Abusive Professor

[Auron]

I went to my university today to speak to some people and asked a professor if if she had a syllabus for the class I'm taking with her in the spring, and she gets all angry and yells at me -

Me: "Hello Dr xyz, I'm trying to decide between a couple of classes to take and was wondering if you had a syllabus for Biol 123 that I could take a look at?

Prof: (angry look) YOU'LL GET IT WHEN CLASS STARTS!!! JUST WAIT TILL THEN!!! OK?????

Me: um..that is not a problem professor, thank you.

and I leave....

I'm just incredibly angry at the moment. I didn't do anything wrong. I heard she is a good prof but doesn't like students who don't take things seriously. I'm now somewhat worried to take the class with her this spring. She is also on the health commitee and interview me and contribute to my commite LOR. I figure If I do well in the class and generally be nice, it'll work in my favor. The good thing is that their were 4 other profs near by who saw this woman yell at me, and they just gave her a "wtf" look. At least I kept my cool.

Have any of you faced similar situations, did you just brush it off?

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[biggiesmallsiz]

I went to my university today to speak to some people and asked a professor if if she had a syllabus for the class I'm taking with her in the spring, and she gets all angry and yells at me -

Me: "Hello Dr xyz, I'm trying to decide between a couple of classes to take and was wondering if you had a syllabus for Biol 123 that I could take a look at?

Prof: (angry look) YOU'LL GET IT WHEN CLASS STARTS!!! JUST WAIT TILL THEN!!! OK?????

Me: um..that is not a problem professor, thank you.

and I leave....

I'm just incredibly angry at the moment. I didn't do anything wrong. I heard she is a good prof but doesn't like students who don't take things seriously. She is also on the health commitee and interview me and contribute to my commite LOR. I figure If I do well in the class and generally be nice, it'll work in my favor.

Have any of you faced similar situations, did you just let it go?

um...why woudnt you let it go? the only reason you asked for the syllabus is because u wanted to see if the class would be easy. If the syllabus was demanding, you would have probably dropped it. the teacher being irritated is justified.

 

[Samus Aran]

I went to my university today to speak to some people and asked a professor if if she had a syllabus for the class I'm taking with her in the spring, and she gets all angry and yells at me -

Me: "Hello Dr xyz, I'm trying to decide between a couple of classes to take and was wondering if you had a syllabus for Biol 123 that I could take a look at?

Prof: (angry look) YOU'LL GET IT WHEN CLASS STARTS!!! JUST WAIT TILL THEN!!! OK?????

Me: um..that is not a problem professor, thank you.

and I leave....

I'm just incredibly angry at the moment. I didn't do anything wrong. I heard she is a good prof but doesn't like students who don't take things seriously. I'm now somewhat worried to take the class with her this spring. She is also on the health commitee and interview me and contribute to my commite LOR. I figure If I do well in the class and generally be nice, it'll work in my favor. The good thing is that their were 4 other profs near by who saw this woman yell at me, and they just gave her a "wtf" look. At least I kept my cool.

Have any of you faced similar situations, did you just brush it off?

i'm sure her reaction had little if anything at all to do with your question. people have bad days and often take it out on innocent people. just brush it off.

edit:

um...why woudnt you let it go? the only reason you asked for the syllabus is because u wanted to see if the class would be easy. If the syllabus was demanding, you would have probably dropped it. the teacher being irritated is justified.

case in point?

 

[Auron]

um...why woudnt you let it go? the only reason you asked for the syllabus is because u wanted to see if the class would be easy. If the syllabus was demanding, you would have probably dropped it. the teacher being irritated is justified.

um, no. I'm trying to decide between this class and another science class which I both find interesting - I wanted to get a better feel for what we would be studying. The class description was really vague. The prof in the other class had no problem providing me a syllabus.

 

[armybound]

I had a somewhat similar situation in one of my grad school classes which got dragged out over a week while the misunderstanding was cleared up.

As far as I know I was the only person to earn an A in that class.

