1. The Drill Sergeant
This professor is a Starbucks-chugging, 5:30-a.m.-jogging, teaching machine. If you've ever had the misfortune of taking an 8 a.m. class, you may have met this professor. This professor takes no sass, and will embarrass you if you fall asleep in their class. Don't even think about arriving late, because the door will be closed and locked.
2. The Pushover
This professor makes you wonder if you ever left high school. Every class, they've got some new candy or snack to pass around. You'll get the same cheery greeting if you show up on time or 45 minutes late. Missed the midterm or final? No problem! Just make it up during office hours. Cherish these professors, because they are few and far between.
3. The Ghost
This professor might not exist. Seriously, you can't actually remember the last time you had their class because they keep canceling through email. Except they wait until ten minutes deep into the scheduled class time to cancel, so you end up sitting in their classroom like a doofus, when you could still be in bed. Office hours? Yeah right.
4. The One Who Tries Too Hard to Be Cool
In walks this professor, spouting off the dankest of Internet memes and peppering their Powerpoints with references that you can tell they don't fully understand. You'll have to put up with them writing notes on your papers like, "This essay is on fleek!" And the overuse of the word jawn. Every class is an exercise in cringe, but at least they're trying, right?
5. The Genuinely Cool One
This professor is the one that sticks with you: the one that you will actually visit after you graduate. This professor doesn't know how to speak anything other than the truth, and you will find yourself looking forward to their class every week. This is the professor that you will actually leave a good rating for on Rate My Professor.
6. The One Who Loves Animals
This professor only exists in lecture hall classes, where their Maltese has enough space to bound around and jump on people's laps. It's all fun and games until you get the professor that has an extensive boa constrictor collection.
7. The Motor-Mouth
On the first class, this professor emphasized how important it was to take notes. And then this professor sped through their lecture like a southern auctioneer. You've taken to writing in shorthand, which might work if you can actually decipher your notes the next day. You swear that every time they ask, "Does anyone have any questions?" they purposely ignore your raised hand.
8. The Graduate Student
This professor usually has frazzled hair, a glazed-over look in his eyes, and poor posture. You're not sure if he's really all there at any given moment. He usually is able to get through his lecture, but you're not sure if you really learned anything. You kind of start to feel bad for them, until they grade you surprisingly harshly on your midterm, and any sympathy you had is now gone.
9. The Technologically Illiterate One
Don't bother trying to contact this professor through email; you'll get nothing back, or an entirely unhelpful response from their equally clueless assistant professor. The only way to reach this professor is in person, after class. Don't even bother with office hours. This professor's mailbox is filled to the brim with papers from three semesters ago.
10. The Temple U Fanatic
This professor won't hesitate to remind you of his rough upbringing in North Philadelphia, how he attended Temple as an undergrad, and how different things were back then. You won't be able to get away with much with these professors, because their status as a native Philadelphian means their bullcrap meter is finely tuned. The best thing about this professor is that you will often spend the first fifteen minutes of class talking about how the basketball team did the night before.
