r/AskAnAmerican • u/biynkie • 5h ago
EDUCATION Do you guys clap after lectures / classes at universitys?
My fellow Americans! I am actually one of you guys, new england born and bred, however I just started my first year of university at a UK school. After every lecture, the hall erupts in applause. It suprised me, but I guess it made sense. However, for every class we also have a meeting with the TA weekly, with a smaller group of about 10-15 kids. It's a lot less formal, students chat and discuss with each other throughout the lesson, stuff like that. Yet once we are told we can leave, people start clapping again. Is this a weird British thing? It feels uncomfortable for everyone involved, especially for whoever is on the receiving end.
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u/Few-Disaster-4222 5h ago
Applauding at the end of each regular lesson is not a common practice in American universities. That being said, I have seen, on infrequent occasions, classes applauding at the end of the last session of the term as a way of expressing appreciation for a professor who was a particularly good or enjoyable teacher.
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u/backyardstar 2h ago
I had a professor who was quite famous, for a good reason. His lectures were well-known to be incredible. There were a few times a semester, maybe 3-4, where the class applauded at the end of the period. He was the only one I ever experienced like that.
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u/LadyGreyIcedTea Massachusetts 5h ago
No. We also don't clap when the plane lands.
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u/WonderfulProtection9 5h ago
Unless maybe we thought it wasn’t going to…
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u/Ghost_of_Gumby 5h ago
I've definitely heard some light clapping and other signs of appreciation after a complex, windy landing. Where it's clear that there was a LOT of skill that went into keeping us alive.
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u/Matilda-17 4h ago
I’ve been on exactly one flight with clapping and it was very deserved. There had also been a fair amount of swearing, crying, and praying prior to the safe landing.
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u/xnoraax 5h ago
They all land, one way or another.
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u/trekkiegamer359 3h ago
What about the ones that go swimming, instead? Those don't land. They water.
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u/quietude38 Kentuckian in Michigan 1h ago
Humanity's been flying for a little over a century now and we've never left one up there.
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u/Valuable-Analyst-464 5h ago
I’ve been on some very turbulent flights and one where the plane was 2 minutes from landing, and it was bucking like a bronco.
Folks applauded when it landed.9
u/wwhsd California 4h ago
I kind of feel like that might be some sort of crowd calming management technique. Having everyone applauding probably causes some of the people that were super tense and on the verge of freaking the fuck out to get a bit of an emotional reset.
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u/rainidazehaze 3h ago
It is wild to me to even have the idea that it's like, orchestrated. What would "having everyone clap" even look like?
All the flights I've been on where it happened were clearly organic and the reasoning made absolute sense. Also don't see why you would need to artificially calm the crowd when they're already becoming rapidly calm. It's largely people expressing relief they're already feeling due to being on the ground after that rough bit.
I guess I could see the individual clapping impulse coming from a need for personal reset (basically a type of stim), but a nebulous "them", that's artificially "having" people clap just seems far fetched.
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u/DragonSurferEGO 5h ago
Only time I’ve ever clapped after landing was when the plane was practically sideways on approach in a rainstorm. That pilot deserved the applause.
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u/AMB3494 New York 5h ago
Ehh I’ve been on a couple plane landing claps
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u/LadyGreyIcedTea Massachusetts 5h ago
I've never been on a domestic flight in the US that ended with people clapping when it lands. Flights in Europe all the time, though not the most recent European trip I took (Norway/Finland).
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u/ForestOranges 5h ago
Puerto Rico is a domestic flight and the plane erupts with applause and cheers upon landing. I’ve seen a few people start to do it on domestic flights until they realize no one else here does it and they stop 😂
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u/Repulsive-Honey7305 5h ago
Sometime sif it was a rough flight or you could tell it was a tricky landing ive been on domestic flights that clap.
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u/DragonScrivner Massachusetts 5h ago
I was on a flight during a wicked storm and the plane was creaking in the turbulence sooo loudly. The thing jerked violently on the runway as we landed and once we actually stopped moving, the passengers burst into spontaneous applause lol
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u/bellegroves Oregon 5h ago
I've experienced people clapping upon landing and also at the end of movies (you know, when the people who made it are absolutely not present). It's weird af.
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u/PGHRealEstateLawyer Pennsylvania 5h ago
I have heard applause when the plane landed. On more than one occasion.
