A few days ago I went to see one of my Psychology professors in his office during office hours and it turns out, he’s not a robot like I thought, he’s a person, a REAL person! By the way, office hours are blocks of time throughout the week that professors leave open for students to meet with them to discuss classwork, get advice on furthering your career, etc.
I spent about an hour and a half talking to my professor during office hours, 30 minutes focused on an assignment I was worried about, and somehow the next 60 minutes or so were spent talking about graduate school, different paths of Psychology, and likes along with dislikes about certain areas of Psychology. I walked out of the office with “WHOA” written on my forehead, with a hypothetical bright red sharpie marker. Within those 60 minutes of free conversation, the teacher-student barrier were broken, and honestly, if my professor wasn’t my professor we could be friends. How cool is that?! After that conversation about both my assignment and about Psychology overall, I gained a new respect and career based admiration for my professor. I’ve also been walking around with the thought, “Oh my gosh, my professor is a PERSON!” in my head for a couple of days now, so I had to post this to let you guys know.
I suppose what I want you to get out of this blog post the most is that our professors want you to succeed! They’re also not these scary, standoffish figures that the media has forced us to believe growing up, you can talk to them, about almost anything! I never expected to gain so much knowledge out of a 90 minute conversation before I walked in to his office, and I’m sure some of my peers have felt the same about going to office hours with their professors. The first step though, to discovering this out for yourself, for getting good grades and asking for help when you need it, is to go to office hours with your professors. Next to choosing Western Michigan University for my undergraduate degree, going to office hours is the best decision I’ve made as a student.
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THINGS YOU SHOULD DO WHILE VISITING OR STUDYING AT WMU
01. Meet with your professors, or the professors of a department you are interested in Majoring in.
02. Make your own mini pizza in Bistro 3 Dining Hall. My mouth is watering just thinking about it! Need food, arghhh!(You can eat there even as guest, ask the Admissions office about it during your tour or you can walk up to the door any pay with cash or credit.)
03. Go to the 3rd or 4th floor of Sangren Hall and check out the amazing view of WMU’s Campus and Kalamazoo.
04. Yell out, “Hey Broncos!” and see what people respond (because they WILL respond . . . It’s a Bronco thing.)
05. Check out the art gallery of student and/or traveling artist work inside of the Richmond Center. It’s free!
