How do you address your professors?

[kosmo]

Hi all,

I'll be starting my Phd program in about two weeks. I realize I sound a bit silly asking this, but I'm wondering what the normal etiquette is in the US when it comes to addressing profs, especially those whom you're meeting for the first time. I come from a non-English speaking country where addressing our profs by their first name is a major faux pas, but I've heard from some people that it's different in the US especially when you're a grad student. Just wondering how I should approach this. 

Many thanks for any input!  

[TakeruK]

There is no single answer that fits all situations because really, it will depend on each professor's preference and your interaction/relationship/familiarity with each professor. 

I can say though, that in most North American schools in my field, the norm is for students (undergraduate and graduate) to refer to professors by their first name. Sometimes, a professor will ask their undergraduate students in the classes they teach to refer to them by "Prof. Smith". It is extremely rare, in my field, for anyone who is doing research work with a professor (whether it's an undergrad student, graduate student, or research scientist) to call the professor by anything other than first name.

However, when you're meeting professors for the first time, it is hard to know what they would want. It's always better to err on the side of caution and formality. Some strategies you can employ are:

1. Address them as Prof. X and see what they say. They might tell you to call them by first name instead, but even if they don't this doesn't mean that they insist on a Prof X address.

2. Even if you know who they are already, when you meet them for the first time, introduce yourself as "Firstname Lastname" (or whatever you preferred to be called) and listen to how they introduce themselves. 

3. If you are in email contact, see how they sign their emails. If it is Prof. X then it's a strong sign that you should stick with formality. However, if it's their first initial or their first name, it is an indication that first name is okay, but not really a certain thing either.

Overall, I don't believe there is one clear method where if they use a certain form of address in one way that it means you should use that form of address. Instead, you will have to just interact with them and judge/gauge it from how they communicate with you (verbally and non-verbally). You should be able to get a sense of what they like from getting to know them. This is tougher when you are from a country where the etiquette is different, but you can also ask American students in your department for help on what each professor prefers.

[rising_star]

My default, even in grad school, was to call professors "Dr. LastName" until told otherwise.

[fuzzylogician]

I guess this may be field specific, but everyone in my field goes by their first name, including Noam. 

(Referring to graduate students, postdocs, and other faculty. Things may be different with undergrads)

[dr. t]

I usually start e-mails and the like with "Professor," . It works ok in conversation, too. The exception is, as r_s mentioned, when they tell you explicitly that they would like you to call them by their first name.

[rising_star]

I should've added that everyone in my field that I know of goes by their first name. However, I prefer to err on the side of caution when first meeting someone and not assume that they want me to call them by their first name. I get really irked when students who don't know me call me by my first name, especially since I don't let undergrads call me by my first name.

[Dr. Old Bill]

I typically start with "Professor X" until I'm either told or get the gist otherwise.

Funnily enough, in the Writing Center I work at, I call the director by her first name (by her request, early on), but I hear others call her by "Dr. X" all the time. What amuses me about that is that they don't call one of the assistant directors "Dr." even though he too has a Ph.D.

Ultimately, I suspect it doesn't really matter to most professors, but it's best to err on the side of caution and start with "Professor" and see where it goes from there. Remember that while most professors will have a Ph.D. in hand, that's not always the case, so "Professor" is the safest bet.

[kyjin]

I always go with Professor Last Name until told otherwise, though when talking to other grad students, I have a tendency to call profs by either just their first or last name. A few of my profs have explicitly told me to call them by their first names (usually if I'm TAing for them), but I would never dream of calling my advisor by her first name. When I successfully defended my MA thesis, my advisor at the time told me then I could call him by his first name, since I was no longer his student but a future colleague. 

[avflinsch]

Dr. LastName unless specified otherwise, I have had few that preferred Prof FirstName or just FirstName. It really depends on the individual.

[shadowclaw]

I've always gone with Professor X or Dr. X if I know they have a PhD. Even if they introduce themselves by their first names or sign emails that way. As an undergrad, I went to a very snooty school for two years and professors tended to demand the Dr. title over Professor, and one tossed a kid out of class because he called her Mrs. by mistake. So it kind of stuck with me to be very formal. However, I know that my graduate advisor and committee members would be cool with me referring to them by first name (and indeed that's how they introduced themselves and sign emails). I know other students do. I would always stick with being formal until told otherwise, though, because you really don't know what type of person someone is until you start interacting with them.

