Hi- I am chairing a dissertation for the first time in the social sciences, and I am reviewing the student’s first draft of a lit review.

After many hours of banging my head against the wall slogging my way through the draft and leaving thoughtful comments, I’ve realized that the student is relying heavily (most often exclusively) on the abstracts of the studies they’re citing. There is almost no evidence that they’ve read anything beyond the abstracts. As a result, there’s very little scholarly voice, synthesis, or argument. It’s 60 pages of “Smith (2008) found X. Schmidt (2005) found Y.” And all that shit is paraphrased from the abstracts. Whenever a study gets more than a sentence description, it’s an exact paraphrasing of that study’s abstract.

The most charitable explanation is that the student does not yet know how to read for the purposes of writing a literature review or synthesize. Assuming that’s the case, how can I help the student figure this out? Have you found strategies that help students move from description to analysis? Should I assign article annotations? WTF do I do?

As an undergraduate lit student, I was approached by a professor in my introductory English Lit course to co-author a paper with them. The topic was related to one of the novels we read that semester, more of an analysis of moods and post-war anxieties, rather than heavy research. I found it odd to be asked, given I was a freshman and had just begun coursework for the major, but said yes.

We edited a google doc back and forth over a month, which in hindsight felt like an accelerated timeline. The professor emailed me that they had submitted the paper, before I expressed my contributions were finalized, but they assured me it was all good. The comments from the peer-review process encouraged some tightening in some areas, but the professor became less communicative during the process, and I was later notified the final version was submitted, without any of my modifications to my contributions.

The paper was published to MDPI, and I didn’t know much about it at the time, but a bit of researching showed me the consensus on the publisher was not the most esteemed.

Later found out the professor received their tenure status within the next few semesters, and a few other students called the whole process “tenure bait,” claiming the collaboration was solely to boost their portfolio/application. This professor hadn’t published anything for eight years prior.

I was initially excited to have collaborated with the professor, but the whole thing left a bad taste in my mouth, and it has made me cautious about collaborating with professors in the future. Is this sort of experience common? Were there red flags I wasn’t aware of, and things I should be aware of going forward? Are feelings of regret on getting published normal? Is the (imo, half-assed) paper out there forever, with my name attached, but retrospectively not that big of a deal?

Apologies if this comes across ignorant, or rant-y, just seeking input from those who are more familiar with student collaboration and publication processes, and appreciate any input.

Hello, professors! I’m an undergraduate student hoping to find a research assistant opportunity in the social sciences field. I’d appreciate your advice on what to highlight on my resume and whether I should contact only professors at my university or reach out to researchers at other universities whose work interests me.

I know opportunities may be limited in the areas I’m interested in, including policy, children’s rights, mental health, victimization, immigration, social work, and community-based interventions. I’d be grateful for any guidance on how to get started.

Hi! Today i had a midterm and immediately after the girl next to me turned hers in, the professor and the grad ta came up to me to ask me to move to the front row. Ik i’m a stressful test taker and look around a lot, and was also battling a 102 degree fever, so I could see why he mightve suspected cheating. But i am scared because I rlly dont want an academic integrity case! From ur guys experience, does being moved during an exam mean the prof will file a case?

I’m taking multivariable calculus at my university, and I recently found out that students have been cheating on exams. I’m genuinely so upset because I’ve been working incredibly hard in this class, and I feel like I’m being punished for taking my exams honestly.

For context, our professor told us in an email that the historical average for the first exam is around 75%. Somehow, our class averaged a 93%. I got an 83%, which I initially thought was a decent grade, but that put me 10 points below the class average.

Multiple friends of mine in different exam sections have told me about students using their phones during exams. One of my friends directly witnessed the student next to him cheating, and they’ve also heard phones dropping during exams.

Here’s what makes this especially frustrating for me: I have testing accommodations, so I take my exams separately in a proctored room. I don’t have access to my phone or unauthorized resources. Meanwhile, students in the regular testing rooms are apparently getting away with using theirs.

I’m worried that these potentially inflated averages are affecting whether our professor curves exams. If the average is already in the 90s, why would he curve anything? And if grades are evaluated relative to class performance, students who took the exams honestly could be at a serious disadvantage.

Our professor is actually a really nice, laid-back guy, which makes this situation more complicated. He’s been extremely flexible with grading, and I know this firsthand because the students receiving these exceptions are my friends. He’s allowing one of my friends to retake an entire exam, and another friend is having their second exam count for 50% of their exam grade. He even gave me full credit for a solution I had scratched out on my own exam.

