I shouldn't have checked Rate My Professor

[Sebastian (a lady)]

DS is registering for a dual enrollment community college class.  There are far fewer sections for the math 101 course than for the remedial courses.  Only five sections to choose from.  One is at night and one is already waitlisted with 10 on the waitlist.  One has TBA for the instructor.  The last two are taught by the same instructor.

 

When I looked at Rate My Professor, the reviews were really harsh.  Lots of students in a variety of the college level courses complaining that he doesn't do a good job of explaining things in class.  He teaches at several different schools in the area and the reviews were consistent from school to school (although ours did have the lowest average - which may reflect as much on the student body as on the professor).

 

On the plus side, the reviews that were positive indicated that he was really helpful in office hours.  So maybe looking at these with my ds may have impressed on him the need to stay up with his homework and ask for help right away.

 

But it did add a little more trepidation than I needed in this process.

[Luckymama]

One of dd19's professors for this semester (required class for one of her majors; only section that works with her other, also required, classes) has similar ratings: not a good explainer but very helpful (and nice, actually). She's hopeful it will work well.

 

Dd has found that RmP ratings have been true-to-form for her past classes. It might be because she attends a large university with a large pool of commenters. I know that RmP isn't as helpful at other schools.

[regentrude]

Dd has found that RmP ratings have been true-to-form for her past classes. It might be because she attends a large university with a large pool of commenters. I know that RmP isn't as helpful at other schools.

 

I have posted this before: there may be large pools, but the percentage of commenting students is extremely small.

I have taught around 4,000 students and have 37 ratings, so less than 1% of students bother to comment on RmP. Among those an over-represented portion from disgruntled students who failed the class. I found RmP to be very out of sync with the evaluations at the end of the semester (which have a 30-40% return rate).

[EKS]

We found the Rate My Professor comments to be generally accurate especially if you look at overall trends.  The more specific the comments, the more in line they seemed to be with reality.  So "This is the worst instructor ever" was not helpful but "This instructor assigns easy problems for homework and ridiculously difficult problems on exams" generally had a grain of truth.  Also, consistently poor RMP ratings in combination with lots of room in the instructor's sections (and large wait lists for others that weren't obviously at better times) was a huge red flag.

 

 

[creekland]

I think we'd take a chance on TBA based upon what you've seen.

 

For the most part, I agree that RmP results that my guys have had have been spot on - IF you look at detail and not just good/bad.  My guys haven't minded hard/difficult, but the "can't teach" or "only reviews power point and/or book" comments seem to be true.  

 

Do note though, my middle son has been successful getting As in classes with some of these profs when he can't change his schedule.  He just knows he needs to be on a VERY homeschooling mode of "figure it out yourself using any method you can" instead of expecting a bit of classroom instruction to work.  Office hours are worthwhile - as can be google or those who have BTDT.

 

But their preference is to go with previously loved profs who are known for great classroom experiences if at all possible.

[EKS]

I should also mention that I was looking at the RMP ratings/comments long before my son ever even knew about it.  I found it interesting how similar his comments about his instructors were to what was written there.  I mean, sometimes he even used the same phrases.

[FaithManor]

Yah, the last time I taught cc, many moons ago, I got dinged by two lazy boys who ditched 2/3 of the classes, never turned in an assigment, and got F's on the final. They were mad they failed!

 

A better idea is to go talk to some A/B and some C students who have recently taken the course. The C students may beable to give a better picture on how available the prof is for help and the upper students can say if he/she taught over their heads and they had to struggle to get those grades, was as expected for difficulty, or felt it was easy. The school can't tell you who is who, but the students usually know and especially if there was a study group because they tend to share that with one another.

[regentrude]

Yah, the last time I taught cc, many moons ago, I got dinged by two lazy boys who ditched 2/3 of the classes, never turned in an assigment, and got F's on the final. They were mad they failed!

 

A better idea is to go talk to some A/B and some C students who have recently taken the course. The C students may beable to give a better picture on how available the prof is for help and the upper students can say if he/she taught over their heads and they had to struggle to get those grades, was as expected for difficulty, or felt it was easy. The school can't tell you who is who, but the students usually know and especially if there was a study group because they tend to share that with one another.

 

Agree.

But you can't really win with availability. For one course, I was running a weekly homework help session the afternoon and evening before homework was due, and I got a nasty comment that I am only helping them with their homework for 3 hours a week.

(Never mind that we also offer 8 hours of free walk-in tutoring for the course on campus). From the tone and other info in the comment, I know exactly which student wrote it - an F student whom I had told to stop texting and put her phone away so she could pay attention.

 

Shrug. It is ironic to see comments next to each other that say "She is boring and can not explain" and  "Awesome. One of the best teachers I ever had!" for the same course in the same semester.

