What exactly the professors do during class in college ?

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What do the professors do during class ? Do they just lecture without stopping ? What's the difference between high school class and college class ?


Edit: Should I buy a book about effective study skills before college ?
 
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one notable difference would be the length and size of the classes. a class can range from a seminar of 5 students to a large lecture hall of 400 student. some classes parallel high school with only an hour of class discussion but others can extend as long as 4 hours! most classes have premade powerpoint slides or notes that you can follow along, others have no supplemental material. recently universities are implementing video or audio recordings of classes which can be found online and are either private or public. if you would like to have a good idea of how college classes are like I would recommend that you google ''MIT online classes'' (public service) to watch a free course of your liking. I hope this helps.
 
College professors vary widely. I had a few go through notes so quickly my hand could barely keep up. Others that spoke so slowly I fell asleep.

Some will expect you to be in class everyday, others won't know your name by the time you take the final.

Some will expect you to be personally responsible for everything- knowing when the hw, tests, and quizzes are on the syllabus without reminders of what will be on the exam. Others will treat you like a 4th grader and spoon feed you date reminders, study guides, and practice questions.

Bottom line with college: Expect a reasonable jump up in difficulty. While some classes may be similar to high school, usually a lot more is on you in college classes. It's pretty important you start off the right way. Get enough sleep, actually put time in studying, go to class etc. BUT- Don't forget to have a blast. Sometimes I think the toughest part about adjusting to going away to school is balancing the new level of work with the endlessly free social life.

You also have LOADS of time. It's not like highschool where you are drained from 8 hours of straight BS. Its more like 3 hours of BS and then a few more hours of studying to actually learn the aformentioned BS. So learn to manage your time so you can still go out and do what you want during the night time.
 
I'm taking a class at the local college as an early scholar. Initially I was really worried about the non-stop lecturing as well, but if there is ever anything really important my professor will usually write it up on the board. If it gets too fast paced I tend to abbreviate and go back to it after class to make sure I know what I wrote.

Professors also have much more freedom than a high school teacher would, they won't be as worried about offending you. They also don't really care if you show up to class or not, your grade is your own responsibility.

On the plus side my UNA class is also the most fun class I have. My professor is hilarious, and if you pay attention it's pretty easy to make a good grade. This obviously will not be the same in all classes, or with all professors. A few of my friends who have different professors say that they're extremely boring, it really depends on what class and who you have.
 
BloodySurgeon said:
one notable difference would be the length and size of the classes. a class can range from a seminar of 5 students to a large lecture hall of 400 student. some classes parallel high school with only an hour of class discussion but others can extend as long as 4 hours! most classes have premade powerpoint slides or notes that you can follow along, others have no supplemental material. recently universities are implementing video or audio recordings of classes which can be found online and are either private or public. if you would like to have a good idea of how college classes are like I would recommend that you google ''MIT online classes'' (public service) to watch a free course of your liking. I hope this helps.
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I did not know this but I was just going to point out that you could bring an audio recorder to a lecture, record the lecture and then pop it in your laptop.
 
Thrombomodulin said:
Not all professors are okay with you just recording their lecture. Check first.
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I agree, plus, it probably wouldn't be necessary. If keeping up becomes an issue then I guess recording it, after asking, would be a good idea... it could be really time consuming going over it and taking down notes after every class though.
 
jefgreen said:
I did not know this but I was just going to point out that you could bring an audio recorder to a lecture, record the lecture and then pop it in your laptop.
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Ive only had to do this for one class (human physiology). He rarely ever wrote notes on the board and just talked the entire time with the occasional drawing of a pathway on the board.

As others have said, it varies widely with professors. You will get the professor who writes everyting he/she wants you to know on the board and you will get the professor who never writes antyhing on the board and you are just expected to pick up the important information. Eventually you will get in a rhythm and you will figure out the teaching style of your professor. A good thing to do is talk to upper classmen who have had the course and they will you about the professor. I also recommend www.rateyourprofessor.com. The site is kinda controversial, but in my expereince the descriptions have been very accurate.

