Relying on 'Rate Your Professor'...

[Guest KaciMI]

It is the fad with DE students and college students to use 'Rate Your Professor' in choosing classes. How can you tell if you're simply getting an easy professor vs. one who is actually teaching something?

 

My DD chose a professor for her last class and the professor expected much from her students and DD had to work hard. But, she told me it was her favorite class and not the least bit boring. She learned a lot from the teacher.

 

Should we skip 'Rate Your Professor' and talk with the advisors about selecting teachers?

[Dana]

The students who post on RMP are the ones who either love or hate their instructors. You might get some general ideas about an instructor from it, but I definitely would take any reviews with a shaker of salt.

 

For instance, one of the math instructors at the cc has a lot of really strong reviews on RMP. However, students I get who had him for a prior class are generally in deep trouble. He cancels class regularly, gives take home exams, and doesn't cover all the material a student needs for a subsequent course.

 

Great reviews on RMP for him.... but I'd never let my son take a course from this guy.

[Guest KaciMI]

So, how do we skip those kinds of professors?

[Dana]

So, how do we skip those kinds of professors?

 

Unfortunately, it's not necessarily easy. :glare:

Sometimes you're stuck with only one professor who teaches the one course you need. Then you get to learn how to suck it up and get the credit. (Also a potentially useful skill.)

 

If you know people you trust who teach at the school, get their off-the-record opinions. Listen to the "talk" around campus from other students. Listen to the reasons students give for liking or disliking a professor. "Love the class; easy A," may be a warning if you're looking for actual learning.

 

I don't think there's much harm with reading RMP although you really have to ignore the ratings, read the comments - reading between the lines, and be aware that you're only getting the students who love or hate the instructor (or in some cases just anyone who knew the instructor... you don't have to have ever taken a course to rate someone).

[AngieW in Texas]

So far my dd has found the professors who are rated very high to be great. The teacher's she's had who have had wildly divergent ratings have also been very good. She hasn't yet had one with lousy ratings, but that is likely to happen in the spring. She needs to take Trig and there is only one teacher and he has lousy reviews.

 

You need to be sure to read the comments rather than just looking at the numbers.

[Alyce]

She has said they are usually very true but just because they are liked doesn't mean the course is an easy course. Sometimes it is true because of the style of the teacher, one time my dd changed professors because this site said the professor was foreign and it was extremely hard to understand him. One of her friends had this professor at the same time Dd took the same course under different professor. Her friend confirmed the rating was spot on and she struggled through the class all year because she couldn't understand him. I would use this as a guide not gospel truth. Like PP said One student in the class may like him & one may hate him but they can be helpful. And then their are the situations because of schedule conflicts you just have to take the teacher you get. I'd still have your DD put her thoughts up on the site. They may be helpful to someone who is looking for a teacher just like Dd had instead of a teacher that will give an easy A.

[regentrude]

It has been my experience as a professor that the students who rate often are students who are failing the class and have to blame it on the instructor. Occasionally a student who is doing well will take the time to rate; students in mid-field almost never take the time.

Currently I teach two hundred students each year, typically get only one or two ratings per year, more often than not it is a student who is failing who airs his grievance.

When I taught eight hundred students a year, I would get maybe ten ratings.

So, ratemyprofessor is in no way an indicator for the actual quality of the instruction. I would recommend talking to students who have taken the class, and to other faculty for the department - they have apretty good idea who the good instructors are.

[LBS]

We use RateMyProfessor.com for my daughter to get a little preview of the teacher. Her U is small, so she could not pick and choose amongst 15 sections and times of a certain class, but she's a kid who doesn't pick up the nuances and personality quirks of a professor really quickly, and life is so serious and heavy for her. When she would read ahead that a particular professor was tough on class discussion, but not on testing, for instance, she could prepare for that....it gave her a clue. She's not very social, so does not have a large network of friends to chat with about professors, either. She is making an A in a tough linguistics class right now, because she read that a teacher was seemingly spacey, but brilliant. The advice was to go to her when you get stuck, and talk to her. My extreme introvert child did that and now has this cool prof who is a supportive friendly to her. She wrote the text they use, and it is very highly rated, and I have no clue why she seems spacey in class.

 

My son goes to a huge, huge U, and we sat down and made a cheat sheet of the professors that kids loved and admired and those that were hated, before he went to orientation. (I was glad he did not look for teachers who were noted as "easy, just show up" or "just attend class and don't snore" types, but rather "really got the material covered and was fun" or "best teacher ever, he changed my life". Hope that was not just because we were working together :001_rolleyes: ) I know he appreciated it, because he's told me more than once that his Calc prof is really cool, and others have awful profs. Well, pretty sure he appreciated it. We'll see if he uses it again for registration coming up. I am pretty sure, a great teacher rating may not weight his choice as much as an afternoon vs. early morning class, but, wonders never cease.

 

I think the kids are savvy enough to see that other kids use that open forum to rant, sometimes unfairly. Eight kids saying "he changed my life" "he made me finally understand Statistics" "Really fair, if you just go talk to her when you have trouble" outweigh the one or two who write "stupid, hard grader, totally unfair, never in his office for help".

 

Its just another tool, we use it when it fits.

 

Hope this helps,

LBS

[kiana]

Read between the lines. If they're along the lines of 'she is a skank ho', ignore completely. If they're along the lines of 'easiest class ever', well, don't take unless you're really looking for the easiest class ever. If they're something like 'man this guy is touuuugh', he may or may not be worthwhile. He may be tough because he expects a lot of his students, or tough because he writes problems just to mess with people. And if it's something like 'he has really dreadful body odor and it's very distracting', well, that's something to take into consideration.