[PoliticalOrder]

I don't like the whole Dr. thing, but I always call them Prof. X until told otherwise. 

[serenade]

Is there a difference in formality between "Dr Last name" and "Professor Last name"? 

[TheMonkeyOnMyBack]

I am currently studying in two different fields (education and law) in my education classes it is either a first name per instructor request or Dr./ Professor Last name, in law school it is ALWAYS Professor last name. The big difference seems to be level of education/ experience level a least in my experience. The older the instructor the more likely it is that they prefer the more traditional professor, I think that this stems from a time where not all instructors were expected to have doctorates and so Dr. would have been inappropriate. The younger the instructor the more likely they are to go by a first name. 

[talkcherty2me]

Is there a difference in formality between "Dr Last name" and "Professor Last name"? 

I was once told "Professor" is a "doctor with a job." (Not sure if this is true at all institutions... But for my undergrad that made sense since even temporary lecturers had PhDs)

[TakeruK]

In North America, "Dr" and "Prof" are different titles because Dr is someone with a PhD while Professor is not a protected title and can be given to any position. For example, in some Canadian colleges (equivalent of US community college), most instructors have Masters degrees but the title is still "Professor". That is, "Dr" is a degree qualification while "Prof" is a job title.

But I also know in other places, the title "Doctor" is very revered and you only get that when you are something like a tenured professor or like the department head. No one addresses a new PhD by "Doctor" there. The person that told me this was a professor from Europe.

So, like I said above, it's very contextual and it's probably best to figure out what each person wants and err on the side of caution/formality if not sure.

Finally, I just want to point out that when female professors request that their students do not use "Mrs" or "Ms", it's not always a sign of "snootiness" or "formality". Addressing a woman who has earned her doctorate degree as "Mrs/Ms" is insulting and it is (un)consciously implying/assuming that she is not qualified. In my opinion, assuming a "Mrs/Ms" title is even worse than an accidental first name address when the person prefers Prof/Dr.

Edited August 21, 2015 by TakeruK

[shadowclaw]

Finally, I just want to point out that when female professors request that their students do not use "Mrs" or "Ms", it's not always a sign of "snootiness" or "formality". Addressing a woman who has earned her doctorate degree as "Mrs/Ms" is insulting and it is (un)consciously implying/assuming that she is not qualified. In my opinion, assuming a "Mrs/Ms" title is even worse than an accidental first name address when the person prefers Prof/Dr.

I agree that it is very rude to refer to someone as Mr, Mrs, or Ms when they have a PhD. However, in the situation I briefly described, it was a slip of the tongue by a freshman during the second week of class. It was quite a harsh punishment, considering most students have referred to the adults teaching them for the past 13 years as Mr or Mrs. There was also no discussion of how to address the professor, other than at the beginning of the course, she said, "Hi, I'm Dr. X. Welcome to Public Speaking." It's not like the kid was intentionally trying to be a jerk. Besides, the snootiness I was referring to was the fact that if you called the majority of faculty with a PhD "Professor," you were going to get a dirty look and a statement along the lines of "I have a PhD and you will acknowledge it."

[TakeruK]

I agree that it is very rude to refer to someone as Mr, Mrs, or Ms when they have a PhD. However, in the situation I briefly described, it was a slip of the tongue by a freshman during the second week of class. It was quite a harsh punishment, considering most students have referred to the adults teaching them for the past 13 years as Mr or Mrs. There was also no discussion of how to address the professor, other than at the beginning of the course, she said, "Hi, I'm Dr. X. Welcome to Public Speaking." It's not like the kid was intentionally trying to be a jerk. Besides, the snootiness I was referring to was the fact that if you called the majority of faculty with a PhD "Professor," you were going to get a dirty look and a statement along the lines of "I have a PhD and you will acknowledge it."

