How do you address professors and TAs in emails?

A reader writes:

"This is my 1st semester in college. When your not sure if a professor has a PhD or not, what do you address them as on an email? Will a professor with a PhD be offended if you don't use Dr? And what about TAs, how do you address them? Whats the right thing to do?"

I'm glad to hear you are concerned with email etiquette as a first generation and low income college student. A lot of students don't think it matters, but they are wrong about that. Poor email etiquette is one of those things that professors hate.

When addressing professors in email you can use the title Professor and their last name, like Professor Doe. Even using the abbreviation Prof. is okay. Taking this route will usually not offend professors with or without or doctoral degree. Also, generally speaking, professors will let you know if they prefer Dr. or something else, like being called by their first name or whatever.

As for addressing Teaching Assistants (TAs) in emails, you can usually just use their first names without a problem. Just like professors, if TAs have preferred ways to be addressed, they will let you know.

Happy email writing!

Got questions? Please feel free to ask The Advisor about it.

Check your spam folder, too!

Hopefully, my dear first generation and low income college students, you are already in the habit of checking your campus email everyday. Well, now I'm going to suggest you take that itty bitty little daily habit one step further.... Check your spam folder too! 

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Sometimes campus stuff will get filtered to your spam folder, even important stuff. Like really important stuff. This is especially true of it's a mass message to a lot of students and your spam folder settings are strict.

Don't let something really, really important fall through the cracks even though you are checking your email everyday because you didn't bother to scope out your spam folder.

Got questions? Please feel free to ask The Advisor about it.

Check your campus email

As a first generation or low income college student there might be some unspoken campus expectations that you may not be aware of, but knowing them will be a key to your success. One of those keys is to check your campus email EVERYDAY.

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Yes, EVERYDAY. Just get into the habit of it. If you have a non-campus email address that you prefer, have your campus email forwarded to it and check that one everyday (if you don't already).

Why everyday? Because you never know when something that requires your prompt attention will show up in your inbox. You really don't!

True story time: A student was sent an email on a Friday notifying her that she was going to be dropped from all of her classes on Monday because her tuition payment had bounced. She went to her classes on Monday and Tuesday and finally checked her email on Wednesday. When she tried to take care of it all on Wednesday based on the instructions in the email, she was not able to re-register for her classes because they were now full. She was forced to change her schedule drastically, which interfered with her childcare plans and work schedule. Had she checked her email on Friday, she would have been able to keep her original schedule.

The moral of the story, is check your campus email EVERYDAY.

Got questions? Please feel free to ask The Advisor about it.