Not sure why Americans use the word "professor" for any university teacher, but the people with an actual professor degree (two levels above ph.d.) actually were scary. Super self absorbed, too busy to properly teach, hard exams, on one instance you had to buy the latest edition of prof's book to pass.

Regular doctors and doctorants were mostly great though.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You're right, some are absolutely dreadful —I think overall, they're hit and miss. My main tutor in uni was the epitome of the scattery professor archetype, and he was brilliant. He genuinely cared about the teaching side of things, which is probably why his scientific career was only moderately successful. The actual professors I met were either like my tutor, or like what you describe, no midpoints

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I have not met one like this, but my uni wasn't top tier. But I had a soon-to-be-professor doctor like this, great guy.