<p>Have any of you done this? Is it impolite to come up with a polite e-mail and ask if the prof could help you with an assignment? (for a class that he’s not teaching?) Or independent research?</p>
<p>I know that everything else equal, it is desirable to ask the teacher for help, but sometimes this isn’t possible. If it isn’t possible, have you ever asked a different prof for help? What if, say, you have had good relations with the prof in the past? What if, say, you’ve never talked to him? Or what if, say, you took a class from him in the past, but he barely knows you?</p>
<p>This carries some risk, of course, as professors are usually closer to other profs in their own departments than they are with students, and asking a different prof might raise questions about why the student doesn’t seem to like the prof teaching the course. But still, it sometimes seems like the only choice, and I suspect that the gamble might work well in some cases.</p>
<p>==
And what if you simply have some questions about the FIELD but don’t intend to become a major in the field or take courses in the field? What is a proper way to ask questions to professors in that field? Some professors get lots of media attention so they’re used to questions from the public audience, but other professors probably rarely get questions from non-majors/non-course-takers.</p>