One thing I have done all through out high schools is take notes on my lap top. I can take them WAY faster and I get my thorough notes as compared to hand writing. In courses that may require drawings (anatomy), i just a pen and pencil ready in case I need to draw something. If you are a good typer, I recommend this way of taking notes. It is AWESOME. Just try not to get too distracted (aka SDN, haha).
 
ryserr21 said:
One thing I have done all through out high schools is take notes on my lap top. I can take them WAY faster and I get my thorough notes as compared to hand writing. In courses that may require drawings (anatomy), i just a pen and pencil ready in case I need to draw something. If you are a good typer, I recommend this way of taking notes. It is AWESOME. Just try not to get too distracted (aka SDN, haha).
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I'm thinking this helps alot with keeping your notes organized. Do you have any professors that dont allow the use of lab tops?
 
Local said:
I'm thinking this helps alot with keeping your notes organized. Do you have any professors that dont allow the use of lab tops?
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Why some professors would do that in college ?
 
Local said:
I'm thinking this helps alot with keeping your notes organized. Do you have any professors that dont allow the use of lab tops?
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tennisball80 said:
Why some professors would do that in college ?
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Funny you should ask that. For the first time in college, I have a professor who says explicitly on the syllabus (and on teh first day of class) that he does not allow the use of any electronic devices during class, including laptops. His reasoning (which is totally legitimate) is that he finds that people tend to surf the internet, and mainly that it can become a distraction for themselves and others. He says some people type non stop almost as if they are writing a manuscript word for word what he says and not really taking notes. You can imagine how that could get annoying, i guess. So anyways, that was his request.

So the first day of class I took notes by hand (first time ALL of college). I was like...okay this isn't going to fly. I can't take notes by hand...my handwriting is illegible, i write slowly, and I'm not getting complete thoughts. So i went and talked to him....i said "look at my notes from yesterdays class. These are useless. Every class Ive ever taken I have used my laptop. Thats how I learn best in class, thats how I take notes in and out of class. I never hand write anything, look at my notes they are chicken scratch!" I basically pleaded with him to make an exception and he eventually agreed.

So while it is vary rare that a professor requerst no laptops (ive only heard of it this one time), it can happen. And if it does, politely explain that this is how you learn. I think what won him over was my anatomy/flashcard analogy. I said "look, in anatomy there is a lot of memorization. Some people learn best by making flashcards. Some arent good with flashcards and they just read the book and it clicks. Its just different styles of learning. Its the same way with the laptop. Some people work well by hand writing notes. I don't. Please let me use my laptop b/c if I have to write my notes the level at which I grasp course lecture material will be signifciantly impaired."
 
ryserr21 said:
Funny you should ask that. For the first time in college...."
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THanks for the advice regarding taking notes with a lap top. I gonna try out because I'm a bad hand writer too. 🙂

Good luck on your application this year !
 
Yeah I have some professors who requested to not be recorded, probably cause they will drop a few 4 letter words here and there.
 
ejay286 said:
Yeah I have some professors who requested to not be recorded, probably cause they will drop a few 4 letter words here and there.
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eh, maybe, I think it might be more that by then you're paying for your education... if you distribute it then their loosing money by someone not taking the class... at least at more major universities.
 
CScull said:
eh, maybe, I think it might be more that by then you're paying for your education... if you distribute it then their loosing money by someone not taking the class... at least at more major universities.
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This can certainly be accurate but it probably involves intellectual property of the lectures and the copyright issue that could follow.

The other point above is almost, in my opinion obviously, correct yet the fear is probably not their foul language being documented as much as a worry they may erroneously state something and have it recorded in a format that can later be referred.
 
ryserr21 said:
Funny you should ask that. For the first time in college, I have a professor who says explicitly on the syllabus (and on teh first day of class) that he does not allow the use of any electronic devices during class, including laptops. His reasoning (which is totally legitimate) is that he finds that people tend to surf the internet, and mainly that it can become a distraction for themselves and others. He says some people type non stop almost as if they are writing a manuscript word for word what he says and not really taking notes. You can imagine how that could get annoying, i guess. So anyways, that was his request.

So the first day of class I took notes by hand (first time ALL of college). I was like...okay this isn't going to fly. I can't take notes by hand...my handwriting is illegible, i write slowly, and I'm not getting complete thoughts. So i went and talked to him....i said "look at my notes from yesterdays class. These are useless. Every class Ive ever taken I have used my laptop. Thats how I learn best in class, thats how I take notes in and out of class. I never hand write anything, look at my notes they are chicken scratch!" I basically pleaded with him to make an exception and he eventually agreed.