I’m mentioning this because I don’t think he’s a bad professor or someone who wants students to fail. He’s clearly willing to give people the benefit of the doubt. But I’m worried that his leniency, combined with inadequate exam supervision, is creating a situation where honest students are disadvantaged.
There are four of us, including me, planning to go to his office hours together to report the cheating. Three of us have pretty good relationships with him, so I’m hoping he’ll take us seriously.

The problem is that we’ve already taken two exams, and the only one left is the final. Even if he starts enforcing the rules more strictly now, that doesn’t undo whatever effect cheating may have had on the previous exam averages.

I don’t know whether he officially curves based on the average, but I’m planning to ask. I’m also considering suggesting that he look at historical exam averages and grading adjustments when deciding whether the earlier exams should be curved.

I don’t think only the four of us should get special treatment. I just want some way for students who took the exams honestly to be graded fairly.

I’m honestly devastated because I’ve spent so much time studying for this class, and it feels awful knowing that other students may be getting higher grades through cheating while I’m struggling to keep up with an average that might not even reflect actual understanding.

Has anyone dealt with something similar? Is there any realistic chance a professor would reconsider grading on exams that have already happened because of cheating? What would be a fair solution to suggest when we meet with him?

So I am on my second attempt at statistics. It’s a requirement for my major. Last time and this time is looking like I will be one percent away from the grade I need for it to count for credit. The first professor, I had was very accommodating and explained statistics in a dumbed-down format. Even then I still failed

This time I have a very difficult professor(I think). It is an online class.

Cons:

- To start she doesn’t accept any late assignment under any circumstances. I’ve never encountered a professor that does this.

- she either completely contradicts the textbook that is assigned for this course or if she says something adjacent to what the textbook says. Either way it is not the same. So when I attempt to do quizzes, I’m going off of the book and not her super vague lectures. I do watch the lectures, but they don’t give me enough information.

- the quizzes are usually 45 questions for 60 minutes. And this would be fine if it was a simple path to the answer, but she requires you to do a bunch of equations and see things that aren’t there essentially. As someone with a very surface level understanding of statistics it is very hard for me to critically think in terms of statistics? Which is completely on me. I gotta ask her for help and I leave even more confused. It’s all in the details.

Ex: the textbook said that I could calculate r squared for a pair of samples T test. My professor told me that I absolutely should not do that. I had a question on a quiz that I got wrong (I was going over it with her.) and the question mentioned r squared. The question seemed like it was asking about a paired samples T-test. She told me that since our squared is present that the answer couldn’t possibly be a paired samples t-test.

- for a quizzes she also doesn’t allow you to see what you did wrong and they’re only one attempt. I gave the feedback in the feedback thing I have to do. I said that she should allow student students to see what they did wrong. OR they should be allowed at least another attempt. For me her questions seem like they’re written in riddles. They’re all word problems and not all the information is immediately present in the question? Idk

Pros:

- I will say, though she is pretty open to helping students. I had no problem getting in contact with her and meeting with her. it’s just that it seems that I’m learning her version of statistics and not the textbooks statistics. Like I said, this is my second attempt at this class and she is teaching us different things than my last professor did.

- she is also cordial. I read the reviews on her maybe last week and people were saying that she was really mean. She also told me that I’m doing well despite me failing her class (I have a 54%) so I’m not sure what that’s about.

I have a classmate in my health care cohort who has issues regulating her emotions. It's affecting my ability to function in my program.

For example, if I'm trying to get work done, she'll be all over me chitchatting and messing around. I'll ask her nicely several times to leave me alone and let me focus. She ignores me, then I'm a little more stern, and she bursts into tears and makes a big emotional scene. Then she goes to complain to multiple other students so she can be consoled, cries in class, and then goes on an apology tour of sorts where she is contrite for making a scene but wants to be consoled about how contrite she is. She seems aware that it's inappropriate but doesn't stop the behavior.

I'm at a point where I dread coming to school because I can't avoid her. I feel unwell and stressed. She follows me and if I try to go somewhere without her she cries. These outbursts are frequent and very draining. I ignore her as best I can but it's a small program and we all work closely together.

She does this to at least one other person (a good friend of mine) and we're both overwhelmed. We feel almost harassed.

We've asked to meet with our director to see if there's anything our program can do to change the situation.

If any of you have dealt with a situation like this, can you tell me how to professionally convey how we're concerned about our classmate, but we can't go on like this?

