now that i'm in grad school it's way different because our professors are also our colleagues and you're meant to have a closer relationship with them for many reasons and that kind of facilitates the relationship as well! it's really neat to be honest. you'll have your advisor of course who you should be very close with! it helps to have a professor you consistently TA with if you can. my supervisor and i are literally like this 🤞🏻 because we just love working with each other so we do it as much as possible. and i genuinely cannot overstate the importance of knowing how to pirate. they will love you forever if you do this.
however! i was definitely much closer with my professors in undergrad than i am even as a grad student where that kind of relationship is expected! my situation was definitely more unique though and a result of probably the luckiest thing in the world, which is that my department was really really small and close-knit :) it was sooo great. by the time i was 19 years old my closest friends were the older undergraduates & the PhD students in my department and it was amazing! i could not have asked for a better experience. i got to know my professors through being in that kind of super tight knit community, but from there i got actually close to them from kind of being a nuisance. just bothering them every day for no reason LMFAO knocking on their doors to talk shit, asking for help with the smallest stupidest things, making them come to the movies with us, etc. definitely not everybody gets the chance to be a part of a community like that, but it is so possible to do it anyway! like you said office hours is such a big thing. always read their research and ask them about it before going LOL they love that. but also talk about your own interests! tell them about yourself! they LOVE undergrads with passion like seriously. introducing yourself at random! joining departmental clubs <- HUGE! doing honors work like a thesis or a capstone where you need an advisor or you spend a lot of time with a professor! organizing departmental events! if there's departmental jobs or positions, take those! i still go back to my undergrad university and visit the department whenever i can and my professors are still always so happy to see me, even the ones that i literally never took classes with, because i spent yearsss on end working tirelessly to keep the community strong and as close as we were and i think i really managed to make a name for myself that way. it probably does not hurt that there is literally a framed picture of me hung up in our department library LOL. i come by and people i've never met before are like oh i know you you're on the wall. anyway your professors are people and most of them are crazy autistic and all they want is to talk about their interests. use that to your advantage! go forth and destroy the image of academia!
titsay
romaincrisis
vaporwave
stormborns