So while it is vary rare that a professor requerst no laptops (ive only heard of it this one time), it can happen. And if it does, politely explain that this is how you learn. I think what won him over was my anatomy/flashcard analogy. I said "look, in anatomy there is a lot of memorization. Some people learn best by making flashcards. Some arent good with flashcards and they just read the book and it clicks. Its just different styles of learning. Its the same way with the laptop. Some people work well by hand writing notes. I don't. Please let me use my laptop b/c if I have to write my notes the level at which I grasp course lecture material will be signifciantly impaired."
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This certainly nails the issue on the head, so to speak. Laptops are of great use in class: faster note taking and many usefull note-taking programs (microsoft OneNote comes swiftly to mind).

Yet these distractions are absolute major issues. Sitting beside a person daftly browsing facebook pictures will nearly certainly detract from your learning experience and probably arouse indignation (depending on your disposition).

Oh, the two sides: the use and the most deplorable abuse.
 
My friend, Professors have the best job in the world. A lot of them get $70000 + salaries for doing nothing. They teach a couple of classes a week and they spend the rest of the time doing research in the lab. Unlike school teachers, they don't really care about you. The majority of them will teach you without knowing your name. A lot of them will not even grade your work; they get graduate students to do the correcting for them.
 
Chemdude said:
My friend, Professors have the best job in the world. A lot of them get $70000 + salaries for doing nothing. They teach a couple of classes a week and they spend the rest of the time doing research in the lab. Unlike school teachers, they don't really care about you. The majority of them will teach you without knowing your name. A lot of them will not even grade your work; they get graduate students to do the correcting for them.
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While there is some accuracy to this statement, overall it is ridiculous in its assertions.
 
A lot of them get $70000 + salaries for doing nothing. They teach a couple of classes a week and they spend the rest of the time doing research in the lab.
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Construction workers have it pretty sweet, too. They get to spend all their time doing stuff outside.
 
MilkmanAl said:
Construction workers have it pretty sweet, too. They get to spend all their time doing stuff outside.
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I understand how it may be different elsewhere, but most of the profs at my school live very comfortable lives. Compared to other fields, they work very few hours. Honestly, I don't see how their job can be difficult. Plus, they can do whatever they want if they have tenure.

I apologize to the OP...I may have gone on a tangent.

Bottom line: Your relationship with your professor is not going to be as personal as your relationship with your high school teacher. If you mess up, they are not going to chase after you and force you to "man up." It's all up to you now--> they won't hesitate in giving you a failing grade. That being said, many people like the "college environment" more than the "high school environment"; if you are a sincere hard worker, you are bound to succeed
 
Chemdude said:
I understand how it may be different elsewhere, but most of the profs at my school live very comfortable lives. Compared to other fields, they work very few hours. Honestly, I don't see how their job can be difficult. Plus, they can do whatever they want if they have tenure.

I apologize to the OP...I may have gone on a tangent.

Bottom line: Your relationship with your professor is not going to be as personal as your relationship with your high school teacher. If you mess up, they are not going to chase after you and force you to "man up." It's all up to you now--> they won't hesitate in giving you a failing grade. That being said, many people like the "college environment" more than the "high school environment"; if you are a sincere hard worker, you are bound to succeed
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In general, this is a good assessment. Obviously, there can be exceptions with the personal level attribute but this is certainly the trend.
 
I understand how it may be different elsewhere, but most of the profs at my school live very comfortable lives. Compared to other fields, they work very few hours. Honestly, I don't see how their job can be difficult. Plus, they can do whatever they want if they have tenure.
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I get the impression that the professors I had at UNC are constantly busy with paperwork, grant chasing, advising, and teaching. It doesn't seem like a low-stress job at all.
 
Chemdude said:
I understand how it may be different elsewhere, but most of the profs at my school live very comfortable lives. Compared to other fields, they work very few hours. Honestly, I don't see how their job can be difficult. Plus, they can do whatever they want if they have tenure.

I apologize to the OP...I may have gone on a tangent.

