<p>I'm going to be a freshman in the fall and I'm applying for some scholarships and such that require at least two letters of recommendation from a faculty at my college.</p>
<p>My classes are going to be about 500 in size, so obviously this makes it difficult to stand out among my peers. </p>
<p>How do I connect with professors who have phD's and such when I am just a lowly unexperienced college freshman? How do I talk to them without making my brown nosing too obvious? </p>
<p>Aside from doing well academically in the class, what are some ways that I can get my professor to notice and remember me?</p>
<p>If you join some clubs and really get involved you will have a chance to develop personal relationships with the faculty advisors, and have a lot of fun in the process.</p>
<p>Yeah, don’t randomly bring up family. That’s just creepy.</p>
<p>The best way, in my opinion, is to strike up conversation about a common interest. Demonstrate more knowledge than is expected of a lowly freshman. Professors love to blab about their favorite subjects. Well, the social ones anyways.</p>
<p>Ask smart questions during office hours. They notice, especially if you’re a regular. Also, if you have genuine interest in the subject, you can ask them for reading suggestions and extra material on more advanced topics in that area. But if this is a large intro level class, then I’d say office hours are your best shot of making an impression. But don’t be the kid who monopolizes the professor’s time and attention for inane chitchat when there are other people waiting to ask questions. You can also ask about the professor’s own research.</p>
<p>dude, why are you putting yourself down like that… “just a lowly unexperienced college freshman”… if you’re gonna put yourself down and be all nervous, there’s no point</p>
<p>you don’t have to feign interest… just ask stuff during office hours. i’ve gone to office hours a couple times before to ask a couple questions i was 90% sure on and just turn in my hw early… although i guess the prof felt the need to give me in depth answers as if i didn’t know where to begin, but that’s fine. also, get 100% on exams and you will get noticed. that’s happened to me a few times even in classes where I never talked to the professors… they still knew me</p>
<p>Oh and don’t be cocky or overly confident. A lot of professors or older people in general love modest/humble people. If you go into his/her office during office hours thinking your the “crap” then expect to be treated like such.</p>
<p>it’s never a bad option to ask about a professor’s current research or work. in my experience they’ll be quite enthusiastic to have a conversation about it, and you might learn something pretty cool. this goes for all majors too.</p>
<p>hamburgler2, the majority of your classmates in your 500 people class will not show up to office hours for professors so professor office hours are ideal for getting to know a professor. Office hours will be crowded the first two weeks of school or so and right before midterms and finals. If you attend office hours fairly consistently and even show up for office hours just after a midterm (you will most likely be the only person there), the professor will have a pretty good memory of you. I always find asking a professor about their research really gets them to open up to you. You may have no idea what their talking about but it really gets them to excited to find someone interested in what they do. Ask a few questions about their research, and from there, you can get to know them better. </p>
<p>Also, since you’re going to Berkeley, Berkeley has this wonderful freshman/sophomore seminar program ([Freshman</a> & Sophomore Seminars at UC Berkeley](<a href=“http://fss.berkeley.edu/]Freshman”>http://fss.berkeley.edu/)). They typically great ways to meet professors especially since most of these seminars are capped at around 17 people and culminate in a dinner party at the professor’s house. There is a catch though since school policy says that you need to do graded work for the professor before he/she can write you a recommendation letter so you have to find one that you can take for a letter grade or that you turn in work for. These are also a wonderful GPA booster since they are exploratory courses that are meant to be more fun than stressful.</p>