<p>I saw one of my professors I had this semester on Facebook a couple of weeks ago. I was wondering if its inappropriate to ask her to be my friend. I saw some older (mostly sophomore, juniors and seniors) students on her "friends list" but I don't see anyone in my class who is on there. </p>
<p>It is too unprofessional to ask to be her friend on Facebook?</p>
<p>I am officially done with her class and the deadline for submitting all grades is today.</p>
<p>I would wait for at least a year or so. It sounds like a long time, but it will separate you and her sufficiently so that it’s no longer unprofessional.</p>
<p>She might be the kind of professor who accepts Facebook requests from past students she will not teach again. If there’s a chance you’ll be taking a class with her again, then I wouldn’t add her.</p>
<p>If not, and you really want to be Facebook friends with her, then you should definitely wait till grades are submitted. And if I were you, I’d wait a sufficiently long time so that it doesn’t look like you might try weaseling a grade change out of her (a couple of weeks at the least, but I don’t know if a year would be necessary).</p>
<p>In any case, is it that important to you to be friends with your former professor on Facebook? Do you really want her to have access to your status updates, Facebook pictures, and what other people write on your wall? I suppose you can change your privacy settings, but it sounds like more trouble than it’s worth.</p>
<p>Demeter,</p>
<p>I did not mention this in my post but I have a special relationship with this professor. </p>
<p>I have visited her office many times to talk about class and other “issues” in my life. She is more like a mentor to me (although, I did not tell her that I feel this way about her). She was one of the first people I came “out” to and she has given me a lot of resources about LGBT issues and she introduced me to one of her previous students who is also gay. I have talked with her personally and we have a fairly “good” relationship - she is definitely more than just a professor.</p>
<p>I also don’t mind her looking at my comments and status because I keep it clean. I don’t have racy pictures of me and I have never been tagged in an inappropriate video. Anything that is mentioned on my Facebook status, I have already told her in real life. </p>
<p>I know for a fact, that she will not teach anymore of my classes. She doesn’t teach anymore besides the ones I have already taken - I already asked her.</p>
<p>Just do it.</p>
<p>I think since you have a very good relationship with her and your facebook profile isn’t racy, you should friend her. </p>
<p>I’m facebook friends with a dean here at my school. She allows students to friend her, and she has been very helpful with answering my little academic questions 
So I don’t think it is weird.</p>
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<p>Whaaaat. Who cares, just friend her if you like, and if you don’t think she is uptight :)</p>
<p>Sounds like you already know her well, and honestly people friend professors they don’t know half as well. No big deal usually.</p>
<p>One of my professors is my FB friend, and I know a lot of students that are friends with a few of their profs. I should probably point out that in music school, your professors are often as close as friends or family since you see them so often, so that’s why I don’t think it’s too weird. The professor that I’m friends with is a judge on my final performance exams every semester, but I’ve already taken both of his classes so I don’t feel too awkward about it. Just do what you’re comfortable with, and remember that this teacher can see every one of your statuses and pictures so if you don’t want to censor yourself than you should think twice about adding her.</p>
<p>Is your relationship such that you don’t mind her seeing pictures of how funny you were when you got drunk at that one party?</p>
<p>The answer will tell you whether or not she should be your facebook friend.</p>
<p>if your professor really is a friend why not, but if your professor really is not then you should not add them here is a related article [When</a> Your Professor Is Your Facebook Friend | Collegespirit: Best Scholarship Search On the Web](<a href=“http://www.collegespirit.me/when-your-professor-is-your-facebook-friend/]When”>http://www.collegespirit.me/when-your-professor-is-your-facebook-friend/)</p>
<p>Don’t do it. As a parent, I never really understood the motivation or benefit. You not only have to be responsible for what you post…but by proxy for everything every one of your “friends” posts, as I strongly believe, even on FB, you are the company you keep.</p>
<p>JoBenny, the motivation is you see the person as a friend or mentor, and the motivation is it’s someone you’d like to stay in contact with now after you’ve finished your classes with them.</p>
<p>And, honestly, guilty by association is possibly one of the least fair things I can think of on facebook. Should I unfriend my grandmother because occasionally she might post something politically controversial? To think you shouldn’t be friends with someone because they might not share the same opinion on you on everything, or, god forbid, someone else on the internet takes offense to something they do, seems ridiculous.</p>
<p>(This is all from someone that only uses social networking for discussions within my professional societies on LinkedIn.)</p>