Bottom line: Your relationship with your professor is not going to be as personal as your relationship with your high school teacher. If you mess up, they are not going to chase after you and force you to "man up." It's all up to you now--> they won't hesitate in giving you a failing grade. That being said, many people like the "college environment" more than the "high school environment"; if you are a sincere hard worker, you are bound to succeed
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I have to dissagree with this. I know my college professor much better than I know any of my high school teachers (I'm an Early Scholar) this might be a special circumstance, but he's wonderful. He is interesting, his classes are stimulating, and I've learned much more history from him than I have any textbook. My class is very small (only 30-40 people), but if you attend UNA it's a normal class size. He does not dog us about our grades (he does yell a lot about 'repenting' and 'coming into the light' - his 'sermons' about studying and doing well on tests, haha), but I'm guessing anyone on here is concered enough to do a little studying on their own.
 
MilkmanAl said:
I get the impression that the professors I had at UNC are constantly busy with paperwork, grant chasing, advising, and teaching. It doesn't seem like a low-stress job at all.
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Agree completely.
 
Hi. I'm a college professor. Ignore most of what Chemdude has to say on the subject of what professors do, as he's passing on bad information from a very limited perspective on professorial lifestyles.

Here's a list of my responsibilities (which can vary depending upon the professor in question):

+ Teach a 4/4 schedule (meaning I teach four classes in both the fall and spring semesters)
+ Student advising (course selection and scheduling, post-graduate planning, etc.)
+ Conduct original research to further the field (unlike HS, your professors have expectations to add to the global body of knowledge on the subject). This currently involves writing research protocols for federal and private funding, as well as taking these studies through institutional review boards.
+ Teach/mentor graduate students (in my case, I teach undergraduate philosophy courses (intro, medical ethics, etc. - it's all in my MDApps) and graduate public health courses)
+ Publish articles and books to improve the reputation of the university, so a lot of time is spent in labs and libraries
+ Design and maintain the departmental websites
+ Committee work (will vary from professor to professor - some are involved in academic integrity, curriculum development, hiring/firing, internal auditing with local, state, and federal teaching mandates)
+ Advisor for our philosophy club (weekly meetings, attending to bureaucratic niceties like tax status, leading discussion, etc.)
+ Develop new courses and concentrations for existing degree programs
+ Other duties as they occur (e.g., next academic year, it's likely I will be teaching an overload (courses beyond my normal class load) as another faculty member will likely be on sabbatical)

Academic positions are very competitive, and tenure-track positions are rare. There were 70+ PhD's and ABD's who were competing for the position I eventually earned. I don't earn $70,000+ (and, quite honestly, this isn't an accurate reflection of salaries unless you are talking about upper-level faculty; most starting and mid-level faculty earn between $40,000-50,000 as a base salary), and I'm paying off student loans from undergraduate and graduate education, so my life is more secure than it was before (when I was combining adjunct positions), but it's hardly as comfortable as has been suggested (as it is for many faculty members who are either single or are in single-income relationships).

Lecture styles will vary from professor to professor; I prefer more discussion in class, but it's guided discussion combined with lecturing on important points (e.g., I'm currently covering research ethics in a course I'm teaching called Ethics in the Sciences, and we got into a discussion of the history of medical experimentation and standards of informed consent). Regarding recording of material, it usually has less to do with dropping profanity and more with avoiding students goofing off in class (e.g., not paying attention and preferring to listen to the lectures later).
 
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MilkmanAl said:
I get the impression that the professors I had at UNC are constantly busy with paperwork, grant chasing, advising, and teaching. It doesn't seem like a low-stress job at all.
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I know a person who had a $150/hr job in the engineering field that switched to Academics just because of the stress-free environment. You are right in saying that they do have to work hard to get the grants and such, but after they become established, it becomes very easy. I work in a molecular genetics lab. Do you want to know what the Dr.'s day is like?

1. Professor P. arrives on campus at about 9:00 Am.
2. Professor P. teaches a "Biological Diversity" class for about an hour
3. Professor P. teaches "Evolution" for another hour
4. At 11:30, Professor P. arrives at the lab and orders the graduate students around for the rest of the day.​
 
Chemdude said:
I know a person who had a $150/hr job in the engineering field that switched to Academics just because of the stress-free environment. You are right in saying that they do have to work hard to get the grants and such, but after they become established, it becomes very easy. I work in a molecular genetics lab. Do you want to know what the Dr.'s day is like?

