Why won't professors respond to my e-mails?

warbrain
Wed, 24 Nov 2010 17:01:58 +0000

Thanks for the advice everyone. I just have a few questions though - is it fine to go without an appointment to a professor’s office hours for a class I’m not a part of? I feel like I’d be wasting other people’s time who would need it more than I do, so that’s why I’ve been e-mailing instead of just showing up. And I can’t really make an appointment with anyone without somehow contacting them.

Also, how do I show interest in professors research when talking to them? I can see how my e-mails could seem kind of generic, but I am only e-mailing those whose research I think is interesting and approachable for me, but I’m not really sure what to say besides “I’m e-mailing you specifically because you do research in x field,” which still doesn’t seem very genuine and like it could be sent to a whole bunch of people (just change whatever the x is).

Sorry about all the questions. I guess it’s just hard to see literally everyone else start doing something in high school and I’m a college sophomore and I still haven’t done anything yet. I feel like I’m really behind and like I might as well give up on doing math now.