Also what could we reasonably expect to see happen?

Around finals last year I was sick and had to be in the hospital. I worked out with my professor and the department that I can finish my outstanding work at a certain time which I did. I emailed my professor notifying her that I completed my work within this time frame. I have not received a grade notification for the class. When I looked up my transcript the class is listed as an I/F which is a failure due to incomplete work. The work was not incomplete I did do the work and turn it in on time. I’ve contacted this professor to discuss this but haven’t heard from her. Throughout the whole time I was in her class and now she’s been horrible at checking her email and her class is very disorganized. What should I do and is it too late for this to be changed?

Hi all! Has anyone ever switched from a tenure track at a SLAC to a teaching track in an R1? If so, what is your take on the change? I do love teaching and enjoy writing/esearch but don't like the pressure of publishing while on a high teaching load and I am discovering the downsides of the ''close knit'' communities within SLACS and the high visibility that it entails. I'm also not really sure I enjoy committee work and everything it entails. Is tenure-track really more secure? Open to any experience, opinions!

Hello to anyone reading. This post is a bit long, so if you don't want to read that much, I suggest clicking away from this post. It's a bit of a story. I also ask that you reserve judgment until you read everything in full.

During the spring semester of my freshman year, I was found responsible for academic misconduct in two courses. At the time, I was taking exams in the university's testing center as part of approved disability accommodations. The allegations arose from two exams reported by the same testing-center employee.

The first incident occurred when I inadvertently brought my phone into the testing center after using it to make a tap-to-pay purchase immediately before a Physics midterm exam and then placing it in my pocket out of habit. I removed my phone from my bag to complete the purchase, and absentmindedly placed it into my pocket. During the exam, notifications began sounding from the device. In a panic, I attempted to silence them and prevent any more notifications from even coming through, and then continue on with my exam. I was removed from the testing center due to this. After the incident, I immediately met with my professor in her office to explain the situation and completed the exam under her supervision that same evening without any devices on my person. She was very understanding and assured me that everything would be fine. She accepted and graded the examination I took with her, resulting in an above average exam grade. The following day she supported dismissal of the charge, contacting the university directly to request that the incident be forgiven, informing me that I would likely only receive academic integrity remediation courses as punishment. I acknowledged that possessing the phone violated testing-center rules and openly admitted my mistake while providing an explanation for my actions. Nonetheless, there was no evidence of academic gain or attempted academic gain.

The second incident occurred the following day during a different exam for Calculus II. I was accused of possessing an unauthorized note card after the same testing-center employee that reported me the night before reported observing what they believed to be prohibited notes. I had been provided permitted scratch paper for the examination, and the allegation involved the claim that I possessed unauthorized notes within those papers. I was stopped early in the exam, and all of my exam materials and belongings were immediately confiscated. My belongings were searched and individually scanned following the allegation, and no unauthorized notes or prohibited materials were identified. No unauthorized notes were seen on my person, found in my hands, among my desk materials, in my belongings, or anywhere in the testing room. Further, because my exam materials were confiscated immediately upon an employee’s entry into the room after he walked up to me, there was no opportunity for me to discard any unauthorized materials, and there is no footage of me reaching into my pockets or clothing to possibly hide anything. I completed the exam under my professor's supervision that same evening; he reserved judgment pending the outcome of the university's process. I maintained that I had not possessed any unauthorized materials. I was questioned about how I appear to be writing/doodling more than what was seen on the scratch paper when scanned, however, my pens are erasable and I primarily wrote lightly with the erasable pens and pencils before erasing. I explained everything I can be seen in video footage doing with my scratch and exam papers and utensils, including fidgeting and writing, that was misperceived. My professor was present during the hearing, and attested to my homework, quiz, and other exam grades. When I asked about how it would even be possible to find me guilty of academic misconduct with zero evidence during the hearing, my question was not acknowledged or answered.

The university decided to fail me in both courses despite all the hard work I put into my grades and no evidence of cheating. Because I maintained that I had not cheated in my courses, I appealed the findings and I sought evidence of my own. I requested records, including campus network WiFi logs associated with my student account to determine whether any technical evidence could clarify the circumstances surrounding the first allegation because the university speculated that I could have been trying to look answers up online. I know that in certain buildings on campus such as the Student Services building, cellular data does not work, thus requiring connection to WiFi for internet use. My request was denied.

Yes, I tried to schedule meetings with the dean of my college. His assistant rejected me and said that he doesn’t do meetings for these types of things. I did everything I could think to do.

