Rate My Professors

Reporter Meghan Fox tells us about RateMyProfessors.com, and the reaction of students and faculty to the website.

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News & Politics

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• professors

[creampackage]

I have seen some dumb reviews on that site before. I have had great teachers who are nice and easy get slammed and vice versa. Am I the only one alone here?

[leibet1]

Yes, people forget that this is an anonymous site: it is not Craig'slist or so forth. Angry, self-involved kids just vent on it and can leas others away from a prof who might really work for them,

[MajBlood]

Obviously, not every comment on rate my prof is fair. But for the most part it is a pretty accurate representation of the prof. If the prof on the site has a sad face next to their name, chances are they are a bad prof. Or else so many wouldn't get on there and complain.

[herictopia]

@creampackage

@creampackage No you are not. I have had great teachers (senior) and they've changed my life. However, I've had many that were an absolute negative influence to me. I like professor performance

better because first, it's not run by mtv, and second, it's fair to the teachers.

For disclosure, I know the person behind the site, but not affiliated at all.

[ThePokekid78]

what will happen if your comment gets removed and it says 'this comment is pending review'?

[thehantavirus]

You can usually tell when a posting on ratemyprofessor is biased. Eg, the student talks about himself all the time and none about the professor. Some comments that are negative about the professor are actually true, if you see common posts that have similiar content

[DeadlyChinchilla]

There are some AWFUL instructors out there.

I had an accounting prof at one college tell an entire class we "were too stupid to get into REAL college" (he'd gone to Stanford). I have one now that NEVER gives an A, even to projects he ADMITS are "flawless." Another that failed a student because there was a cat hair on their finals project, another who bullied students who were not his preferred major. The list goes on.

My mother (teacher of 34 y) would tell you horrors from her school.

[DeadlyChinchilla]

@mitchwayne1 You've been walking around with your eyes half closed if you've only met one or two bad instructors in 22 years. How ridiculous.

Online sites give students the opportunity to be honest, since inst's who are bad are likely to impact their evaluation in class should they actually speak out. Inst's with tenure are even worse, even insulting other instructors! Students communicating on which inst's are vile gives them control over their own educations, a very RESPONSIBLE action.

[mitchwayne1]

@DeadlyChinchilla First, where are all of these terrible profs? I mean, I have been in the university system for 22 years and have only seen one or two in that time! Also, bad evaluations and complaints to the department chair really make a difference. On-line comment sites are one-way and ridiculous. They make no real difference and teach students to behave irresponsibly: ie you can make any comment you want and no one will know...That's a gossip model, and won't serve students in the long run.

[mitchwayne1]

@ocdist That would be more fair, but it is probably never going to happen as the srudents are protected by anonymity and the profs are not.

[DeadlyChinchilla]

@mitchwayne1 Professors who abuse their position of authority do NOT deserve protection. There are very few real avenues for students with legitimate problem instructors, and yes, there are PLENTY of them. Instructors are not always cream of the crop, they're people just like anyone else, and people are flawed.

[DeadlyChinchilla]

There is a difference between a slacker student with no real complaint. "Oh, he's hard!" Whiners. And REAL complaints. I have an instructor that is EXTREMELY rude, yells at students, talks down to them, rants for hours every class about himself and his exploits, grades inconsistantly student to student (and unpredictably), finds fault even where none exist (especially for those NOT in his preferred major), and even pushes his evangelical Christianity.

How do students take this on, eh?