ratemyprofessor?

Question

The professors could always write comments about themselves to make them look good. How reliable is ratemyprofessor.com?

Answer 1

Think about it. Who's going to take time to rate their professors? Students who are either very happy or very upset. There's a broad range of scores for those types of sites. More often than not, students who don't get the grade they felt they deserve will try to get a final word in, or students who did well will praise the professor because they earned an A.

Look critically at the ratings. Avoid taking advice from people who use subjective terms like "good" or "nice." Look for people who will actually rate using solid examples from the course.

And always avoid taking advice from people who say a professor is "easy" or "hard." Easy probably means they don't expect much from you - where's the challenge? And hard probably means they do expect you to work. Isn't that why you're in college after all?

By the way, no self-respecting teacher would do anything to affect his scoring on a site like that. Don't worry about whether the ratings come from the professors themselves. It's rare.

Answer 2

You're absolutely right. Some professors can and do prop themselves up when they have nothing else to do. All professors are aware (even if they claim they aren't) of the website.

Ratemyprofessors.com is a reliable source only if there are many consistent comments about a professor. Since many people are obviously biased, some professors may be hard for one student while the same professors may be easy for another. One student may hate essay tests, Socratic method, etc etc., while another may love it.

Some professors may also write negative comments about themselves to keep students away from their class.

I'd say that the website is a great website, but don't use it as a guide to choose classes. Ask your friends about any particular teacher and they will give you a better opinion.

Answer 3

A recent study showed that the results of ratemyprofessor are very close to the results of internal reviews that colleges do of professors. It's a good representation.