Questions to Ask a College Professor
For undergraduates who want more from a course than lecture notes. Twenty questions to use in office hours, on how to do well in the course, the mistakes people make in the subject, research places for undergraduates, career paths out of the field, and recommendation letters.
The questions
Open any question for the note
What is the best way to reach you, and how do you like office hours to work?
Why ask it
Preferences vary far more than syllabi suggest. Some professors answer email within the hour and refuse to discuss grades over it, some hold drop-in time nobody uses. Asking once prevents the most common way a student becomes an irritation.
I got stuck on this part of the material, and here is how I was thinking about it. Where did I go wrong?
Why ask it
Bringing a specific error, with your own reasoning attached, is the difference between a five-minute answer and a real conversation. An instructor can diagnose a wrong step quickly, but has nothing to work with when told only that you are lost.
What separates the students who do well in this course from the ones who nearly do?
Why ask it
Answers are almost always about process rather than ability: starting the problem set the day it appears, writing out the argument in full, turning up in week three instead of week ten. That is something you can act on this week.
What mistakes do people make in this subject over and over?
Why ask it
Every field has recurring errors an instructor has seen hundreds of times, and they tend to be conceptual rather than careless. Hearing them named before the midterm is worth more than any amount of extra reading.
If you had six hours a week for this course, how would you spend them?
Why ask it
This converts general advice into a plan. A professor who cannot answer may not have thought about the course from a student's side, which is worth knowing before you rely on their guidance for anything larger.
What would you read alongside the assigned material if you wanted to go further?
Why ask it
Syllabus reading is limited by what can be examined. What a professor recommends off the list is closer to what they actually think matters, and it is usually shorter than students expect.
How do the ideas in this course show up in your own work?
Why ask it
This turns a lecturer into a working researcher in front of you. It also reveals whether the course is something they care about or a teaching obligation they inherited, which explains a lot about how it is run.
What are you working on at the moment?
Why ask it
Asking about current work is the standard opening of an academic conversation, and most people will happily pitch it at whatever level you are at. It also tells you whether there is any activity here you could attach yourself to.
How has this field changed since you started in it?
Why ask it
Textbooks present settled results, so change at the level of the field is invisible in them. An account of what has moved shows you which parts of the syllabus are foundations and which are current fashion.
What counts as unsettled in this area right now?
Why ask it
Undergraduate courses tend to present a subject as finished business. Asking what is contested shows you where the live problems sit, and a professor's comfort with saying nobody knows tells you how they will handle your own questions.
What did you not understand as an undergraduate that you now think is central?
Why ask it
More specific than asking for advice, and the answers tend to be structural: a technique dismissed as tedious, a prerequisite skimmed, a habit of reading properly. It carries more weight coming from someone who made the same mistake.
What do people with this background go on to do, apart from graduate school?
Why ask it
Most professors know where their former students actually ended up, and it is rarely only academia. That is a better source than the department website, which lists the flattering handful.
Are there undergraduates working on your projects, and how did they end up there?
Why ask it
Undergraduate research places are often filled by whoever asked rather than through an advertised process. Hearing how the current ones got in tells you the real route, which is usually a conversation in a corridor.
What would I need to have done by the end of next year to be a plausible candidate for that?
Why ask it
Naming a timeline turns an expression of interest into something answerable: a course to pass, a method to learn, a term to ask in. It also makes it easy for them to tell you if you are nowhere near, which is useful early.
Which courses would you take here if you wanted to be good at this, regardless of what is required?
Why ask it
Requirements are a floor. What a professor would take without them is often outside the department, most commonly statistics, writing, or a language. This is among the most useful questions here and among the least asked.
Are there talks or seminars in the department an undergraduate can sit in on?
Why ask it
Departmental seminars are usually open, rarely advertised to undergraduates, and are where you see how a field argues with itself. Turning up a few times also makes you a recognizable face, which matters when you need something later.
Would you be willing to write me a recommendation later, and what would you need in order to write a strong one?
Why ask it
The second half of the question is the important half. Answers are concrete: a graded piece of work they can quote, a second course with them, six weeks of notice with your materials attached. A yes with no conditions often produces a thin letter.
What do you wish students asked you?
Why ask it
Someone with an answer ready will usually tell you the thing they think students most misunderstand about the field or the department. Someone with no answer has still told you how much they think about teaching.
How did you end up doing this for a living?
Why ask it
Academic paths are far less planned than they appear from the outside, which is worth hearing if you are considering one. This lands better late in a conversation, once you have shown interest in the work itself.
What part of this job do people outside the university misunderstand?
Why ask it
Teaching is a fraction of the work. Grant applications, reviewing, committees, and advising fill much of the rest, which explains why replies come within minutes in some weeks and not at all in others.
Office Hours, Used Properly
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Making the Visit Worth Their Time
Bring Your Attempt, Not Just Your Confusion
Arrive with the problem, your partial answer, and the point where it broke down. Ten minutes of preparation converts a vague conversation into a specific diagnosis, and it is the single clearest signal that you are worth investing in.
Go Early in the Term
Office hours are usually empty in the first three weeks and crowded before exams. The same question gets a longer and more patient answer in week two, and the professor will remember that you came before you were in trouble.
Keep the First Visit Short
Twelve focused minutes, one question, and a clear exit leaves a better impression than an hour of general conversation. You are trying to establish that you are easy to help, not to extract everything at once.
Report Back
If they recommend a paper, a course, or a person to email, do it and say so briefly next time. Very few students close that loop, and it is what turns an instructor into someone willing to write about you at length.
Asking for a Recommendation
- 1Ask at least six weeks before the deadline, and say what the letter is for
- 2Ask whether they can write a strong letter, which gives them a graceful way to decline
- 3Send the deadline, the submission link, your transcript, and the work of yours they graded
- 4Add three or four sentences on what you would like the letter to be able to say
- 5Remind them once, about a week out, in a short message with the same details attached
- 6Tell them the outcome either way, because letter writers rarely find out
Common Pitfalls
Asking What Is on the Exam
It gets a formulaic answer and marks you as grade-focused. Ask what a student who understood the material would be able to do, which is nearly the same information and produces a real answer.
Asking Something the Syllabus Answers
Deadlines, weighting, late policies, and required reading are documented. Checking there first costs you a minute and preserves your credibility for the questions that actually need a person.
Appearing Only When You Need Something
A first contact that is also a request for a letter or an extension is transparent. Instructors notice, and the resulting letter reflects a term of silence rather than a term of work.
Emailing About a Grade in the First Hour
Wait a day, reread the feedback, and ask what a stronger version of your answer would have contained. That framing gets a substantive reply. A challenge to the mark itself rarely does.