Why the teacher script does not transfer

With a teacher there is a fixed structure: they hold the authority, they are obliged to help you, and your job is broadly to receive. Nearly every other adult relationship — a manager, an admissions officer, somebody doing a job you want — has none of that. They are not obliged to help, and you are not there to receive.

Which is why so many first professional conversations go flat. The student script produces politeness and passivity, and the other person cannot tell what you want or why they are in the conversation at all. That reads as unprepared, even when you have prepared enormously.