<p>During orientation and on parts of the website, they really stress getting to know your professors during their office hours, but what exactly does that mean? That is, do you just start going to their office occasionally to talk about whatever (I assume the subject of the class) and they don't get annoyed?</p>
<p>I guess I'm just extremely brainwashed by public high school, but I was under the impression that teachers don't really want to get to know a student outside of class. I just find it hard to believe (and therefore a large mental hurdle) that I'm going to walk up to a professor of a subject I have special interest in, introduce myself, and have them give a damn. Is that not the case?</p>
<p>Almost all professors have open office hours, meaning it's a couple of hours every week where you can go by their office without an appointment and ask questions and talk about the class. (A few professors don't always have open hours, for various reasons, but all have at least "by appointment" or "after class") A lot of times professors don't mind going off-topic, as long as there aren't people waiting with real questions to ask. </p>
<p>College lecture is a lot different than a HS class or an AP class. You might meet only 3 hours a week and have a huge amount of material to cover, and while most professor encourage questions during class, usually there is not any time for longer questions or discussion. That is primarily why there is office hours.</p>
<p>Most classes, office hours (and answering/asking questions in class) are your only opportunity for your professor to get to know you - even getting a high exam grade doesn't really make the professor notice you. Besides, if all you do is get high exam grades, the most a professor can ever write for you in letters of recommendation is "did well on exams"... something which is already indicated by your grade in the class.</p>
<p>It does depend a bit on the professor. Like the previous poster said, many professors restrict their hours to "by appointment" only. Professors who do this may have a genuine desire to meet students and just require advance notice because they aren't on campus all day (i.e. teach at another school, work part time, etc). </p>
<p>However, for other professors it may be a hint that they don't want to chat with students. If you do schedule an appointment, be sure to have real questions so you don't waste their time.</p>
<p>Even with regularly scheduled hours, I've had professors who simply aren't in their office or who spend most of the hours with important graduate students.</p>
<p>Actually, I've had one professor who strongly encouraged his students to come by and chat with him about anything. He even held special "Meet Ken" sessions, where he had cookies and drinks and gave away free books. :)</p>
<p>ya, chatting with them after class, office hours and things like that can not only help you academically, but might even help get you recommendations for internships, opportunities and the like.</p>