Want to Do Well in College? Go to Office Hours.
If you attend college in the US, your professors are likely required to hold office hours. Office hours are pretty much what they sound like: a time when professors are available in their offices to talk with students. They typically happen at the same time every week and are listed in the syllabus. They tend to be pretty unstructured, so it can be helpful to know some of the things that professors and students use them for and why you should consider braving the initial awkwardness to just go.
Why You Should Go to Office Hours
Let’s start with what’s in it for you.
Going to office hours is a great way to help your professors get to know you. You might benefit from this in several ways:
Most importantly, you may want to apply for opportunities for which you will need to list a professor as a reference or have a professor write you a letter of recommendation. It is not fun to be in a position where you need a letter but aren’t sure any of your professors know who you are. If you go to office hours, they’re more likely to remember you, especially if you talk about the specific things that you’re interested in doing with your life that their class might help you with. If you want to go to graduate school, you should definitely go to office hours with professors in your academic discipline. But it’s worth going even in your gen ed courses, too. I teach a lot of writing courses for freshmen and sophomores, and I often get asked to be a reference for opportunities that pop up early in their college careers.
If you’ve made a decent impression, your professor might be more likely to give you the benefit of the doubt if you need to ask for extra help (like for an extension on an assignment). Going to office hours demonstrates effort, and it doesn’t hurt to look like you’re trying. And professors like having students come to office hours (so long as they aren’t coming to argue about their grades–see below).
They might be able to give you more tailored help on your work for the class, which might help you learn more and boost your grade. The students who see me during office hours early in the semester often get a jumpstart on their writing because we can identify problems specific to their projects and can work together toward finding good solutions.
Going to office hours can also help you get up to speed more quickly if you’ve missed some classes or assignments. I have found that when students fall behind in a class, they sometimes try to fade into the background rather than asking for help. But your professors have probably already noticed that you’re missing work, or if we haven’t yet, we will when grades come due. You will probably save yourself some headaches if you can push through the initial embarrassment, own up to the fact that you are behind, and ask for help to get caught up. And you know what? Your professors have probably also fallen behind on things on occasion. We might be sympathetic.
Advice for Making Office Hours Work for You
Now that you’ve been convinced to go to office hours, here are some tips for getting the most out of it.
First, look up what each professor says about office hours. Some have online sign-ups. Some are fine with drop-ins. Some might have specific things that they encourage you to talk about during office hours and others that they discourage. Look up what the syllabus or course website says, and act accordingly.
Once you’re in your prof’s office, start with questions about big picture things and work your way down to lower order ones. You can always hash out questions about punctuation or scheduling over email, but it’s harder to have an email conversation about whether your research topic is appropriate for a class assignment. When you go to office hours, prioritize the research topic question, or whatever the big-picture equivalent is for the class in question.
Office hours aren’t necessarily just to talk about coursework. Your professors likely know people in the community or at the university who might be good connections for you, or they might know about resources or opportunities on campus that you might benefit from. You might let your professor know if you’re looking for specific types of opportunities, even if it seems unlikely that they’d help. You never know.
If you are sick, it’s nice to offer to do a video call during office hours. I appreciate when students who are ill reach out to catch up, and I appreciate it even more when they ask about meeting over video. It’s so easy to do, and it’s nice to minimize viral exposure.
Never go to office hours just to argue about a grade. You might be frustrated about a grade, and that is totally fine. But if you go with the sole purpose of arguing to get points back and the professor hasn’t specifically invited you to, you likely will not make a great impression, and it may backfire. If you really are concerned about a grade and want to go to office hours to talk about it, here is what I recommend:
Give yourself time to cool down. Though it may feel urgent to fix your grade immediately, it very rarely is. Give yourself a few hours or a day before having a conversation about a grade you’re unhappy with.
Go in fully informed. Make sure that you have read the entire assignment prompt, any rubrics or other assessment criteria, and any feedback that you’ve been given on the assignment. You will be inclined to read with the eye toward making the best case for yourself, which is a good exercise, but I’d also encourage you to think through the worst case. If you come into the meeting being able to say, “I see how I missed the mark on this, this, and this,” that will go a long way toward establishing your credibility as a reasonable human who owns their mistakes, especially if you are asking for a grade to be reconsidered in some other specific regard.
Go in genuinely wanting to learn two things: 1) what content or skills are being assessed that you need to work on (and how to work on them, if you aren’t sure), and 2) how the professor is evaluating the content or skills so you can better meet their expectations. Prioritize 1). I have yet to meet a college professor who likes grading, and most of the ones I know spend a lot of time on it and don’t love having to spend additional time adjudicating grades with hostile students. Most of us have been doing this long enough that we cannot be bullied into raising your grade. What we do care about is students learning what we’re teaching. If you can show that you care about learning the content for the class and not just getting an A, most professors will find it easier to work with you.
Finally, for whatever reason you decide to go to office hours, do be mindful of the time. You should totally go to office hours, but also know that you are one of dozens if not hundreds of students who might also be waiting in the hall or hoping for a quick response to an email. Keep things friendly, but also focused and professional.
Professors, what else do students need to know about office hours? And students, what other questions do you have? I’d love to hear from you!
