For many grad students, the process of choosing an adviser can be likened to courting. I cannot speak for other students, but I imagine I am not unique in my feelings. It is important to me that I share interests with my professor, but I would like them to be different enough from me that I feel that we will have much to learn from each other. It is also important to me that I can imagine a working relationship with the person: some form of prompt feedback/communication, our preferred working hours should overlap enough that we can meet face to face, our expected levels of hygiene for each other should be compatible, our senses of humor or lack there of should not be completely incompatible, and etc. So if this process of choosing an adviser is in some ways similar to courting, what of the courting etiquette does/should carry over? (What is the etiquette of courting anyways? Whether or not the etiquette carries over, what is the etiquette of this process?)

As I meet different professors and their students, aside from concerns about taking their resources, at what point am I being too much of a tease? When is it understandable for a professor to assume that I am their student? At what point do I need to stop working with professors so that I am not leading them on?