A letter to my professor

This is actually my first time I felt something that is strong enough to motivate me to write a letter like this to a professor. Brief information,

The class - Strategic Management
The Prof - Sandy Green Jr. Phd/Master from Harvard Business School
The point - I feel refreshed and inspired by the teacher's knowledge, charisma, and style.

I came from a traditional education background and my teacher who impacted me profoundly when I was little already taught us the importances of self-discipline and money! Supposely I should do a lot more and a lot better at USC. But I am not. I got too tired of all these asshat superfacial shit and eventually I am just like, fuck it. Now I think that is a mistake because that shut down some doors for me when graduation is only a couple months away. Regret? A little bit. Sad? A little bit. Desperate? No. I still believe in my own legacy and I will see how this pans out. I think my dreams got a bit more realistic everytime I go to his class. And I feel that Universities, especially places like USC that charges so much money for education and claims to be elite school should really review their hiring policy. I am sure those Russian rocket/chemical scientists are very smart and good at what they do. But I just don't think they should be professors in business school even for undergraduates. People and their minds are the most important assets in the world. I don't need some slides readers to tell me how to do discounted cash flows. Young people need inspiration and critical thinking the most and I think this is what USC is lacking tremendously in their business school right now. There are some brilliant minds but not enough to really make our money worth while.

I wrote following passage to the teacher. I think at this point of my life I can truly say what is on my mind and not to worry if I sound like an ass or crazy. Hopefully he will see what I am truly talking about instead of skimming it through because that would be kinda disappointing.

Hi Prof. Green,

This is DL from your 4-6pm class. I participate in the class but you have never addressed me by my name, so I am not sure if you remember who I am. Anyway, this is not why I email you. I don't know how to put this, but I think I should write this to you when I still feel strongly enough about it to write to you. I am sure you get this a lot. But I really like your class a lot. The only other class that has inspired me was a philosophy class by Dr. Willard. The class made me really think about the professionals, especially professionals like us, how these individuals are privileged and have the duty to help the society. We as a professional group has a social responsibility. I was truly inspired and actually really got into it. Then I went to Marshall School of Business and Leventhal Accounting School. Most of the professors are more technical and less social. Of course, as you know, a lot of them are slide readers. I am not writing this to vent about how I disliked some of the professors since I know for a fact that they are highly intelligent individual and much wiser than I am. However, I want to point out that due to whatever reasons, I feel a bit stirred every time I go to your class.

I like your charisma and I like your point of view. Maybe that is why I am willing to defer my opinions to your professional knowledge and experiences. But what I like about your class the most is how you talk about what we can do and why we have a responsibility. You do this without being overly preaching. Some of the points you talk about in the class resonate with me completely and it is still good to know that what we are doing is still important. Sad to say that after being in USC for 3 years, I actually got a bit discouraged and more apathetic about a lot of stuff happening around me. I just think that the general education environment is just that, a bit discouraging and apathetic. Again, I am sure a lot of the teachers are great at what they are teaching but I think it is not the University's responsibility to only pass along the knowledge. I am sure most of the people in the class can learn a lot of material on their own just fine. This is why I get discouraged and apathetic. I imagined to be highly inspired and motivated by the teachers before I came here. I haven't seen that much at all. I haven't seen many socially wise minds. Maybe because they don't teach strategy or maybe they don't really care, I don't know. I am sure I probably sound like a brat but a lot of people around me feel the same way. Especially in accounting school, what eventually comes down to is how and when we can land that auditing/tax job that pays over 45k - 50k starting.

My friend and I are planning to have our own business and every time I go to your class, the urge gets stronger. I think that is a good thing. Just like you discussed in class before, my ultimate goal in life is also to leave my name behind somewhere and make some sort of changes to the people around me in a positive way. Of course I also love how you get down to the business and emphasize the importance of money. I just feel that my goal is somewhat validated and sounding less naive or typical when I am in your class.

I am writing a lot and feeling that my points are getting blurred. I am NOT writing this to praise your class per se. I think what I am trying to say is that I feel some validation and I really appreciate your effort. I think there are only several, probably less than 4 teachers made me feel that they actually cared just that little bit more in my entire stay in USC. This may sound really bad, but I think if we had more teachers like you, especially in the business school where the mind is the most important asset, I would have done much better academically. Many occasions when I am in your class, I feel like I have wasted so much time and money over the years because I don't know a lot of stuff. I definitely have to take most of the responsibilities of this outcome but I truly feel that the general environment is to make us capable of going somewhere and become the best 9-5 livestock out there. If we had more teachers like you, I would probably be more willing to read the Wall Street Journals or Barons since I know someone out there is also reading it and willing to discuss. There were times when I read a lot and ended up sharing the information and discussions with a wall. Ok, I didn't actually talk to a wall, but my thoughts weren't appreciated and felt wasted. Students concern more about parties, tests, and recruitings at the end and teachers care more about beating the class schedules (surprisingly half of them couldn't even do just that). It is great that in my last semester here at USC, my mind is being refreshed again.

I hope I didn't come off as confusing or ass-kissing since that is truly not my intention. I just felt strongly that I need to express these points and I hope our school can seriously tighten up their recruiting on the students and the teachers. Again thank you very much for the classes. Also, I would like it a lot more if you can actually call on me more when I am trying to answer a question with my hand up in the air for 3 mins. I seriously think that you are avoiding my hands now. There are many times that my answer matched your answer exactly and I feel that my precious bonus points are robbed. Again, my name is David Li and I usually sit in the front and you probably think I am high in the class sometimes since my rare muscle disease renders my eye half paralyzed most of the time.

Sincerely,

DL

P.S. god the stupid javascript messed up. After sending it, I realized that my long paragraphs have been cut off at a random word in the middle of no where. It made look like a retard! Then I have to write another email explaining this so I wouldn't sound like a retard. AWKWARD, I am sure he is thinking that I am a retard now. beh... damn it