 

[RySerr21]

I went to my university today to speak to some people and asked a professor if if she had a syllabus for the class I'm taking with her in the spring, and she gets all angry and yells at me -

Me: "Hello Dr xyz, I'm trying to decide between a couple of classes to take and was wondering if you had a syllabus for Biol 123 that I could take a look at?

Prof: (angry look) YOU'LL GET IT WHEN CLASS STARTS!!! JUST WAIT TILL THEN!!! OK?????

Me: um..that is not a problem professor, thank you.

and I leave....

I'm just incredibly angry at the moment. I didn't do anything wrong. I heard she is a good prof but doesn't like students who don't take things seriously. She is also on the health commitee and interview me and contribute to my commite LOR. I figure If I do well in the class and generally be nice, it'll work in my favor.

Have any of you faced similar situations, did you just let it go?

i wanted to punch my physics profess or in the face ( i ended up dropping his class). i got the first exam back...didn't do well. There were four questions for a 125 point exam....i got a ZERO on one of the questions. so i go in after i get it back to go over the questions and we look at the work that i did on the problem and read the question.....i'm looking at him, he's looking at me...

him: well...how do you do it

me: umm, honesty im not really sure where to start, you see the work that i tried to do, it wasnt even worth any points...

him: well have you thought about it?

me: (trying not to get angry)yes i have thought about it, it just completely caught be surprise, i dont even remember doing anything like this in homework, class, etc.....

him: so youve thought about.... what do you think you should do to solve the problem?

me (thinking): I DONT F-ING KNOW THATS WHY I AM HERE TO GO OVER IT #$@#%

basically the office visit was competely useless and he refused to give me help. i "let it go" by dropping the class, but every time i hear his name i cringe.

 

[eagle34]

um...why woudnt you let it go? the only reason you asked for the syllabus is because u wanted to see if the class would be easy. If the syllabus was demanding, you would have probably dropped it. the teacher being irritated is justified.

How do you know if he wanted to see the syllabus to see if it was demanding? Maybe he wanted to see it to decide if class material is interesting...personally, if I'm really interested in the material, I'll take the class, even if its not easy...that's why it's called class shopping. Then again, you never know, maybe she was just having a bad day and took it out on you. You have every right to see the syllabus before classes start.

 

[Samus Aran]

i had a huge argument with someone on my schools pre-health committee. i was so scared that it would have a negative impact on my lor's but i went through the proper channels in order to resolve the issue and it turns out that she ended up giving me an excellent lor (so i've been told), so i guess you never know.

 

[Auron]

How do you know if he wanted to see the syllabus to see if it was demanding? Maybe he wanted to see it to decide if class material is interesting...personally, if I'm really interested in the material, I'll take the class, even if its not easy...that's why it's called class shopping. Then again, you never know, maybe she was just having a bad day and took it out on you. You have every right to see the syllabus before classes start.

thank you eagle, I just wanted to learn more about what we would cover.
I guess this is the kind of crap we'll be facing in med school and residency, and as doctors.

 

[BlackSails]

basically the office visit was competely useless and he refused to give me help. i "let it go" by dropping the class, but every time i hear his name i cringe.

He wanted you to tell him how you would go about doing it now that you had thought it over.

 

[Auron]

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[Karina 07]

Probably just a bad day. Give her another chance -- but not a third .

 

[appleplshr]

www.ratemyprofessor.com

While most professors are interested in helping their students, some are not. This web site helps students who depend on recommendations and grades to choose professors who will not make an already difficult process more arduous than it needs to be. I checked it out for my undergrad institution and the evaluations seemed to be right on the money for professors I knew/had class with.

 

[Quadratic]

I have to say that was more than a little on the harsh end of things. My school's departments usually have a syllabus on their respective websites. Sometimes it's old but it gives a feel for the class. I'd suggest (if you haven't already) to look on your school's website and see if you can find any information there. If you can't, if it's a class that is generally taught at other schools, look on their websites to see what the course offers (won't be exactly accurate, but doesn't leave you hanging either).

Good luck.

