Are Earth Science professors nicer than professors in most other departments?

[InquilineKea]

See http://www.quora.com...in-other-fields for a very good analysis

I'm also tending to agree with him. For one thing, earth science professors don't have to deal with hordes of undergrads who take their courses just to fulfill requirements (this often means that they have more emails/office visits from students who most likely don't care about their subject and who don't really want to hear about their research ever again) - something that math, physics, chemistry, and biology professors have to regularly deal with.

I mean, in most departments, it's quite *rare* for a professor to *want* me just after talking to them. In the atmospheric/earth sciences, it's actually VERY common.

For another thing, it's not a field that tends to attract those who chase prestige or money (or who want to prove that they're smarter than everyone else). Sure, some might be into the oil companies, but my experience is that earth scientists tend to be environmentalists.

And as a last point - it's an area where *all* types of skills are valued. Analytical skills are highly valued, as are fieldwork skills (and one does not necessarily have to be exceptional in all of them). It's not like math, where you're "useless" if you're not analytically capable enough.

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I'm sure that a lot of the above things are true for astronomy, but less so. I've heard horror stories about some astronomy departments (particularly from twofish_quant over at Physics Forums), and how there's an "elite club" of Harvard/Princeton people in astronomy. And the Chicago astronomy department had famously denied tenure to Sean Carroll, in large part because of his blog.

Edited August 11, 2011 by InquilineKea

[Kitkat]

I would have to agree with several things in that comment that you liked to. Considering that plate tectonics was a a major thing in the field in general, and is now one of the most basic point that geo undergrads have to learn and was discovered scientifically recently, there is a lot more room for people sharing. And there are so few people comparatively going into this field. The people in my department are very friendly and everyone seems to know everyone else for the most part.

From what I hear, beer/other alcohol is always helpful on field work as well .....