Everyone knows the end of the semester is stressful. Everything is due at once and you feel like you have no time to do anything at all; not even breathe. The days seem to get shorter and the need for sleep and eat seem to be inconveniences when you are literally just five pages away from finishing that one paper you’ve been putting off for a couple weeks.
A lot of times it is because of time management. Maybe even because you lost the assignment paper (not that much of an excuse anymore since everyone is going electronic).
But there is one thing that no matter how many hours you spend hidden away from the rest of the world you cannot work on and fix:
The Professor.
Now not every professor is terrible or bad, and just because they are not great at teaching does not make them a bad person. But they are out there, and truth be told, you have one in your head right now.
I was lucky enough this semester not to have one, but I have had them before. My friends, they did not luck out as well as I did, and my days have been spent listening to endless rants about how they never got an assignment or the assignment they did get was so vague that no one knew what to do anyway.
For some, it seemed to get better the more they contacted and talked to the professor; others did not have that much luck. One was even told that if she continued to email the professor they would deduct points for being “pestering and abusive”.
I promise I am not writing this to bash on professors, especially since a lot of the ones I have met during my academic career are some of the greatest people I have ever met in my life. I am writing this more to just give everyone peace of mind that they are not the only ones dealing with it.
Below I have attached some funny (or not so funny) pieces of information I have heard from my friends (students from my school and others) about their “bad professors” (I used no gender specific pronouns):
“I received an email about work that was due that night. Less than eight hours before it was due. When I went to submit it, the section was closed because they put the due date as two weeks prior. They then proceeded to say next class that the email had been sent weeks before and they were just reminding us to do it. Like what?”
“I have one professor who never stops talking about their daughter. And then when you finally think they are done talking about their daughter, they start talking about their granddaughter. All the time. I think we’ve discussed their kids accomplishments more than we’ve talked about Malala.”
“My professor once asked us to go on Rate My Professor and write about them. I went on and the first comment was about them once condoning Hitler’s actions. Needless to say I avoided any future classes with that professor.”
(This one is my favorite)
“My professor (at a big school) came in late to our seminar one day. They started spouting off random tangents about their life, and then at the last minute, burst into tears and sobbing about how their fiance called off the wedding. By then, people were sneaking out, but I was stuck in the front with a bunch of random people. They cried for a full 20 minutes and then finally announced that the test for that week was canceled. I don’t know what they are doing now but I hope they are okay.”
