Weirdest or greatest thing you know about a current prof or potential advisor...

[hogmommy]

I'll start.

One of my UG professors/LOR writer was a Broadway dancer before becoming entering academia. Her PhD in anthropology is from UC-Berkeley.

[JerryLandis]

I've stumbled across one potential advisor's blog, which is full of musings about how she thinks she's intellectually/academically inadequate, and other very personal stuff like that. Also mentions reading graduate applications. I don't read it though because it just seems like TMI about a person I've never met.

[melusine]

One of my profs last term is also a graduate from one of the schools I'm applying to and basically shared some really interesting info about their own application process to that school.

Apart from the dreaded "I love literature/reading" thing, their SOP also mentioned a passion for word puzzles and work experience as a kayaking instructor. True story.

Kind of made me feel better about my SOP, actually!

[qazwerty]

 He was never my professor, but I know an econ professor at my grad school used to be an actor. 

Edited February 6, 2010 by qazwerty

[coyabean]

xxx

Edited February 6, 2010 by coyabean

[hogmommy]

I am going to apologize now for my grammar in the original post. Clearly I was distracted mid-sentence by one of my children. How embarrassing!

[Zamis]

I've stumbled across one potential advisor's blog, which is full of musings about how she thinks she's intellectually/academically inadequate, and other very personal stuff like that. Also mentions reading graduate applications. I don't read it though because it just seems like TMI about a person I've never met.

I read her blog, too. What a cute puppy!

[TMP]

My UG advisor worked as a translator for the US government in Moscow... while Russia was still Soviet Union... made me feel like I was dealing with a double spy!

[pawqara]

The professor I am applying to work with, made this video to entertain his undergraduate students and interest them in the study of human origins. He wrote the lyrics, made the video and sang the song. I love it! You have to watch "The Real Pliocene Hominin": http://www.youtube.c...h?v=8K-wa0046cQ. He is sooooo cool!

[piccgeek]

My mentor grew up in the not-friendly part of the Bronx (if there is a friendly part), but went to a very expensive preppy high school because he and seven other average joes were bussed in to be on their football team. His senior year at that high school he was the lead in West Side Story, and all his football buddies showed up to the last performance and hooted and yelled when he was kissing Maria. HE dropped out of undergrad to work in a series of industrial jobs and then decided to have a go at the insurance agency, so he picked a state school in NYC out of the phone book, applied, was accepted, attended, and graduated despite nearly being thrown out for setting a chem lab on fire. A couple years later when he and his then-wife moved to Boston for her job, he decided to apply to Harvard's American Studies program "to see if they'd let me in." They did. He's now a respectable Melville scholar according to his CV, has won all kinds of prestigious awards for scholarship and even more for teaching, but we know him as the guy who shows up to teach in Steelers jerseys and swears enough in a fifty minute lecture on Twain to impress the undergrad frat boys. In short, he's amazing.

[johndiligent]

I had a prof who is obsessed with climbing radio towers. He subscribed to a daily podcast about adventures in climbing radio towers and listened to it while marking. I don't think he'd ever done it, he was just fascinated by the idea. I always thought that was odd.

[gildedProgressive]

I've hesitated answering this question, but I'll just be extra cautious..

My undergrad mentor/current supervisor has really worked his way up. One of his stints was working in a resort hotel, the locale of which many of you would recognize almost immediately, based on its usage in a popular movie.

Another of my undergrad mentors has had probably every job known to man, including working on the railroad, used car salesman, and pizza deliveryman.

Not to mention the fact that the two abovementioned persons refer to THE hotshot in my proposed field on a first name basis. I just can't wrap my mind around it, when I get all squiggly when I even SEE the guy.

I also had a great professor who could've gone pro in darts--it's actually a great story. This guy worked his way through grad school as a butcher.

Edited February 7, 2010 by gildedProgressive

[rising_star]

I have a professor that used to work at renaissance fairs.

And I will never judge someone solely by their blog/website/SOP since my MA program admitted me with a SOP that references my desire to cheer for their football team on Saturdays.

[grad_wannabe]

One of my rec letter writers was friends with Andy Warhol. It took me a minute, the first time she told a story with something like, "Ah, yes, and then Andy said it was fabulous, fabulous..." to realize exactly who she was talking about.

And this one isn't really about a professor, but I just heard it yesterday and wanted to share:

One of the legal secretaries at my work used to be a Lakers Girl in the early 80s. She knows Magic Johnson.

Edited February 7, 2010 by grad_wannabe