<p>Shoboemom,</p>
<p>I am a professor, I have had the opportunity to teach at many schools (as a visiting lecturer, and early on, as an academic vagabond, and lastly as a tenured faculty member). I have recently moved out of academia and into a more competitive private arena, but I still keep close ties (and teach occasional courses at) to the University. </p>
<p>No professor, certainly no professor you’d ever want teaching you or your child (for an average cost of 2000 bucks a course, I might add), minds getting emails from prospective students (graduate and would-be graduate students still email me all the time) and anyone can walk into almost any class on any campus (it is NOT like a hyper-secure suburban high school where there are no random adults). I have had a prospective student knock on a classroom door and ask to come and sit in on a class (unannounced), and it’s never been a problem. </p>
<p>College employees from Professors to RDs to departmental secretaries live benighted professional lives and they do so on the unrestrained largess and commitment of students and their families. You have every right, in fact, an obligation to “bother” the professors and anyone else at a prospective college or university. In fact, if you get the sense that your earnest inquiries are bothersome, well, that should tell you a great deal about the college and it’s commitment to students and the general zeitgeist of the culture there.</p>
<p>At any rate, my experience has been that going the extra mile to show real, thoughtful and mature interest in a school (such as making time to actually experience a class and contacting potential professionals in departments you hope to join) has done nothing but aid college applicants. It’s good for the college, too.</p>