<p>I'm a pretty shy person, especially around elders.</p>
<p>This year, I'm going to apply for a lot of scholarships because I need financial aid. However, all the scholarships require recommendation letters from professors. </p>
<p>My concern is how do I get to know my professors being I'm so shy?</p>
<p>People say that I should go to their office hours. I did that, but it feels awkward. Especially if I'm not discussing schoolwork for their class. Furthermore, it's kinda weird to just show up at a teacher's office hours.</p>
<p>Does anyone have any tips? This has been bugging me.</p>
<p>I'm sure your profs have authored papers or books which you could find with some small effort, and read. Then drop by to discuss them, especially where they relate to your interests. When you make the effort to know THEM, they'll be appreciative, and make the effort to remember YOU. Writing recs comes with the territory, so they shouldn't be offended, and by doing your research, you present yourself as well-prepared to ask for the rec.</p>
<p>Usually office hours are to get help for real problems/question you have regarding that specific class. That's what I use it for anyway. So to me that would be the first suggestion. Find something you don't know, or don't know how to do, or could use help on, etc. Go to him and ask for help. You'll naturally get to know him better that way.</p>
<p>But if you don't have any issues to resolve or questions to be answered (as far as the class goes), then perhaps just go to him to have a scholarly conversation. I've done this before and I think it worked well.</p>
<p>I read up on what we were studying at the time (Civil war time - U.S. History) and I prepared to just have a discussions about the subject. It worked. He not only was quite impressed with my new knowledge (that I read up on), but he, simply put, liked me alot more after that point. </p>
<p>That's my two cents.Read up about some of the current events in the field, issues, policies, etc. Then go to him and have a great scholarly conversation.</p>