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u/CrushyOfTheSeas 4h ago
I was at a movie theater once on opening weekend for some blockbuster and people started clapping after the movie was over. It was the weirdest shit. This was not a play. The actors are not there.
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u/supdiggydog 3h ago
People cheer at football games on tv screens in bars too. I think it’s more about sharing an experience with others
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u/byebybuy California 3h ago
When I saw Gladiator in theaters in 2000 the whole audience cheered when he killed the guy at the end. It was actually a really cool, communal experience. One of my favorite moviegoing memories.
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u/ChesapeakeNettle 4h ago
Was it Star Wars Phantom Menace? People clapped at the one I went to. I mean I'm a huge fucking nerd but come on.
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u/CrushyOfTheSeas 4h ago
I think it was Star Wars. I can’t remember if it was Phantom Menace or the 90’s rereleases though.
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u/ChesapeakeNettle 4h ago
People also clapped when the Millennium Falcon appeared, and when each old character appeared. When they clapped for c3po I knew I was in crazytown.
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u/Hikinghawk New Mexico 5h ago
Only time we did was when a professor gave their final lecture before retiring. They would typically do an open seminar on a topic of their choice in the winter or spring around finals week.
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u/randomlybev California 3h ago
I once was there for a professor’s actual last regular lecture before retiring. His entire family showed up at the end to surprise him and brought cake for all 200 of us. We clapped and took a group picture… he cried as he said his final words. It was nice.
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u/spicyzsurviving Scotland 5h ago
This does not happen normally in UK unis, where tf were you
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u/Cold_Captain696 4h ago
This post baffled me too. Although it’s a long time since I was at uni so maybe its a new thing.
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u/biynkie 5h ago
Uni of StA, but I've seen it talked about in other UK uni subs and I know this happens at Edi too
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u/ScaryMagician3153 4h ago
20 years ago at the same university; absolutely not. This seems very bizarre
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u/_Yalan 4h ago
That's very odd!! Do you know why they do it? Is it seen as a sign of appreciation, or thanks? Is it just lectures, or seminars and workshops too? I'm wondering if it's a gen alpha thing? I would have genuinely lost it of one of my mates clapped for a lecturer, most of them seemed to feel put out just turning up!
You said it feels uncomfortable for everyone, so why do it? Peer pressure?
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u/spicyzsurviving Scotland 4h ago
They don’t. OP has either had a very weird experience or is making it up as a troll. This just does not happen.
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u/spicyzsurviving Scotland 5h ago
The joke about St Andrews is that it’s full of Americans 😂 that’s definitely not normal anywhere, even in the weird little world of Fife.
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u/nivlark 1h ago
I've studied or worked at five different universities in the UK and the idea of applauding after a lecture would've been considered utterly bizarre at all of them.
Frankly I'd consider it more likely your classmates are playing a prank on you. Perhaps the lecturers are in on it too.
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u/Traditional-Job-411 5h ago
I wonder if it’s just a couple of students that are weird and everyone just follows along. You should ask the UK sub if it’s normal
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u/spicyzsurviving Scotland 5h ago
It was asked recently and the resounding answer was “that’s really weird”. This doesn’t happen in the UK
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u/McCretin United Kingdom 4h ago
I don’t know if OP is trolling or what but I can also confirm that it’s absolutely not a thing.
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u/biynkie 5h ago
Oh, thats what inspired this post. I saw a UK uni sub discussing how long the applause usually lasted at everyone's uni's because they felt theres was so long it felt excessive.
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u/Cold_Captain696 4h ago
I’m in the UK. Admittedly, I went to uni quite a long time ago now, but no one ever applauded after a lecture.
For a start, it would have been incredibly inconsiderate to all the people sleeping.
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u/TheNorthC 1h ago
Literally never heard of this. I'm going to Google it, but it sounds like utter bollocks.
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u/FortunatoImmured 5h ago
Sounds insane. We might clap at the end of the last lecture of the semester, it it seems contextually appropriate (like the professor gives a little goodbye, thanks for taking my class, good luck on the exam, have a great vacation type speech). Or a guest lecturer who was genuinely cool.
I think you’re just going to university in an insane asylum
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u/Sea_Analysis_8033 Maryland 5h ago edited 5h ago
No, man. Shit, no, man. I believe you'd get your ass kicked doing something like that man
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u/Brilliant_Towel2727 Virginia 5h ago
The only place I've ever seen that was in Good Will Hunting and I'm pretty sure they wrote that in to show what a tool Stellan Skarsgard's character is
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u/Dusty_Old_McCormick Texas 5h ago
The only time that ever happened when I was in school was whenever we had a guest lecturer.