 

[MattD]

i wanted to punch my physics profess or in the face ( i ended up dropping his class). i got the first exam back...didn't do well. There were four questions for a 125 point exam....i got a ZERO on one of the questions. so i go in after i get it back to go over the questions and we look at the work that i did on the problem and read the question.....i'm looking at him, he's looking at me...

him: well...how do you do it

me: umm, honesty im not really sure where to start, you see the work that i tried to do, it wasnt even worth any points...

him: well have you thought about it?

me: (trying not to get angry)yes i have thought about it, it just completely caught be surprise, i dont even remember doing anything like this in homework, class, etc.....

him: so youve thought about.... what do you think you should do to solve the problem?

me (thinking): I DONT F-ING KNOW THATS WHY I AM HERE TO GO OVER IT #$@#%

basically the office visit was competely useless and he refused to give me help. i "let it go" by dropping the class, but every time i hear his name i cringe.

Dude... he wanted you to demonstrate your thinking about the problem so that he could identify where you were going wrong. Just telling you how to do the problem wouldn't have taught you anything. I'd have done exactly what he did. It sounds like you had an excellent professor, and you wasted an opportunity to learn by dropping the class just because you were angry you weren't being spoon fed.

 

[searun]

That was not abusive. The Prof was just annoyed with you. If your feelings get hurt that easily, well, you better work on not getting your feelings hurt so easily, like you are just a piece of tissue paper. Get some hard bark on your fanny or your butt is going to hurt alot.

 

[Quix]

How do you know if he wanted to see the syllabus to see if it was demanding? Maybe he wanted to see it to decide if class material is interesting...personally, if I'm really interested in the material, I'll take the class, even if its not easy...that's why it's called class shopping. Then again, you never know, maybe she was just having a bad day and took it out on you. You have every right to see the syllabus before classes start.

I take exception to this - on what are you basing this claim? It's a courtesy to show a syllabus before the class starts, not an obligation.

Anyway, I'd just suggest you brush it off as a bad day - faculty have a lot of work to get done between semesters, and it's entirely possible that this particular faculty member was feeling the stress and chose to take it out in an unfortunate manner. I'm busy as hell at the moment getting my classes (and other projects) up and running.

 

[Dendrite]

I take exception to this - on what are you basing this claim? It's a courtesy to show a syllabus before the class starts, not an obligation.

Anyway, I'd just suggest you brush it off as a bad day - faculty have a lot of work to get done between semesters, and it's entirely possible that this particular faculty member was feeling the stress and chose to take it out in an unfortunate manner. I'm busy as hell at the moment getting my classes (and other projects) up and running.

Yeah, the beginning, end, and inter-semester periods seem to be the busiest times professors have. I agree that it is a privilege, and many probably haven't had a chance to write the syllabus (some professors like to change it up to keep things exciting). They usually spend the entire first day of classes just going over the syllabus though, which is nice.

I do, however, also agree that the professor in the original post was being a bit unfair in his lashing out.

 

[Auron]

I take exception to this - on what are you basing this claim? It's a courtesy to show a syllabus before the class starts, not an obligation.

Anyway, I'd just suggest you brush it off as a bad day - faculty have a lot of work to get done between semesters, and it's entirely possible that this particular faculty member was feeling the stress and chose to take it out in an unfortunate manner. I'm busy as hell at the moment getting my classes (and other projects) up and running.

I'm going to just let it go, and just assume she was having a bad day. It just took me by surprise as I've never been yelled at like through high school or the 3 years I've been in college. I understand these things will happen. I wouldn't care as much if this happened at work, but at my university in the very office I work? That put me off, especially since I was very polite and respectful (I'm very courteous and respectful to people) its just part of my nature.

I was thinking of speaking to her after class one day and say "Hi Dr xyz, I would like to apologize for the other day when I asked you to see a syllabus. I did not want to anger or irritate you in any way, I simply wanted to know more about the material in the class"

I did go on the school website to search for the syllabus like I do for all my classes. I did not find it, and thus I believed their would be no problem to stop by.