[8filltheheart]

Looking at the reasons has helped our ds. For example, there is a professor on ds's campus that has a low rating b/c his English is impossible to understand. Ds originally ignored that comment on RYP but after the 1st class recognized that it was a very accurate assessment.

[Tullia]

 

It can be helpful but ds has decided that you need to interpret reviews carefully. For example, a negative review poorly worded with no specifics isn't much help and probably means that a lazy student got a bad grade. However, he's found that many times the reviews offering details turn out to be accurate. A summary of his experience over the past 4 terms:

 

1. Good reviews don't necessarily mean the class is easy; usually it indicates that the expectations are made clear up-front and the instructor follows the syllabus closely.

 

2. Ds has had good experiences with instructors who had terrible reviews. One was with an instructor who speaks English as a second language. For a change ds took my advice, sat on the front row, asked questions in and after class. By the end of the 2nd week he was able to understand the guy and signed up with the same instructor next term. Another instance seems to be that an instructor with bad habits had changed her ways. Ds enjoyed the class, learned some useful information, and ended the term with a good grade.

 

3. He made the mistake of taking a class over the summer, though, with an instructor even though there were serious warning signs--exams and daily work didn't match. He learned his lesson and changed his schedule this term after seeing negative reviews about another instructor's in-class political rants and finding out that no other instructor uses the same text.

 

I did take an opportunity once to get a look (from a distance) at an instructor who has lots of remarks that he is a "hottie" on his review page. I was disappointed, LOL, guess I'm too old or need new glasses. It could only be that he doesn't look like the stereotype of folks in his field.

 

 

[Photo Ninja]

My dc look at RMP before registering for some classes because it helps them get an idea of what an instructor is like. So far they have found the ratings to be fairly accurate. They ask people they know about instructors first, then turn to RMP if they can't find anyone who has taken a class with the instructor. So far they have been happy with instructors they have picked based on RMP, and they are not just looking for easy classes. Some of their favorite instructors have been those with comments about tests being difficult, etc. My dc have found that usually the tests are only difficult for students who skip classes and don't pay attention to lectures.

[Mom22ns]

I spent some time on Rate My Professor before taking some CC classes. The ones I steered away from were those that said, "this prof doesn't care and/or make no effort". If they were good because they were easy, I wasn't necessarily interested either, but if they were good because explanations were so clear, I was.

 

Overall, what I found to be important was not the rating, but the reasons behind it. I read a lot of reviews and tried to get a good feel for why students gave their ratings. When I was in college, we went in blind. Sometimes you knew one or two people who had the prof before you, but that was about it. I think Rate my Professor is a great way to try to avoid some of the real duds and to find some of the real gems. It is far from perfect, but I wouldn't ignore it.

[angela in ohio]

Read between the lines. If they're along the lines of 'she is a skank ho', ignore completely. If they're along the lines of 'easiest class ever', well, don't take unless you're really looking for the easiest class ever. If they're something like 'man this guy is touuuugh', he may or may not be worthwhile. He may be tough because he expects a lot of his students, or tough because he writes problems just to mess with people. And if it's something like 'he has really dreadful body odor and it's very distracting', well, that's something to take into consideration.

 

I agree. I have used it to look up profesors for several of my courses, and the ratings have been accurate, after I factored out disgruntled students and the illiterate. :001_smile:

[Mejane]

My daughter has actually had good luck with RMP. We ignore extreme reviews. If the majority of reviewers are positive with regard to expectations, fairness, knowlege of and enthusiasm about subject, she will try the prof. She doesn't look for easy, she looks for good.

[LBS]

but now lets get to the funny part: where you can rate the professor as HOT! The little chili pepper sign?

 

One male student commented on a female prof as being "easy on the eyes" which helps his concentration? Yeah.

 

A female commenting on a male prof called him "eye candy".

 

Okay, well, I guess a hot prof can't hurt at all, but it would be distracting to me.

 

LBS

 

PS Speaking of literacy, I am amazed every day at he mis-spelled words in forums such as RateMyProfessor....it kinda gives you a clue as angela in ohio notes.

Edited October 12, 2010 by LBS

[flyingiguana]

My daughter has found that professors with low ratings tend to be the better professors -- they seem to be the ones committed to actually teaching something. The high ratings have seemed to go to those professors who don't care if their students learn.

 

Some professors that my daughter has loved got rather poor ratings, with very specific comments about the professor's failings. While she found that those comments were generally accurate, they were a teeny portion of what that professor was all about and not at all helpful.

 

Also, you have to be sure the ratings are for the class you intend to take. My daughter has a professor right now who just does not seem to be cut out for teaching higher level majors classes. But he gets ok-ish reviews for his non-major classes. No one has rated him for the majors classes. I don't think anyone would dare. They will be seeing him the rest of their time in college, they will have to get letters of recommendation from him -- it's just too risky to possibly alienate him when he figures out that you're the one who left that less than stellar comment. Perhaps it's telling that no one left a positive comment for his majors courses.

 

At one point, the Univ of Chicago was doing a study where they were tracking ratings by students and correlating them with the grades they got in the class -- I know that some colleges had tried to do this in the past, but they relied on self reported grades which were notoriously inaccurate. I believe that UC was finding quite a correlation between good grades and good ratings. So if you get a professor who expects students to actually work and learn something, that professor's scores will be a lot lower than a professor who just gives everyone A's and doesn't expect much. So you have to ask what you want, when you're looking at ratings. Do you want a professor who's actually going to teach? If so he/she might be rated quite low.

Edited October 12, 2010 by flyingiguana