<p>If you need to schedule an appointment to see a professor (they don't have set OH), is it rude to email them asking for an appointment and including times you are available rather than just asking when S/HE is available?</p>
<p>I guess the rationale behind this question is because YOU are the one who needs to meet with the professor in the end it's only important when the professor is available and you have to adjust around his or her schedule. The reason I ask is because I sent an email to a professor saying I would like to meet with them and these are times when I'm not in class and said please let me know if you are available at any of these times. She basically wrote back her free time schedule (some of the times intersected the times I posted). I thought she would just look at my schedule and just choose a time from there since some of her times intersected mine. I hope I wasn't rude and came off like my schedule was the only one that mattered...</p>
<p>I normally make my appointments by email at their request, but I usually just suggest one time I am open. If that doesn’t work for them they suggest a time in their response and if at all possible I make that one. If at that point we still don’t have a meeting then I might say, “I am in class at all times except x, y, and z” and we work it out from there. I would feel weird just giving them my schedule and expecting them to work it out, that seems rude. But I doubt your professor took it that seriously.</p>
<p>I have had a few professors who did office hours by appointment only and all of them said something along the lines of, “Send me an email with the times you are available that week and I will get back to you.” Being upfront about the times you are available seems to be generally accepted and also polite because it cuts down on the overall amount of communication necessary. Professors have enough emails to answer already.</p>
<p>Your professor might choose to do things differently, but I think you acted appropriately.</p>
<p>If she said “My office hours are MWF 2-4 and T/Th 9-11” then the message is that you can stop by during any of those times that you are free. An appropriate response would be “Great! I’ll come by Wednesday around 3:30 if that’s convenient.”</p>
<p>You are fine… you listed all the time you are free. She listed all the time she is free and left it up to you to choose the time that works best in your schedule.</p>
<p>Your professor isn’t going to pick an appointment time for you. She was just letting you know when she is available so you could pick a time. My professors do that too.</p>