Talking, Hating and Going Back for More
by Dr. Anahid Kassabian
published for U-WIRE* Feb. 12, 2001

*U-Wire member papers have full permission to reprint all or part of this column. Enjoy!

• What are office hours for?
• What can your parents do if a prof is discriminating against you?
• Should I go to med school if I never was a premed?

When a teacher has office hours, are they only limited to students having class-related issues? Or do teachers mind students coming up with other problems (other classes, personal, whatever)?

Office hours should, in general, be used for professional interactions between student and teacher. In this sense, it's not limited to course questions only, although those students will probably have some priority. But office hours are also for discussing graduate school and career plans, academic advising, and matters of intellectual interest.

Generally speaking, your personal life is not the concern of your faculty. If you are having personal problems, you should discuss them with someone at the counseling center. If, however, your personal life is impinging on your ability to keep up with the classwork, it is entirely appropriate to discuss that with your instructor. Sometimes, you may end up needing to drop a class and take it again with the same professor another semester. It's better if they know why. Or you may need an extension on a deadline, and if you've chatted with them beforehand, it's less likely to seem like an excuse.

As a rough rule of thumb, you can go to someone's office hours with anything pertaining to the class, to your performance in the class, to your professional future, or to the topics of the faculty member's expertise.

My daughter has a college instructor that has been giving her a hard time. She constantly gives our daughter F's on papers that deserve at least a B or C. The instructor was fired from a local high school because of the way she treated students. We went to a counselor and my daughter's head instructor about all these problems; they agree that she is being treated unfairly and that something needs to be done. I'm afraid if we wait any longer, she will lose her scholarships. What can we do as parents?

Unfortunately, I think you're pretty dependent on the head instructor. If s/he will stand up for your daughter, then call a meeting with the instructor, head instructor, parents and student, and request that the instructor go over work with you all present to clarify her standards. Make her put them in writing.

If she still gets an F, ask the head instructor to write to the scholarship agencies. And meet with the head instructor privately to request a change of teachers in the strongest terms. If the head instructor genuinely believes your daughter is being treated unfairly, I'm sure s/he'll feel obliged to help you figure out a way through this problem.

I just received my undergrad degree this past May. I was a business major while in college, but I've always wanted to pursue medicine. I'm working now, but I've thought about going back to school and taking the required science courses for med school. I found a post-baccalaureate program at the university I attended for undergrad, but it's a year-long, full-time program. I will have to either quit my job and find a part-time job that pays a fairly decent wage or not pursue my dream of becoming a doctor. Which option is wiser?

I feel really strongly that you should do what you're drawn to. Don't set yourself up to look back with regret.

What's the worst that happens if you go back? Some debt, a little financial hardship, maybe a year or two off a direct career path. But what happens if you don't? For the next 40+ years you'll wonder if you wouldn't have been happier as a doc. All the things you have to worry about if you go back to school are temporary - like being broke. But dissatisfaction is potentially permanent.

Talk to the HR folks at your company. Maybe they'll pay for you to take a single course while you're deciding and setting up your finances. Talk to your bank, a financial advisor or the financial aid people at your former school to try to figure out the financial side of things.

And when you are ready to leave your current job, make sure you leave on the very best of terms, in case you find out you like what you're doing now better than practicing medicine.

I hope you go for it! Let me know.

Dr. Anahid Kassabian is a professor of communication and media studies at Fordham University in New York.

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