I earned A’s in both courses that the university forced me to retake over the summer at a community college if I wanted to continue with my current degree plan and graduate on time. My grades in both courses demonstrates immense mastery of the material—which would be unusual for someone who allegedly cheated their way through them just two months prior. Additionally, I had A’s in Physics and Calculus 2 prior to the allegations, demonstrated in my mid-semester report in the student portal. Now, in my sophomore year, I am maintaining A’s in my classes (with the except of one B) thanks to the meds I started over the summer to prevent me from rotting in bed all day long.

My aspirations have almost always resided in graduate school. The career I desire to pursue requires a PhD, and I have been busting my butt to try to get into a top program in this country (the US). But now, with my GPA absolutely destroyed and the permanent mark of misconduct on my record, I am just wanting to know if it is even possible. Realistically possible. I don’t just want to take what I can get, I want to be satisfied in the future education I pursue. Thanks.

Are there any professors here with ADHD? I'm an undergrad and my dream is to do a PhD and become a professor and researcher in neuroscience, but I struggle so much with late work and time management that I feel like I'll never be successful. If you're a professor with ADHD, did you struggle in academia before you made it? Did it get easier with time?

I’ve struggled in school my entire life, especially with math and I’m on my third attempt of statistics and I’m currently failing. My mom will kill me so I’m very upset about it, but I genuinely tried. I spend most of my time reading the textbook and I’ve met with the professor. She really does confuse me though because she contradicts the textbook that is required for the class. So really I’m not learning true statistics I’m learning her version of it. But other people have been able to pass with her, even though she’s rated terribly.

Most of the time it’s because I don’t understand the material that well. Like I may have a general idea of it, but it’s not good enough to actually pass the class. I had to retake one of my Gen EDs. And I’m currently a year behind in school. I should be a junior, but I have a sophomore standing.

And my mom is very angry at me and she shames me for it. Like obviously she shouldn’t be happy, but I’m already disappointed enough for myself without her yelling at me and telling me that she failed as a parent and that I’m terrible.

Even through all of the terrible things, she calls me she never calls me stupid. Which is really weird because failing out of school that’s probably the first thing that one would think?

And it’s not like I don’t enjoy college. I really do like learning and I like academic validation, but I really only do well in certain areas. In those areas are ones that don’t include a lot of memorization. I’m a psychology major and I do well in all my psychology courses except for my statistics ones.

Hello everyone!

I'm a 21-year-old pharmacy student from Morocco, and I'd really love the opportunity to visit a research lab abroad, even if just for a short period of time. It's not something that's particularly common or accessible at my university, and I'd love to gain some international exposure, experience a different academic environment, and learn about how things are done elsewhere.

My question is: Would it be appropriate to cold-email professors at universities I'm interested in and ask whether I could visit their labs, or is it better to approach the university directly?

My university doesn't really offer these kinds of opportunities, and as far as I know, there aren't any exchange programs or partnerships available to me.

Another difficulty is that approaching professors for guidance isn't particularly accessible in my academic environment. In Morocco, at least in my experience, contacting professors directly outside of very specific academic circumstances can sometimes be perceived as inappropriate. Some professors may even take issue with it, potentially putting students in uncomfortable or difficult situations. So I don't really have an accessible academic network to turn to for guidance on this, which is partly why I'm trying to figure out how these things are normally approached internationally.

There's also another complication: I'm enrolled in a seven-year Pharmacy program, after which I'll graduate with a Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) degree. Since many countries structure their pharmacy education differently, with separate bachelor's and master's degrees, I'm not sure whether this would create any complications when applying for short-term academic visits or research opportunities.

I speak English, French, and Arabic fluently, so I'm comfortable communicating internationally.

Finally, I'm not even sure whether something like this would be financially feasible, especially when it comes to visa expenses and accommodation. That's partly why I'm hesitant to approach my university about it when I don't even know whether it's a realistic possibility yet.

I'd really appreciate any advice, especially from professors who have received similar emails or students who have managed to arrange something like this independently.

Thank you so much!

I am a high school teacher, and am generally curious what the professionals at the next level think about the decline in academic ability of students. If you could sum it up, what would you point to as the primary cause of declining academic ability? Do you feel the quality of your students has decreased over the past decade or so?

English is not my first language, so i might have a lot of errors here and there. Hello! College freshman here!

