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Get Schooled
A Guide to Office Hours

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Office hours are the things you go to when you are failing.

Anonymous, Class of 2020

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First things first: if you go to office hours, that does not mean that the admissions office made a mistake and you don’t belong here. Seriously. The above quote is wrong—we just included it because it’s funny. You will see other people at office hours, who are probably also thinking the same thing—you’re all wrong. Office hours are necessary, and you can go to them for a number of reasons:

1. You need a letter of rec.

Already tryna jump the gun and get the internship with the super early deadline? Come to office hours to show your TF that you care about what they talked about in section last week, while trying to finesse a glowing letter from them. It could work, or it couldn’t. Depends: do they even know your name?

2. Your TF is hot.

This is also an acceptable reason, we guess. Bring actual work though—otherwise it’ll be super uncomfortable when you realize there’s nothing to do while you’re there. Basking in their glow and staring at them is not an acceptable way to spend all your time. Be more subtle, jeez.

3. You actually need help.

We’ve all taken that one class where you need to get straight 100s on the p-sets in order to prevent failing the class. This can happen quite a lot, so pick a time to drop in and get your shit together real fast. Come with a list of questions that you want to ask (sitting there saying “I don’t get it” is an attitude that belongs in high school, sorry), write things down, and bring your friends so you can #grind and then leave knowing you don’t have to think about next week’s p-set until, like, next week. Pro tip: rotate the questions you all need help with among your friend group—that way, your TF can answer them all and help everyone.

4. You wanna get to know your TF/tutor/professor.

Most of the faculty have been in your shoes at some point in their academic careers. They always have life advice, and are actually cool people.

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Rheede Erasmus,  Editor in Chief
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Brammy Rajakumar, Publishing Director
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Hannah Phan, Studio 67 Managing Director
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