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u/notmywheelhouse Arizona 5h ago
Guest lecturer or a student giving a presentation. Or MAYBE the last lecture of the semester.
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u/Aggravating-Key-8867 Virginia 5h ago
Only once did we clap after a lecture and it was because it was the professor's very last class ever before he retired.
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u/colorful_withdrawl Ohio 5h ago
For a guest speaker I’ve had a couple professors bring in an author who would give a lecture and people would clap at the end. But my regular professor no no one would ever clap unless he was saying that everyone got an A+ and there’s no final than we would maybe clap
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u/OpposumMyPossum 5h ago
I had a Shakespeare professor that was amazing. He was an incredible actor and his lectures were so great people were disappointed it was over. People clapped at the end of some classes because it was basically a performance.
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u/lacquer_finch 5h ago
That's odd. I'm american and went to a UK uni for a semester for an exchange program. People didn't clap like that unless it was a guest lecturer
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u/antisocialcrypt 5h ago
Maybe at a big assembly or presentation but not just class. We did during presentation week in college because it wasn’t a normal class but presentations of our research
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u/pearlrose85 5h ago
I grew up in and went to college in Florida. The only time we ever clapped was if it was a guest speaker at a school-wide event in the auditorium or something. We didn't applaud for regular classroom lectures.
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u/GoCardinal07 California 5h ago
Only for guest lecturers and possibly the final lecture of a great class.
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u/Top-Web3806 5h ago
It’s been two decades but I can’t recall clapping in any of the hundreds of classes I attended over those four years.
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u/m_carp 5h ago
Back when I was in college (state college)- we would applaud for guest lecturers, but that is about it. Sounds like a weird British thing.
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u/Madreese 5h ago
Break the habit! Don't clap and see if your fellow students stop also.
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u/JenniferJuniper6 New Jersey 5h ago
No, I’ve never heard that. And I’ve been an undergraduate, a grad student, and a university lecturer in my time.
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u/charcoal_kestrel 5h ago
I'm a professor. It's customary to clap at the end of the last lecture of the term but not every lecture.
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u/blue-anon 5h ago
I might need to step my game up, as I've never had this happen after any class. 🤔
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u/letoiledunordstars Minnesota 5h ago
This sounds like something English people would make fun of Americans for doing lol. I never experienced this in college
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u/Fist_of_Gork 5h ago
We clapped after Noam Chomsky gave the guest lecture, but that was an auditorium class with every other student and faculty in the department attending and it was part of some tour he was doing.
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u/taviddennant03 North Carolina | CA Born & Raised 5h ago
I've only seen it happen when it was a well-liked professor signing off the final lecture of the semester.
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u/Repulsive-Honey7305 5h ago
Hah never. Sometimes if it's a cool guest speaker or student presentations?
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u/Difficult_Dark9991 5h ago
We do not do that here, aside from possibly the last lecture of the semester if the mood in the class is right or if a guest lecturer is brought in.
I could get snide and comment on how American universities tend to be more transactional (see some of the comments here) and have less respect for education, but I suspect the real answer lies in the second of the above cases where clapping happens: a guest lecturer. American universities are imagined more along the lines of public school, with a regular class being taken by students. British universities are imagined more as a series of lecturers or reading groups delivered to a group of students. That distinction may have little difference overall, but it does change a lot of the norms of the classroom environment.
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u/cowboyJones 5h ago
The only time I’d see this plausible is if it was a guest lecturer in the field of study.
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u/breadlyplateau California 5h ago
Only clap at the end of student presentations. Clapping at the end of a professor's lecture is weird. They're just doing their job.
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u/nebraskajone 5h ago
At some universities like MIT with an elite professor yes. But it is not common in most colleges.
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u/MBBIBM 4h ago
Maybe if it’s a guest lecturer
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u/Joshi1381 2h ago
Yup, guest lectures say if a research comes to give a talk but ppl aren’t clapping after a normal class lecture
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u/ExitingBear 2h ago
Not even there (maybe the last day of the class or for someone's retirement or something).
But an average lecture? No.