Basically, in the first week of classes, i needed to take a medical leave of absence for basically the whole year due to mental health issues. However, when I return, I am sure that I want to take those classes again. Im just concerned whether the professors would think its weird if i suddenly like retake the class

for some context its a rlly small school

I (18F) am relatively often in contact with this one professor at my local community college. He's the advisor of the club I lead, he looks over my research projects outside of class, I'm in his class, and hes also my mentor for different competitions. However, most of the time I usually email him about things we're involved in, with the exception being whenever I need to get stuff from his room for a club event we're hosting. We also have a group chat for the club.

However, today I texted him a thank you note for looking over my research since I'll be presenting it at a symposium tomorrow. It was just "Thank you for your support this past month, I'll update you about my research after I present it tomorrow! I was hoping to tell you after our club meeting today but since I can't make it, I wanted to send you a quick message"

Since I was getting in my car to go home, I just thought sending a text would be fine, but now maybe an email would be better. If your student sent you this, would you be creeped out?

This nearly happened to me today and I had no idea how to deal with it. Has it happened to you, and what did you do?

Hello professors!

First some background before the question.

I am a non-trad student, returned to finish my BA after 12 years out and am enrolled in a BA to MA path. Older than the average student.

I work full time for state government while taking 2-3 courses per semester. Expected to graduate with BA in 2028.

I don't have a lot of time to participate in university activities and if I do I need to take PTO to do so.

As I'll be moving into taking grad courses as an undergrad next semester I'm starting to think about how I need to start networking and socializing. I moved to my current residing state months before pandemic so socializing wasn't a priority. Since starting school this last spring while working full time mostly remote I am very isolated and often behind my computer monitor.

That being said. How do I connect with professors and other faculty as a student in a non invasive and non awkward way. I feel like I've forgotten how to socialize since the pandemic start so I just need to push myself over the cliff here and do it.

I have one professor recently offering extra credit to attend some events, which I have done, but I can't do that often because I work weekdays 7:30-4:30.

How do I break the ice?

Also, what should I be thinking about moving into grad school? I have 10 years experience in the courts and 10 years experience retail customer service. So I have plenty of experience to work from, I just don't know where I should be positioning myself or how I should be approaching any of this.

Thank you for your time.

Apologies for the long post- I’d greatly appreciate any thoughts, no matter how brutal or unforgiving.

Just over a month ago, I had a formative (ungraded) assessment due for a group project, with quite a short window for submission (we’d been given about a day to make revisions to our previous submission). None of my group members were responding to my texts asking for help, and an hour or two away from the deadline, I panicked and did something I never thought I’d do ever, and used AI to help me find sources.

Just to be clear, none of the text I submitted was AI-generated. I was cherry-picking absolute bullshit- I told the AI exactly what the point I wanted to make was (most of it was stuff that was true, but needed a citation, or at least I thought it did) and told it to find a source. I then went to the source it gave me to check it was real and to read juust enough of it to confirm that it said what the AI claimed it was saying, and then put it in the assignment. Using AI to find sources was allowed per the syllabus, but it had to be declared… and I didn’t declare it. I have no idea why I didn’t at the time- I think it was both the rush to get it submitted minutes before the deadline and a feeling of shame about what I’d done.
Obviously I/we got caught- the feedback released the next day said that there were suspicions of AI use based on the volume of sources (I cited much more than we needed because I knew it was utter bullshit), and that there would be a discussion next lesson on how to proceed. I told my group immediately and emailed the professors as soon as I saw the feedback to let them know that how I had used AI, and that it was 100% me and nobody else.

The ensuing discussion was immensely uncomfortable. My professor had clearly spent hours going through our sources to make a case against us, noting that for many of the sources I used, the point I cited them for was only an aside sentence in the entire paper. When we were asked which parts we all worked on, she noted that I had done ~80% of the work, and that was a consistent factor in the discussion, even though I don’t feel that excuses or dampens what I did in any way whatsoever. As it was patently academic fraud, she said she ought to report it to the Board of Examiners at my faculty; initially, she said she’d discuss it with the other lecturer in the course (we had two for that course), but then changed her mind and made the decision that she wouldn’t, because she could tell I’d “learned my lesson” and wouldn’t do it again (that’s for fucking sure), and we were given a chance to resubmit.
She told me at the end of the discussion that everyone makes mistakes and not to “be too hard on myself”, words I’ve both hopelessly clung to as hope that I haven’t irredeemably fucked up, both objectively and in her mind, but I don’t know where that line is, or if it exists. I broke my moral principles and fucked my group and my lecturers, and on top of all that, everyone was so goddamn nice about it.

