When do I come to office hours? What are office hours?
Come visit me early and often!
Your professors are teaching at Williams because they (we) like students. We enjoy teaching and we enjoy getting to know you!
Office hours are the chunks of time that I've set aside to spend with students, so for class-related questions, I encourage you to try to make those time slots -- but if you have more private questions or, e.g., have other classes during those slots, you can also email me to ask about an appointment
You don't need to ask in advance about coming to office hours. Just show up and come on in (even if other students are already here)!
I'm happy to chat about pretty much anything:
Lecture content
Homework
Possible career paths in statistics and data science, and how you'd get there from here
General getting-to-know-you questions
Everyone seems to be working all the time. Do I have to do that?
No! You should sleep sometimes. Really. And go outside. Being a healthy human is a higher priority than cramming everything possible into each 24 hours -- and it will even help you learn better.
Imposter Syndrome: What if everyone finds out I'm not as [smart, organized, funny, competent, ...] as they think I am? Do I really belong here?
If your brain says things like this to you, that's imposter syndrome talking, and it's not telling you the truth about yourself. It can be extremely anxiety-producing! You belong here, and you can succeed here.
Believe it or not, many of your peers and many of your professors have experienced this -- and many still are. (I remember being shocked when one of my brilliant, confident graduate school professors told us that she had struggled with imposter syndrome. I was secretly relieved: if she feels it, too, then maybe it's not so bad that I feel that way.)
I'm happy to talk and/or to help you find support resources if you're finding the battle with imposter syndrome, depression, anxiety, or other visible or invisible challenges to be a difficult one.
How do I write a good email to a professor?
The greeting: There should be one!
If you've received an email from this professor, follow whatever they use in their signature (e.g., Prof. Plantinga vs. Anna)
If you haven't, default to "Dear Professor X" or "Dear Dr. X".
Use professional, not personal, titles. "Professor" or "Dr" is relevant in the academic setting; marital status (e.g., "Ms" or "Mrs") is not.
"Dear" comes across as more formal than "Hello" or "Hi". (I don't recommend "Hey" in formal emails.)
It's always better to err on the side of being formal in your first message -- the recipient can cue you to relax formalities by using a less formal style in their reply. (E.g., if they use "Hi", you may, too!)
The content:
Make sure you give the context they need to answer your question.
E.g., "I was working on problem 2 on this week's Stat 201 homework. I tried X, but saw the error Z. Google told me to try Y to fix that error, but unfortunately that gave me a new error W. I'm not sure how to debug this error. Do you have any advice?"
E.g., "I'm a sophomore interested in majoring in statistics, and I'd like to talk with you about your research because XYZ."
Use complete sentences and punctuation.
The closing:
There should be one! It doesn't have to be long or fancy.
E.g., "Best regards, YourName"