 

[Auron]

That was not abusive. The Prof was just annoyed with you. If your feelings get hurt that easily, well, you better work on not getting your feelings hurt so easily, like you are just a piece of tissue paper. Get some hard bark on your fanny or your butt is going to hurt alot.

searun, this is a problem with me. I don't know what to do about it. I was verbally abused by my father throughout my childhood, and it really upsets me a lot when people shout at me. I try to stay strong, but I just eventually break down no matter how hard I try to fight the feeling. I get really angry and upset. It has affected me my whole life.

I don't know what to do...

 

[BlackSails]

I don't know what to do...I feel so helpless. I hate myself for being this weak and emotional. This is not how a man should feel.

Take up martial arts (a real one, not tiger schulman).

 

[Dendrite]

I'm going to just let it go, and just assume she was having a bad day. It just took me by surprise as I've never been yelled at like through high school or the 3 years I've been in college. I understand these things will happen. I wouldn't care as much if this happened at work, but at my university in the very office I work? That put me off, especially since I was very polite and respectful (I'm very courteous and respectful to people) its just part of my nature.

I was thinking of speaking to her after class one day and say "Hi Dr xyz, I would like to apologize for the other day when I asked you to see a syllabus. I did not want to anger or irritate you in any way, I simply wanted to know more about the material in the class"

I did go on the school website to search for the syllabus like I do for all my classes. I did not find it, and thus I believed their would be no problem to stop by.

Although slightly unrelated, I have a story to tell. This was in high school, in a calculus class of about 30 students; our class was set up such that we have the same 30 students in all 7 periods of the day, 5 days a week. And obviously, we see the same teachers each day. This particular calculus/pre-calc teacher was notorious; she had a horrible reputation and had a policy of only giving out two A's in a class of 30. I had the habit of always doing my homework, because I'm not too good in math (and not the gunner of the class either, because I struggled). In the beginning of each class, students ask her to do problems on the board of homework questions we had trouble with. After answering about 3 questions on the board, I thought this was the perfect time to ask about this one problem I just could not understand.

She then said the following; although I cannot remember exactly what she said, it was along these lines: "Of all the years I've been teaching, one of the things I just cannot stand is when students want me to do all the work for them. It's as though from all the years of being spoon-fed, students have slowly been losing brain cells through disuse (this I do remember vividly)." She then continued for about another 2 minutes about how she was irritated, all the while frequently looking at me in a class of 30.

Had no idea why, especially since I did my homework daily. I assumed she thought we only ask questions because we did not do the homework, but still... it was a very mortifying experience. I went up to her afterwards and actually showed her that I did the work, and left to my next class, with the same 30 kids who essentially saw me get unnecessarily lectured.

Thought this might cheer you up.

 

[RySerr21]

Dude... he wanted you to demonstrate your thinking about the problem so that he could identify where you were going wrong. Just telling you how to do the problem wouldn't have taught you anything. I'd have done exactly what he did. It sounds like you had an excellent professor, and you wasted an opportunity to learn by dropping the class just because you were angry you weren't being spoon fed.

haha. dude. you dont know the half. he is unanimously hated, a horrible professor, and a compete *ss in general. i wasnt just asking for the answer i was asking for help to figure out how to do it. he refused to offer that help to me. i literally had NO idea, and i told him that. i also told him how i approached the problem and where i got stuck. he still did nothing. you underestimate how little clue i had on the problem. when i say nothing, i mean nothing. walking me through the steps would have done a lot because as we went through them, i would have asked more questions to make sure i understood....

its like taking a kid who speaks only spanish and givin him a test in english. he looks at you and says "i have no idea where to start" and you look back at him and say " try and figure it out" with out giving him any help on how to speak the english language. i suck at physics. i was obviously missing some core concepts that were necessary to succeed. he refused to aknowledge that and left me hanging, i dropped the class, took it with a professor who realized not everyone will understand everything that is taught the frist time around (or 2nd or 3rd), and i did fine.

thanks for your opinion though.

