--- title: Hilarious College Essay Mistake Goes Viral description: A college student accidentally turned in a paper with her professor's funny nickname on it instead of his real name — to Twitter's delight. canonical: https://time.com/5403063/essay-mistake-professor/ author: Raisa Bruner article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-09-21T16:13:53.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:47:13.922Z og:title: Student's Regrettable Essay Snafu Is One for the Books og:description: Her unprofessional nickname for the professor has gone viral on Twitter og:url: https://time.com/5403063/essay-mistake-professor/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Student's Regrettable Essay Snafu Is One for the Books twitter:description: Her unprofessional nickname for the professor has gone viral on Twitter twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Student's Essay Snafu Is Really One for the Books > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ## Video: Fresh Advice for College Freshmen [Watch (HLS stream): Fresh Advice for College Freshmen](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/vjOkYmTH.m3u8) (1:50)  _Published 2016-08-30. Useful tips from (mostly) recent graduates._  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Sep 21, 2018 4:13 PM UTC  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Sep 21, 2018 4:13 PM UTC We’ve all made a [typo](http://time.com/5124763/stephen-colbert-state-of-the-union-typo/) here or there. Sometimes, we even submit finished work without fully proofreading. Usually the error is harmless enough. But for one student, her mistake ended up becoming a viral sensation after she shared the snafu on social media—and the professor had something to say. In what she referred to as a “series of [unfortunate events](http://time.com/4633471/a-series-of-unfortunate-events-netflix-neil-patrick-harris/),” Ohio University student Zoe Oxley tweeted out screenshots of her process of submitting an essay to her [college](http://time.com/5395131/college-bias-kavanaugh-diversity/) professor through an online portal. She realized—too late—that in the header of her paper, she had left a placeholder name for the professor, and it was not quite appropriate for educational settings. “Unfortunately, I could not remember your last name, so I filled it with something completely unprofessional,” she wrote in a follow-up email to the teacher; we now know he is one Professor Hendel. “It was my intention to change the name before submission, but it completely slipped my mind,” she continued, apologizing profusely for the error. The professor also took to Twitter to share his experience: after receiving the email, he wrote, he “was like ‘Thanks, whatever, nbd.’ Then I got to their paper,” and the name choice was slightly less of a “nbd” situation. Both the student and the professor have since gone viral on Twitter, getting over 300,000 likes each on their respective posts. Let’s hope someone brings this up in class next week—and they can share a laugh over the unlikely development of the story. Hendel [is a playwright](https://ohioplaywriting.org/2015/07/14/ohio-alum-john-hendel-will-appear-on-jeopardy-tomorrow/), after all, so maybe he’ll get some good content out of this at the very least. > [](https://twitter.com/Zoeyoxley/status/1042644630150569986) > [](https://twitter.com/Hendyhendel/status/1042475666678198272) Plus, now others are sharing their embarrassing essay submission stories. > [](https://twitter.com/bauldlad/status/1042921035664900096) > [](https://twitter.com/tropiusss/status/1042975083575304193) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5403063/essay-mistake-professor/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5403063/essay-mistake-professor/"},"headline":"Student's Essay Snafu Is Really One for the Books","datePublished":"2018-09-21T16:13:53.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:47:13.922Z","description":"It was \"a series of unfortunate events\"","url":"https://time.com/5403063/essay-mistake-professor/","keywords":["Newsfeed","viral"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Raisa Bruner","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5403063/essay-mistake-professor/","name":"Student's Essay Snafu Is Really One for the Books"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Fresh Advice for College Freshmen","description":"Useful tips from (mostly) recent graduates.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/vjOkYmTH/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2016-08-30T21:00:00.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/vjOkYmTH.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/5403063/essay-mistake-professor/","duration":"PT1M50S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/5403063/essay-mistake-professor/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```