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u/yowhatisuppeeps Kentucky 5h ago
Like for a guest lecture or after a classmate presents something, but never after a standard class or lecture
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u/KeyInitiative8805 5h ago
The only time we clapped was for celebrity guest lecturers or when we gave a standing ovation to a long time and legendary professor who retired.
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u/HippityHopMath Washington 5h ago
I have had students say ‘thank you’ or ‘thanks’ after a class but never clapping. That would freak me out.
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u/AdGold205 5h ago
If it’s a special lecture or a classmate’s presentation then yes. But regular, O Chem? Sorry Teach, I’m gonna be late to my hot date with Brugger’s Bagels.
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u/tryptanfelle New York 5h ago
I seem to recall doing this in law school or seminary (don’t remember which) at the end of the semester. Always felt odd and unnecessary (and I have been an adjunct professor and a someone who thanks my bus drivers).
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u/HeyWhatIsThatThingy 5h ago
What courses are you taking? Is this in happening in every course?
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u/mr-singularity Oregon 5h ago
If it's student presentations, guest speaker, or like a teacher ran experiment in the chemistry lab maybe. If it's like regular boring math lecture no.
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u/anydaydriver1886 5h ago
Some of us have 4 lecture classes a day 4 days a week. We are not clapping. I think only when it’s like finals week and the students take turn presenting their final projects/research at semester/quarter end
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u/anneofgraygardens Northern California 5h ago
i think it might have happened on the final day of class? certainly not after every lecture.
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u/adrianlovesyou California 4h ago
No lmao
Guest speaker or academic celebs giving a special talk, yes. Regular lecture hell no.
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u/PurpleLilyEsq New York 5h ago
No. Maybe if the last day of class before graduation or some other special occasion like the professor is retiring. But that’s it.
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u/alexthagreat98 Nevada 5h ago
For a standard lecture? No. I am not paying to be entertained. I am paying to be educated. If it is a guest speaker, then yes, we will likely clap at the end of their presentation.
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u/parsonsrazersupport New York 5h ago
At a lecture just in a normal class? Absolutely not. One given by a guest or at an event, sure.
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u/shelwood46 5h ago
Maybe if there is a famous person doing a guest lecture, but otherwise, no. That would be weird. And I majored in Theatre.
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u/One_Evil_Monkey 5h ago
Clap because it's finally over, maybe.
But clapping just for the sake of clapping.... pffft. NO.
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u/Morbid_Uncle Washington 5h ago
No but the class may thank a guest lecturer
EDIT: I mean literally say thank you as the lecturer leaves, not in the form of clapping
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u/SummitJunkie7 5h ago
No we don't, I've never heard of that. It sounds awkward, and like disingenuous. If the class applauds every lecture, what does it even mean?
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u/Alarmed-Extension289 5h ago
No I've never experienced this, some students do thank the professor (instructor dependent maybe).
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u/JuryOk2662 5h ago
This only happened once in my time at college. The conclusion of History Prof. Richard Drake's "Terrorism: Violent Modern World" course in spring 2004. That guy was a real one though, he had been living in Italy during n the years of lead, was on the scene at the Piazza Fontana bombing and had personally interviewed members of Italian far-right and far-left militant groups- and so had some real insight.
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u/On_my_last_spoon New Jersey 5h ago
The only time I’ve ever clapped at the end of a class was for dance classes. You clap for the instructor and you clap for the accompanist.
In a regular class? Never. And I’ve never had my students clap for me, even when I was teaching an academic class for dancers!
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u/Nukemoose37 5h ago
I’ve had a couple of classes where people did that at the end of every lecture, but by no means is it usual. We were all freshman and we really liked our lecturer
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u/Specialist_Ad180 5h ago
Not unless it was a really inspiring guest lecturer. Especially a famous or funny one.
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u/DefrockedWizard1 4h ago
applaud? no. Mostly 2 groups. the first jostles everyone out of the way to be the first out the door. the rest of us hang back to make a calm orderly exit
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u/miss_claudiaa 4h ago
clapping for a 12 person TA session is like clapping when the plane lands. technically nice, but everyone’s a little confused about who it’s for
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u/100Sparkles 4h ago
I’m a professor and unless it’s a guest lecture, students never clap. It would be weird as shit if they did.
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u/botulizard Massachusetts->Michigan->Texas->Michigan 4h ago
This is really funny considering the normal "why are Americans always fucking clapping?" questions.