Definitely agree with you on everything here. For some reason, when reading through this thread, I thought I saw more than one reference to the Ms/Mrs address and I did not intend to single out you or your example. I also did not intend to imply that kicking someone out of class is an appropriate response, but I wanted to just separate/distinguish between professors who insist on "Prof" vs "Dr" (or vice-versa) and professors who insist on not being called "Mrs/Ms". I know that I did not have all the details in your brief example and I tried to avoid directly referring to it, but I now realise that by using the same adjectives as you, it didn't look that way. Sorry!

[juilletmercredi]

I used to start with "Dr. X" or "Prof. X" in graduate school until otherwise corrected. However, that got weird real fast, since it was an institutional and field-wide norm for grad students on up to call professors by their first names, and we were treated like junior colleagues. I felt like running around calling my professors "Dr. X" beyond my first year infantilized me somewhat, and set me apart as a graduate student instead of someone thinking of herself as a junior colleague and a working professional in the field. So I just switched to addressing everyone by their first name unless there was some kind of cue indicating otherwise. I especially do it now that I'm finished with the PhD and have a full-time job. These people are my colleagues; they call me by my first name, so they will also get called by their first names.

I always feel weird when people call me Dr. (or Ms.) anything, so I just asked my students to call me by my first name.

[RunnerGrad]

Like many, it's always been "Doctor" or "Professor" and then "Sir" or "Ma'am" until told otherwise.  The two profs I worked closely with as an undergrad wanted me to use their first name, so I did.  Now that I'm in graduate school, we basically take our cues from the profs.  If they use their first names, we use their first names.  If they use their titles, we use their titles.  It's not overly complicated.  When in doubt, I always err on the side of formality.  If I address someone as "Doctor" or "Professor" and they'd rather I use their first name, they'll let me know.  I don't want to unintentionally insult someone by being less formal than they wish.  Some profs like a bit of formality, but not a lot, so they'll ask to be called "Dr. *first initial of last name*"  One of my profs told me that she's noticed a lot of international students call her "Dr. *firstname*".

Also, since I'm in a school of public health, there's the whole issue where some professors are MDs and PhDs.  So "double" doctors.  I normally refer to those individuals as "Doctor" until told otherwise.

[Vene]

Dr. LastName is generally safe (and on the conservative side), but I've not met a professor yet who didn't go by their first name. I do generally use Dr. LastName for when I email somebody that I don't talk with much, but in person I use their first name regardless (and there have been times when I didn't realize somebody was a professor/doctor until after being introduced). That said, I err on the side of formality during presentations when referring to a professor.

Remember, as a graduate student your relationship with professors isn't so much a student-teacher relationship as much as it is a junior researcher-senior researcher relationship.

[music]

Within my department just by first name (it's a policy). Outside of the department, Prof X unless they suggest they prefer first name. Even then, I'd always err on the side of caution. If I switch from "Prof X" to "FirstName" in an email based on their sign off, I'll generally start the email "Dear FirstName (if I may)". 

[SocialPsychYear2]

Starting with the pre-interview e-mails and then Skype interview to get into the school, the faculty referred to themselves by first name. Now I am here, and everyone goes by first name. Other faculty in the department, including the professor I'm TAing for, whose position is one of a senior instructor but not someone I'll have for my own classes, I'm not sure about, because I haven't met her yet. I addressed her as Dr. So-and-so in an e-mail, but she didn't respond back to me to know what to call her.

At another school I interviewed at, the professors never indicated that I should refer to them by first name, and grad students there didn't refer to them by first name until later into their program.

[kosmo]

Wow, thanks for the super helpful replies, guys! I think the general gist of what's been said here - start off by erring on the side of formality, until told otherwise - is a good strategy. I'll do that. Thanks again!

[bhr]

In my field it's almost universally first name only (including the big names). That said, I tend to default to Dr. X when meeting someone or especially emailing them for the first time, then seeing what they put as their signature. i also tend to default back to Dr./Professor when in mixed company with undergrads or outsiders, as I don't want to undercut the Prof's authority without permission (sometimes it helps, for example, to be able to "big time" someone in a meeting.

[WriteAndKnit]

I start with Dr. Whoever, and then if I am told to use a first name I do so -- but only when speaking directly to that professor. 

The only exception to that is the (established, experienced, and aged) professor who responds to formal greetings with odd nicknames. I'll use his first name when talking ABOUT him, because that's what he wants.