1. Professor P. arrives on campus at about 9:00 Am.
2. Professor P. teaches a "Biological Diversity" class for about an hour
3. Professor P. teaches "Evolution" for another hour
4. At 11:30, Professor P. arrives at the lab and orders the graduate students around for the rest of the day.​
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And this gives you zero insight into the rest of your professor's responsibilities to the university and department. Don't generalize from your outsider's perspective. 🙂

EDIT:

And on that note, I'm off for the evening. I'm hitting the gym and then grading, because the fun part about an academic position is that you have a 7-day work week, and many responsibilities extend beyond normal business hours or after when our lab techs go home.
 
GZA said:
This certainly nails the issue on the head, so to speak. Laptops are of great use in class: faster note taking and many usefull note-taking programs (microsoft OneNote comes swiftly to mind).
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Any other programs like Microsoft OneNote ?
 
Chemdude said:
My friend, Professors have the best job in the world. A lot of them get $70000 + salaries for doing nothing. They teach a couple of classes a week and they spend the rest of the time doing research in the lab. Unlike school teachers, they don't really care about you. The majority of them will teach you without knowing your name. A lot of them will not even grade your work; they get graduate students to do the correcting for them.
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In my experience, at my school, that is absolutely 100% false. This may hold true for large public universities with 30K+ students, but I got a small private college with 1800 students. The professors do research, but by no means is that their main objective. They are hired to teach, not do research and that shows b/c they care about their students and they go out of their way to make sure that they succeed. II've had classes with 6 people in them.


Chemdude said:
Bottom line: Your relationship with your professor is not going to be as personal as your relationship with your high school teacher. If you mess up, they are not going to chase after you and force you to "man up." It's all up to you now--> they won't hesitate in giving you a failing grade. That being said, many people like the "college environment" more than the "high school environment"; if you are a sincere hard worker, you are bound to succeed
Click to expand...

This is also not true at a school with few students. Ive had classes with 6 people in them. You will NOT be anonymous and your professors WILL know your name. Freshman year i had a professor email me (and my friends) to tell us she was dissapointed that we skipped out on class. Im not kidding. On the flip side, professors go out of their way for their students. I had a music professor come back to campus at 630 on a Friday night to help me out with my blues composition I was writing. Ive also had teachers hold review sessions on the weekends before tests. Yes, these stories are all true. In this type of environment, you build very strong relationshipos with yuor professors and the good thing about that is when ti is time to apply for med school, PA school, dental school, whatever school.....you will have PLENTY of people willing to write you a letter of reccomendation. I seriously could have asked for a LOR from every professor I have ever had. Oh and on top of that, no classes are taught by TAs and no labs are taught by TAs. Sometimes they are there to help out, but everything is done by the professor. Class lecture and lab lecture and all of the grading of papers, tests, assignemnts, etc.

So yea, those are the kinda experiences that you will get a small school which you will not get at a larger instiution.
 
Quix said:
And this gives you zero insight into the rest of your professor's responsibilities to the university and department. Don't generalize from your outsider's perspective. 🙂

EDIT:

And on that note, I'm off for the evening. I'm hitting the gym and then grading, because the fun part about an academic position is that you have a 7-day work week, and many responsibilities extend beyond normal business hours or after when our lab techs go home.
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When I say "Professors have an easy job", I mean comparatively. Of course you have responsibilities, but this doesn't mean that you are drowning in work everyday. At my school, the professors do not usually do the grading. Besides, advising doesn't seem difficult, it sounds fun. IMO, teaching a kindergartener how to read is more difficult than teaching a college level class.

I acknowledge that you take your job seriously, but most of the professors that have taught me do not. It seemed to me that a lot of them saw the "teaching" portion of their job as a chore. Maybe this is what has caused me dislike them.

Nevertheless, you win. Your opinion is more valuable than mine because you speak from experience.(I still think you have an easy job though).
 
ryserr21 said:
This is also not true at a school with few students. Ive had classes with 6 people in them. You will NOT be anonymous and your professors WILL know your name. Freshman year i had a professor email me (and my friends) to tell us she was dissapointed that we skipped out on class. Im not kidding. On the flip side, professors go out of their way for their students. I had a music professor come back to campus at 630 on a Friday night to help me out with my blues composition I was writing. Ive also had teachers hold review sessions on the weekends before tests. Yes, these stories are all true.
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Even at large schools, depending on the subject area, you can get some of this. I'm at a large school that's pretty research and science focused and when I took a language class it had a total of five people in it. That's the only one with under 10 people I've had but a few have been 12ish. Majoring in say classics at my school would give you a small personable classroom enviroment. While when I took microbio I was in an auditorium with over 600 other people.