 

[searun]

searun, this is a problem with me. I don't know what to do about it. I was verbally abused by my father throughout my childhood, and it really upsets me a lot when people shout at me. I try to stay strong, but I just eventually break down no matter how hard I try to fight the feeling and stay strong. I get really angry and upset. It has affected me my whole life.

I don't know what to do...I feel so helpless. I hate myself for being this emotional.

:cry:

O.K. sorry, I assumed you were a girl that just needed to suck it up and deal with life. You are a guy, wow, that makes it alot more complicated because you have all of those father issues. Yes, I know girls have father issues as well. But if your Dad put you down, ok, your reaction makes sense. Now, the issue, is how to get beyond that. Let me think about that. My own father was, is, a good guy, lots of flaws, but I always knew that he loves me and respects me and wants the best for me. Without that I suppose my life would be crap. But I have a good life. And all thing considered, a good dad, for me, but for you, that is the issue. What is a father, a guy I can flyfish with, catch a few trout with, and have some laughs.

Eat Dungeness crab from the coast of Oregon, with plenty of lemon and hot red sauce. Suck the life and the dripping juice out of those crab legs.

 

[searun]

Of course, the OP may be a girl, I have no idea, father issues happen with guys and girls.

 

[Auron]

I'm a guy. I think my problem is also caused by bullying in my early hs years. My dad works hard and wants me to be succesful. He doesn't drink or smoke or things like that. He does have some serious issues though. He gets angry for every small thing and yells. My mother is soft hearted and a very gentle and kind person (completely opposite personalities). I hate him and his atitude. I want to leave but he is helping me pay my education and thus I'm dependent on him. I have no choice. I can't wait to leave for med school. I'll move away for med school and finally be FREE... and I'll be so happy. What a glorious day it will be.

The rest of my family is thousands of miles away and I never see them. I want to get away and live life by my rules, not those set by tyranical father. Searun, If you met him I think you'd feel very sorry for me. My mother tells me to work hard and leave, live life the way I want. I think of this often...and this is exactly what I'm trying to do.

btw...I'm a vegetarian, so I'll pass on the crabs.

 

[Jolie South]

I'm a guy. I think my problem is also caused by bullying in my early hs years. My dad works hard and wants me to be succesful. He doesn't drink or smoke or things like that. He does have some serious issues though. He gets angry for every small thing and yells. My mother is soft hearted and a very gentle and kind person (completely opposite personalities). I hate him and his atitude. I want to leave but he is helping me pay my education and thus I'm dependent on him. I have no choice. I can't wait to leave for med school. I'll move away for med school be FREE... and I'll be so happy. What a glorious day it will be.

Dude, I'm so there, except BOTH of my parents are like that. seriously, if my brother or I spilled something, it was worthy of an hour-long tirade about how we were horrible and couldn't do anything right. WTF? kids are f-ing slobs and do stupid stuff. everyone knows that. why the unnecessary anger about every little thing?

i'm surprised they haven't had a heart attack by now. It is rough, but you'll figure out how to be you and how to NOT be like that. That was my biggest fear, turning into them.

 

[MattD]

haha. dude. you dont know the half. he is unanimously hated, a horrible professor, and a compete *ss in general. i wasnt just asking for the answer i was asking for help to figure out how to do it. he refused to offer that help to me. i literally had NO idea, and i told him that. i also told him how i approached the problem and where i got stuck. he still did nothing. you underestimate how little clue i had on the problem. when i say nothing, i mean nothing. walking me through the steps would have done a lot because as we went through them, i would have asked more questions to make sure i understood....

its like taking a kid who speaks only spanish and givin him a test in english. he looks at you and says "i have no idea where to start" and you look back at him and say " try and figure it out" with out giving him any help on how to speak the english language. i suck at physics. i was obviously missing some core concepts that were necessary to succeed. he refused to aknowledge that and left me hanging, i dropped the class, took it with a professor who realized not everyone will understand everything that is taught the frist time around (or 2nd or 3rd), and i did fine.

thanks for your opinion though.

Well that's not exactly the story you told the first time, is it?

 

[Karen12345]

Perhaps you could find the syllabus online?