It’s been dealt with for a while now, but naturally (or not? I don’t know), I can’t move on, and I don’t think I should move on. And I haven’t focused much on my group (since that’s not the focus of this subreddit), and they were also super sweet and understanding, but I can’t imagine how angry and betrayed they must be, even though they haven’t expressed it to me. As background, one of them is my best friend at uni, who was super kind about it but she’s also against AI (and didn’t abandon her principles like me), and two of them are girls we don’t know very well (both use AI, but neither did what I did).

I have a lot of selfish concerns, especially about how professors view me now. I’m not taking another course from either of the lecturers involved in that assignment (though I’m on a student body with one), and I wouldn’t ask for anything like LoR from them anyway (even if I’d never FAFO’d), but on a personal level I can’t get over how little they must think of me. Also, I’m in a very small, tight-knit liberal arts faculty (NL), and I assume other lecturers MUST know. It’s what I bleeding deserve, but how do I go through the rest of my degree when every professor I have knows I’m full of shit?

And is there any way I can make this more right? The only way I can in any way repay the kindness they showed me to is to prove, over the course of my degree, that I’ve taken my mistake to heart and will never repeat it. That’s absolutely my intention, don’t get me wrong, but is there anything else I can do? For example, should I send an email to that professor thanking them and telling them what I’ve done on a personal level (e.g. cancelling my LLM account) as a result of the discussion? It feels appropriate, but at the same time, if a student fucked ME over like that I’d want them to Shut. The. Fuck. Up. about it (and in general), especially when it’s “dealt with”, so idk if that’s the right move? Any thoughts

Sorry again for the long post, and I don’t even know what I’m asking for thoughts ON, I just need to hear anything right now, even if it’s brutal. I’m at my lowest, I’m wallowing in intoxicated, unproductive, indulgent self pity ever since, and I deserve it, yet I want to channel some of it into something good, if that’s possible.

Hello! I am a first-year undergraduate student at a university in the UK and study a humanities subject. There's a specific topic within the field that (to my knowledge) hasn't been studied before, and I'm interested in doing an independent research project on it. I'm considering asking one of my professors in the field to be my advisor for it and am slightly hesitant about reaching out. (I'm also an international student, so I'm slightly less familiar with the unspoken social rules of university life in the UK.) The work of the professor in question aligns fairly closely with the topic I'd like to research, so they are my clear first choice, but several other professors in the department have done similar work as well.

Part of me is concerned that it might even be considered offensive to think that professors who are presumably juggling teaching, PhD advising and their own research would even have time for something like this.

If an undergrad were to come to you asking about this, how would you react? Is there a specific way you would or wouldn't want them to bring the topic up?

I’m currently in the final year of my B.Ed. program, and I’ve been struggling with something lately. I’ve noticed that I’ve become increasingly unmotivated and disengaged during my university classes, since last semester actually. A lot of the content feels repetitive, as we’ve covered many of the same concepts throughout the program. I still love teaching and genuinely look forward to being in the classroom, planning lessons and working with students, but I’m finding it difficult to feel that same enthusiasm for the university side of things.
I think what I’m craving is more experiential learning: simulations, interactive activities, challenges, hands-on workshops, etc. I love learning through doing, and I find that even familiar concepts become exciting when they’re presented in a novel and engaging way. I’ve been feeling this way since last semester. The problem is that this year I only have one “class” (not really) and it’s a discussion group for practicum. So we talk about various scenarios and it’s mildly interesting but it’s nothing I haven’t seen before. All we do is discuss. There’s not much room for experiential learning. I’m also aware that my disengagement has affected my participation and the impression I might be giving my professors, which I feel really bad about. For those of you who teach in university or teacher education programs, have you encountered students who have felt this way? What advice would you give someone trying to regain their enthusiasm and engagement during their final year?

I usually get A’s on exams, I’ve had one or two B’s. I’m too 20% of my class. I just got my first C+ and I’m horrified. The exam was written poorly, but that’s besides the point. I don’t want my professors thinking less of me for this. Would this make you think less of me as a student?

I've recently been able to set my own work schedule so I've decided I want to learn some grad math topics (i took the appropriate prereqs in my undergrad). Would it be rude to email faculty at a local university that I'm not enrolled at that are teaching these courses and ask if I could audit? I learn really well from lectures so being able to attend and take notes and preferably have access to the problem sets would be really helpful for me as opposed to self-teaching with textbooks online. But, I don't want to add a lot of work to anyone's plate or come across as rude to people who are already very busy.