Taking Advantage of Rate My Professor As a student pursuing a degree you begin to live and breathe your schoolwork. This schoolwork is determined by your professor, who some like to joke do not realize that you are taking other classes on top of theirs. Sometimes it is worth it because you learn so much from the professor’s lectures. Other times it isn’t, because the professor was such an unfair grader. The question is, how do you know what you are getting into with a professor before you take their class? And if you have the option of taking two classes, how do you choose between them if you do not know what either professor is like? It would be a shame to sign up for one class only to find out that the professor in the other class was better.
Grading the Teacher This is where the website RateMyProfessor.com comes into play. For several years this website has been establishing itself within universities nationwide as a trusted and credible source about professors with comments and critiques from their very own students. As it is anonymous students are free to post exactly how they felt about the class, whether it is good or bad. The site provides a ranking of every professor on a scale from one to five on their helpfulness, clarity, easiness, and even their “hotness.” However, as this is hardly indicative of a professor and their teaching style, there is an additional section provided for more in-depth comments about the professors and the classes they teach. These comments are essential to knowing whether or not you will like a professor. For example, at a mostly conservative university there was a political science professor that was a known democrat. His teachings rubbed many of his republican students the wrong way and they called him out for it in the comment section of his review page. It brought down his overall ranking as a professor, despite the fact that he was extremely qualified for the position and taught his subject well. However, because the students wrote in the comments to “watch out” for him because he was a democrat, those with more liberal persuasions were able to see that and sign up for the class, knowing that his overall score did not reflect what kind of a professor he would be to them.
Get Both Sides of the Story It doesn’t matter what subject you may be studying in school, whether it is business administration, accounting, or event planning – be sure that you are getting the education that you deserve by double checking your schedule and professors with RateMyProfessor.com first. Plan out your schedule ahead of
time around the professors that you know are going to be able to teach you to your needs and do it well. Also, it is important to be aware that there is another section on the site entitled “Professors Strike Back,� in which they are able to defend themselves and their classes against the comments from students that have been made against them. Be sure to read both sides of the story before coming to any final decisions. Photo credit: beni_bb