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Which profs generally have the most time?

Posted: Mon Jun 21, 2010 7:47 pm
by InquilineKea
So there are emeritus professors, full professors, associate professors, assistant professors, and postdocs.

Which of them generally has the most time for explaining things to students? Some professors pretty much tell you what you should do for the next meeting, but then leave you to figure things out on your own. Other professors are willing to explain things to you if you don't understand them (some of them more impatient than others). For the record, I've only interacted with assistant profs and postdocs.

I know that variation *between* professors in an individual category is generally much higher than variation between professors of different categories, but it's still desirable to have the most pertinent information available before choosing a professor (and standing is one of those pieces of information).

Re: Which profs generally have the most time?

Posted: Wed Jun 23, 2010 3:28 pm
by monocles
Certainly emeritus professors. In case you were unaware, 'emeritus' basically means semi/mostly-retired. They aren't expected to publish anymore (though some will choose to anyways), they aren't expected to teach anymore (again, though, some may choose to), or really do anything. They generally just retain an office and can show up when they please.

There's an emeritus professor that's famous at my school for coming it for about 15-20 hours a week, drinking wine in the faculty lounge, and occasionally popping into the undergrad lounge to help random students with homework. He's a cool dude.

Re: Which profs generally have the most time?

Posted: Wed Jun 23, 2010 5:55 pm
by grae313
one little problem there... I'm pretty sure most of them don't really do research any more, let alone take on new students.

If your one priority were to spend the most time with the prof, I'd go for an assistant experimental professor on a tenure track. They'll be spending about 80 hours a week in the lab with you trying to get everything set up so they can get some research results and get tenure.

For full profs, they run the spectrum from the big names that are never there and always away at conferences, to the micro managers that want to meet with you every day.