For the original question:
There will be a huge variation between schools often hinging on the size of the student population. But also there is a variation between departments within the same school. Also, some classes, like speech, lend themselves better to having a more interactive class. Even different instructors priorities will affect this. Some professors as pointed out earlier just want to run back to their labs (although not as many as people seem to think), others really like running their class and it usually shows.
 
From my limited experience in doing some tutoring in Microbiology at my uni, teaching college students aren't as easy as teaching kids to read (I've done both). The amount of information you must go through in order to teach and lecture is not easy. I would have to spend 8 hours on preparation for 1 hr of lecturing materials. That one hour will seem easy to the students as they only have to sit and listen.
 
Chemdude said:
When I say "Professors have an easy job", I mean comparatively. Of course you have responsibilities, but this doesn't mean that you are drowning in work everyday. At my school, the professors do not usually do the grading. Besides, advising doesn't seem difficult, it sounds fun. IMO, teaching a kindergartener how to read is more difficult than teaching a college level class.

I acknowledge that you take your job seriously, but most of the professors that have taught me do not. It seemed to me that a lot of them saw the "teaching" portion of their job as a chore. Maybe this is what has caused me dislike them.

Nevertheless, you win. Your opinion is more valuable than mine because you speak from experience.(I still think you have an easy job though).
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Let's trade. I'll sit on my ass on a lab bench and do scut work and study with no real responsibilities. You can read the three textbooks on research methodology and decide which one to use for class next semester. Oh, and my Introduction to Philosophy class needs to be restructured since they released a new edition of the textbook and changed the authors sampled, so update all of my lectures to reflect the new material. And here's the 650 pages of student papers you'll have to read for one section of my medical ethics class, there's an additional 400 from the second section, and 400 from my Intro class, and 400 from my ethics in the sciences. Oh, the geography, criminal justice, religious studies, government, and sociology departments need websites by next month - you'll need to do site architecture, copy, and faculty bios for each. Oh, by the way, the Journal of Trauma needs revisions on the article by next week to meet the publication deadline. The IRB called and they need the renewals for the study on affective disorders in intensive care. The other two studies need to be prepared for the IRB, and since we need to establish research relationships with the two hospitals in the area, meet with hospital administration to pitch the ideas and find out their IRB protocols before you can see patients there. Once you have that taken care of, you need to meet with accounting to get the tax ID for the philosophy club and arrange the guest speakers for next semester. Incidentally, we need you to prepare a lecture on biodiversity and environmental ethics. The Oxford University Press expressed interest in your book on psychiatry and medical ethics - they'd like chapter summaries by Friday. They have also expressed interest in the book on conducting clinical ethical research, and will want a sample chapter by then, too. By the way, how goes the search for funding? Have you started the NIH paperwork yet? You know the protocols are detailed, right? Oh, what's that? You were hoping to find some time to start a family? Maybe in a few years.

The take home message is that you know nothing about me or what I do, and my job isn't easy. Thanks for playing. 🙂
 
tennisball80 said:
Any other programs like Microsoft OneNote ?
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Good question. I'll tell you my experiences with college and currently with medical school.

College: I had a laptop. Most professors (certainly not all and depending on the class, of course) will create a powerpoint lecture for each class. Generally, I would print these out and take notes directly on them. Others I observed would simply download them onto their laptops and take notes in the margins. The problem I had with this method was being limited to only typing (no drawings, diagrams, highlighting and so on).

Medical School: I have a tablet. If I would have known the rapture of the Tablet-OneNote duo I would have used it throughout college. Organization is at an extreme. Write/draw/type/highlight - it is all there. It is certainly unjust to attempt to describe how many limitations and annoyances are circumvented by the lustrous duo but I assure you there certainly are many.

In summary; I don't have experience with programs similar to OneNote; In college most simply downloaded/printed the lectures and took notes in the margins. However, even without a tablet, OneNote still would be useful just for organizational purposes (but is not necessary obviously).
 
Chemdude it might be smart to stop harassing the experienced professor... as he and his colleagues will one be writing your recommendations and grading your tests. Just a thought.
 