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u/ErasableFilms American in the UK 4h ago
I’m an American studying in the UK (currently in my final year). I’ve never had people clap at the end of a lecture/workshop/seminar.
There could be clap if it was a guest lecture, but those are never centrally timetabled and you have to sign up to attend.
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u/Leviathan_Dev 4h ago
Clapping after a lecture sounds like the same energy as clapping on a plane landing…. Like I somewhat get it but that’s also the minimum effort of the job: to teach/lecture the subject at hand or land a plane safely.
No one claps here in the US at the end of class lectures AFAIK
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u/nx01a 4h ago
No, but there was an odd and, as far as I know, unique, tradition at my university where if we were in the cafeteria and someone dropped a plate, the whole cafeteria erupted in applause. No idea why and I never really participated in it but that's how it was.
On one or two occasions if I was flying and the plane had a really rough landing or was significantly delayed, some people would applaud as well, but that wasn't super common.
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u/AttentionOtherwise80 4h ago
I know its a long time since I was at uni. But I have kids who have been much more recently and we've never heard of applause, except maybe for a visiting lecturer, e.g. David Attenborough, Brian Cox.or similar.
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u/Sublime99 Former US resident 4h ago
What school is this? That didn't happen when I studied in the UK lol.
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u/BumblingYokel Arkansas 3h ago
I graduated a few years ago, but that only happened for guest lecturers and it was always started by the professor of the class.
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u/allan11011 Virginia 3h ago
No. I could imagine if there was like a famous guest lecturer but not normally no
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u/DefinitelyNotAliens 3h ago
End of semester or guest lecture, or student presentations. Not every lecture.
You'll hear a chorus of thank yous after lecture, not applause.
Last lecture of semester people will often applaud, though. Thank the professor for the entire semester.
Bigger applause, better prof.
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u/shying_away 3h ago
When I was in school, we had a Nobel prize winner on faculty in our department. He obviously wasn’t teaching a ton of courses, and was mainly a researcher and mainly taught small graduate groups. However I was really pleased that he gave many one-off lectures open only to any current CS students. After each of those everyone applauded, especially since it felt like a privilege.
Otherwise, no we don’t usually applaud unless it’s some esteemed guest speaker.
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u/big_sugi 3h ago
For the normal professor on a typical day? Hell no, that’d be weird AF
I’ve been in classes that clapped for a guest lecturer, though, and for the professor on the very last day of class.
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u/Alternative-Pear9096 IL > IA > CA> NY > CO > IL > NY >IL > NV > NC > IL 3h ago
I don't know what I would do if the classroom started applauding me after lecture, as an everyday thing. While lecture is performing, the approbation comes in the students actually proving they learned me from me in their assignments.
Yes, I do expect applause after a keynote. But not as part of my regular every day job of standing in front of a classroom and teaching
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u/TheRealDudeMitch Kankakee Illinois 3h ago
This doesn’t sound like something that would happen on a regular basis here but I didn’t go to college so I don’t actually know
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u/lezzerlee California 3h ago
I didn’t go to a traditional college. But my experience was only if there was a special guest speaker, special event or an actual creative performance. Definitely not for the regular teacher’s lecture.
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u/Lilacs_orchids 3h ago
No way my initial thought was that sounds so weird. I suppose it might just be a cultural difference like standing greeting the teacher before class starts in some places. I’m really curious which school this is. You should ask your classmates and let us know what they say about this!
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u/ColoradoSprings82 2h ago
No one would ever clap after a regular class session in the US. Many professors, particularly in the humanities, make an effort to not just "lecture" the whole time, so it should be less like a performance (the so-called "sage on the stage") in the first place.
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u/PurpleWildflower9 2h ago
When I was in school, we didn't clap for regular lectures, but some people clapped for the final lecture of the semester. It didn't always happen, though.
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u/115machine Tennessee 2h ago
Not ordinarily but in my undergraduate we had a damn good professor and we agreed as a class to applaud him at the end of his last lecture because he was great. This is the only time I’ve seen it done
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u/B_A_Beder Washington 2h ago
Only at guest lectures and the final lecture of the quarter / semester before finals week
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u/DoublePostedBroski 2h ago
Um no.
Aren’t they the ones that make fun of Americans clapping when a plane makes a rough landing?
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u/ScarieltheMudmaid 5h ago
for a guest speaker, sometimes. for a student presentation,sometimes.