New Student Reality Check
Your CSUF experience will be unlike your high school or community college experience in more ways than you may realize. This is especially true in the classroom, where university-level study requires a higher level of thinking and response. Here’s some examples of how the expectations of university professors may differ from what you’ve been accustomed to:
The Realities of High School and Community College
Typically, the teacher offers no syllabus, or a syllabus with little detail. There will be constant explanation and reminders of what will happen in the class, when, and why. Teachers remind you of assignment due dates, check your completed homework, and remind you of work still due. Teachers are available for conversation before, during, or after class. Teachers have been trained in teaching methods that allow them to best impart knowledge to students. Teachers impart knowledge and facts. They lead you through the learning process. Teachers will lecture in ways that parallel the textbook and help you understand its contents. Teachers will write information on the board, and provide notes if you’re absent. Teachers remind you almost daily about class expectations. Teachers monitor class attendance. If you’ve been absent, they’ll inquire and try to help you catch up. Teachers often allow you to address them by their first name. |
The Realities of the University
Professors expect you to read and follow the course syllabus and calendar. They will hold you accountable to policies that they may never mention in class, and for assignment due dates and other items noted in the calendar but (perhaps) never mentioned aloud in class. Many professors won’t check your homework, but they will expect you to correctly replicate the same knowledge from the homework on exams. University professors will consider you to be a responsible adult. As such, they do not feel it’s their job to remind you of incomplete work or due dates for assignments. Professors maintain office hours. You must come to them and ask questions on their time schedule, not yours. Some professors may not allow questions during a lecture class. If you send a professor an e-mail that’s incomplete, filled with copy errors or just plain rude – the professor may likely be offended and may not respond to you at all. Never expect to call a professor by his/ her first name. If the professor has a doctorate, address the professor as Dr. ___. Most university professors were trained as subject field experts and scholars – not as teachers. Most professors do not provide class notes. You will have to get them from another student, or go without. Professors often do not follow the textbook. They may not remind you to read it. Typically, they expect you to relate the book’s contents to the class content. It’s your job – not the professor’s – to explain and defend why the concepts in the book are relevant. University professors won’t tell you everything you need to know about the subjects in their class. Professors expect you to do the inquiry and find out what you need to know. Professors impart information. They expect you to make the connections – and to synthesize seemingly unrelated topics. Professors may lecture non-stop – and then expect you to identify the important parts in the lecture. When professors write on the board, it may be to amplify the lecture and not to summarize it. Professors hate to hear students ask, “Will this be on the test?” Assume anything the professor says and anything contained in the textbook could end up on the test. Every professor has a different attendance policy. The university is a learning environment where you are responsible for thinking through and applying what you learn. Professors should not be expected to provide individual assistance to you in this process (though most do so happily). |