Quix said:
Let's trade. I'll sit on my ass on a lab bench and do scut work and study with no real responsibilities. You can read the three textbooks on research methodology and decide which one to use for class next semester. Oh, and my Introduction to Philosophy class needs to be restructured since they released a new edition of the textbook and changed the authors sampled, so update all of my lectures to reflect the new material. And here's the 650 pages of student papers you'll have to read for one section of my medical ethics class, there's an additional 400 from the second section, and 400 from my Intro class, and 400 from my ethics in the sciences. Oh, the geography, criminal justice, religious studies, government, and sociology departments need websites by next month - you'll need to do site architecture, copy, and faculty bios for each. Oh, by the way, the Journal of Trauma needs revisions on the article by next week to meet the publication deadline. The IRB called and they need the renewals for the study on affective disorders in intensive care. The other two studies need to be prepared for the IRB, and since we need to establish research relationships with the two hospitals in the area, meet with hospital administration to pitch the ideas and find out their IRB protocols before you can see patients there. Once you have that taken care of, you need to meet with accounting to get the tax ID for the philosophy club and arrange the guest speakers for next semester. Incidentally, we need you to prepare a lecture on biodiversity and environmental ethics. The Oxford University Press expressed interest in your book on psychiatry and medical ethics - they'd like chapter summaries by Friday. They have also expressed interest in the book on conducting clinical ethical research, and will want a sample chapter by then, too. By the way, how goes the search for funding? Have you started the NIH paperwork yet? You know the protocols are detailed, right? Oh, what's that? You were hoping to find some time to start a family? Maybe in a few years.

The take home message is that you know nothing about me or what I do, and my job isn't easy. Thanks for playing. 🙂
Click to expand...



True. I know nothing about you and your job. I'm apologize if you took offense to my previous comment. I respect that you are very dedicated to your job. By "your job", I didn't mean "you" personally; I meant professors in general.

If you look at my previous comment, I said that I have developed a dislike for my professors because of my personal experiences with them. I admit that I may have generalized the facts based on my "outsider" opinion.
 
I honestly didn't think it was much of a jump in difficulty but rather expectations with learning. In high school, the bulk of your learning takes place in the classroom. You get there at 8 a.m. and you leave by 3 p.m. usually. If it is a rough homework day you may have 2 hours of homework....which might've happened to me once during high school. I could pretty much do one assignment while in the next class.

In college, it is all flipped. You go to class to solidify the material...or should. You are expected to read more and to do all assignments. The learning is on you more than the professor. They will generally be more than willing to HELP, but none but the most patient of professors will sit there and hold your hand through each step until the light bulb turns on. I helped teach a class and I would not even bother to help a student unless it was first obvious they made a legitimate attempt on their own. I have better things to do than hold your hand.

It took me about 2 years of college to develop somewhat proper study habits. I'm now in my 6th year of classes (I did graduate in 4 with two degrees) and am still refining my habits. What has worked for me and gotten me A's before is now barely getting me a C with a curve in the current class. After high school, it isn't just about time put in studying, it is about studying effectively during that time. You won't fully get there until you hit the next level whether it is medical or some other graduate school.
 
MossPoh said:
I honestly didn't think it was much of a jump in difficulty but rather expectations with learning. In high school, the bulk of your learning takes place in the classroom. You get there at 8 a.m. and you leave by 3 p.m. usually. If it is a rough homework day you may have 2 hours of homework....which might've happened to me once during high school. I could pretty much do one assignment while in the next class.

In college, it is all flipped. You go to class to solidify the material...or should. You are expected to read more and to do all assignments. The learning is on you more than the professor. They will generally be more than willing to HELP, but none but the most patient of professors will sit there and hold your hand through each step until the light bulb turns on. I helped teach a class and I would not even bother to help a student unless it was first obvious they made a legitimate attempt on their own. I have better things to do than hold your hand.

It took me about 2 years of college to develop somewhat proper study habits. I'm now in my 6th year of classes (I did graduate in 4 with two degrees) and am still refining my habits. What has worked for me and gotten me A's before is now barely getting me a C with a curve in the current class. After high school, it isn't just about time put in studying, it is about studying effectively during that time. You won't fully get there until you hit the next level whether it is medical or some other graduate school.
Click to expand...

Excellent post ! 👍

Should I buy a book about effective study skills before college ?
 
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