask?
Why ask it
Turns a vague interest into a timeline. The follow-up worth asking is what they expect a first-year assistant to actually be able to do.
What would make you say yes to a student who wanted to work with you?
Why ask it
Direct, and professors will answer it. Common answers involve having read their work and meeting deadlines, more often than grades.
What did you think of my last piece of work, beyond the grade?
Why ask it
Written comments are usually brief. Asking in person gets you the observation they did not have room to write down.
How do you read a paper in this field quickly?
Why ask it
A concrete skill nobody teaches directly. Most researchers read the sections in a particular order and will describe it if asked.
What separates a good undergraduate argument from a publishable one?
Why ask it
Sharpens what you are aiming at. Answers usually concern the size of the claim being made rather than the quality of the prose.
Where does this field connect with others in ways people miss?
Why ask it
Gets you something the syllabus will not, and often produces a second reading list or a department worth visiting.
What is the honest case against graduate school in this field?
Why ask it
More useful than asking whether you should apply. A professor who cares about you will give you the funding, timeline and job market picture without decoration.
What do graduates of this program actually do five years out?
Why ask it
Ask for people rather than categories. Two or three named former students with their current jobs tells you more than any placement page.
How should I spend time outside class if I want to get good at this?
Why ask it
Answers differ sharply by field: reading, coding, lab hours, writing weekly. Ask for the number of hours, because it is usually larger than students assume.
What ethical problems come up in your own work?
Why ask it
Asking about their work rather than the field avoids a lecture on principles. Real answers involve data, consent, funding or who gets named as an author.
Which seminars or conferences could a student actually attend?
Why ask it
Practical and rarely volunteered. Departmental seminars and graduate workshops are often open, and undergraduates are seldom told so.
What do you wish you had done differently as a student?
Why ask it
Answers cluster around asking for help sooner, taking the harder course, and writing more often. Where a particular professor lands shows you what they value.
Would you be willing to look at this before I submit it?
Why ask it
The most valuable request in office hours and the one students avoid making. Ask early, bring something already in progress, and say exactly what you want checked.
What should I be asking you that students never do?
Why ask it
A closer that often produces something practical: a funding deadline, a summer program, or a colleague you should go and talk to.
Getting the most out of office hours
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Using Office Hours
Go Early in the Term, Before You Need Anything
The first visit is easier when nothing is wrong, and it means the professor knows who you are before you ask for a reference or an extension.
Bring Something on Paper
A draft, an attempted problem, or a marked-up reading turns advice into work. It also shows you did something before asking, which changes how the answer is given.
Say How Long You Need, Then Leave
Asking for ten minutes and taking ten minutes is remembered. There is often someone waiting outside the door.
What Professors Can and Cannot Do
- They can tell you what a strong answer looks like in their field. They cannot tell you whether you will be admitted anywhere.
- They can name specific former students and where those people ended up, which beats any placement statistic.
- They usually cannot change a grade after the fact, but they can explain the standard so the next one is better.
- They write stronger references for students who visited more than once and asked about the work.
Common Pitfalls
Asking What the Syllabus Answers
Deadlines, weightings and policies are written down. Asking anyway tells the professor you did not read it.
Grade Negotiation Disguised as a Question
It is recognised immediately. Ask what a better answer would have looked like, which gets you something you can use next time.
Asking for a Reference With Two Days' Notice
Three weeks is a reasonable minimum. Less than that produces either a thin letter or a refusal, and both cost you.
Asking Them to Choose Your Life
"What should I do after graduation?" cannot be answered. Narrow it to the two options you are actually weighing and it becomes a real conversation.
Email That Gets a Reply
- Put the course code and the actual question in the subject line.
- Ask one question, and make it one that can be answered in three sentences.
- If you want to meet, propose two specific times rather than asking when they are free.
- Send it during working hours in their time zone so it reads as work rather than as an emergency.