To ask you why a course leader wants a chat

[Fedupfam]

Prior to Masters.

ive applied - got accepted - now course leader wants a chat, why?

Speak to him then you’ll find out?

Literally no one else can tell you.

Maybe you're coming from a non-traditional route, or maybe you're coming straight from uni and everyone else has work experience, you're much older/younger than everyone else? You've chosen and option that no-one else has and you need to swap, you've chosen an option that everyone else has and they wonder if you would swap. You have special access arrangements.....

Could be lots of things!

To ask how you get your hair looking so shiny and swishy.

Any of these or none of these

Because they want to talk to you about the course....... it's not that unusual!

I'm a course leader for a masters and make an effort to speak to people before they start.

Nice bit of unconscious bias going there!!

What are you suspicious about? It sounds entirely normal to me.

Could literally anything.

Some tutors just like to do a one to one with their students to make sure they are prepared and make sure there are no other considerations and adjustments needed.

Quite. That was my first thought too!

OP, it could be anything, and almost certainly nothing to worry about.

Thank you for confirming it’s normal and probably nothing to worry about.

I was worried that they would tell me I’m not good enough/suitable etc

Sorry about the “him”. Just didn’t have the energy for all the different titles

“They/them” has always been the word to use if you don’t know the gender.

"them"?

Sadly it probably is a him.

You wouldn't have been accepted if you weren't good enough. There's always the possibilty you may be too good, and they want to suggest you pick a harder course!

Maybe they just want to know where you got your shoes from... it's probably some boring procedural matter.

How many are on the course? If it's a small number (which is likely as it's a Masters) then I would assume they always have an introductory chat with each student before it starts. That happened with my Masters.

One way or another, it can't be anything bad or anything that implies you're not suitable for the course etc. as they wouldn't have accepted you if they had any doubts. So I really wouldn't worry about this.

Sadly it probably is a him.

Depends on the sector tbh 🤷🏼‍♀️

In my faculty female course leaders are far more common. It really infuriates me when people assume academics and those in senior roles are male. It perpetuates inequalities!

Erm them?
It's better than assuming senior academics are men!! Why is the default male?

Then I think this has been a really useful pointer that you have some unresolved issues somewhere?

It shouldn't be the case that you automatically default to thinking things are 'because you're not good enough'.

What happened to make you feel that way?

Have you had counselling to talk about it?

It is a ‘him’

Its a niche subject, related to my undergrad but not related to my work exp

So it sounds like a combination of all of them

This is completely normal. I applied and was accepted on to a Master's and was asked for a call. The same happened again 2 years later when I applied for another postgraduate course.

For me it was to just to have had contact prior to the course and to find out a bit about my background on a one to one, more personal basis. Everyone on the course had different backgrounds so I guess it helped them to plan too. I'm sure it'll be the same for you.

Good luck.

Yes YABU. Pointless post.

Do you usually experience this level of anxiety? It might be worth getting some therapy to help you deal with this before your course starts. Masters are pretty intense so anything you can do to help you cope would be useful.

Yes only with telephony communication from a previous job that caused ptsd