 

 

[creekland]

Agree.

But you can't really win with availability. For one course, I was running a weekly homework help session the afternoon and evening before homework was due, and I got a nasty comment that I am only helping them with their homework for 3 hours a week.

(Never mind that we also offer 8 hours of free walk-in tutoring for the course on campus). From the tone and other info in the comment, I know exactly which student wrote it - an F student whom I had told to stop texting and put her phone away so she could pay attention.

 

Shrug. It is ironic to see comments next to each other that say "She is boring and can not explain" and  "Awesome. One of the best teachers I ever had!" for the same course in the same semester.

 

If, say, I just looked up yours... ;)  I can easily say that my guys would have taken your class and been looking forward to it.  Actually middle son would probably ask you to do an exchange program this semester so you could teach his class rather than the prof he's getting.  Any chance you'd want to spend fall semester in Rochester?

 

A few negatives are NOT a problem as all of us know there will always be disgruntled students.  The details many of the happy students offer are quite compelling - even if I go back a few years - definitely in the more "modern" era.  If I were in your shoes, I'd be pleased with my rating... esp for the course you teach knowing that it is NOT most people's favorite.   :hurray:

 

I have a distinct feeling that the prof the OP is talking about - esp for a basic math class - is not of the same quality.  The OP wouldn't have started a "distress" thread if they could have you as the prof... ;)

 

Just my two cents.  I know as a teacher (granted, not a prof, but similar) we always want every single student to be satisfied, but we can't work miracles - esp when the student puts forth little effort and expects gold stars.  I know I'm loved at school (by the students), but even so, there are some... It's that way for any good teacher who expects effort.  Those who aren't gifted in the teaching field rarely have students who sing their praises unless they literally "give" As, and even then, those who truly want an education won't give good reviews.

 

I'd be having a bit of an ego boost if I read the following about me... and, um, if I guessed incorrectly in my search, then I feel this way about this prof.   :tongue_smilie:  If I'm correct in my search - I'd have expected no less and many, many kudos to you, Regentrude!

 

Edited to remove actual quotes to allow privacy - suffice it to say they are quite good IMO.

[creekland]

ps... I only copied and pasted the most recent four reviews (there are more like those) because I really think you're underselling yourself somewhat as it pertains to RmP.  It surprised me a bit... your reaction to the site - not your actual reviews. Others of our family ought to be able to share in your kudos... I suspect you're terrific and other students appear to share that thought.   ;)

 

And of course, this all assumes that I did my little bit of guessing correctly!

 

I will absolutely NOT share my guessed info with anyone privately or otherwise.

[regentrude]

ps... I only copied and pasted the most recent four reviews (there are more like those) because I really think you're underselling yourself somewhat as it pertains to RmP.  It surprised me a bit... your reaction to the site - not your actual reviews.

 

it really depends very much on the course and student audience. When I taught the engineering physics, I got more bad comments - the most recent ones are for a course for science majors which tends to be more forgiving to teach.

But my main point were not the comments themselves but rather the low response rate of below 1% which is simply a small sample size that may not be representative, especially since the sample is self-selecting.

[creekland]

it really depends very much on the course and student audience. When I taught the engineering physics, I got more bad comments - the most recent ones are for a course for science majors which tends to be more forgiving to teach.

But my main point were not the comments themselves but rather the low response rate of below 1%.

 

I agree on the response rate.  Now that my middle son (and with my older son before he graduated) has been at college he uses other students he trusts far more.  But... as entering freshmen, it's tough.  I have my guys put useful information in regarding their profs to attempt to help others discern what they can.

 

You do realize it's tempting to reword those ratings (so google isn't quite so telling) and still share with our hive family, right? ;)

 

Others shall have to take my word for it I suppose.

  One is at night and one is already waitlisted with 10 on the waitlist.  One has TBA for the instructor.

 

"TBA" at a CC probably means "an adjunct we haven't hired yet", who may never have taught before.  I would be very wary of TBA because it is more likely to be someone with no little to no teaching experience.

[creekland]

"TBA" at a CC probably means "an adjunct we haven't hired yet", who may never have taught before.  I would be very wary of TBA because it is more likely to be someone with no little to no teaching experience.

 

I agree, but it sounds like it could be better than the other option.  Sad, isn't it?  Considering the facts that have been shared, I'd likely suggest TBA - then be glad I could personally help with issues if needed.

 

Experience teaching often helps (not with some really bad "set in their ways" folks), but future "good" teachers, while not at their best in the beginning, are usually still better than "not-so-good" teachers.

[Teachin'Mine]

I'd suggest going with the evening class.  I'd also check when payments are due and ask when those who haven't paid are dropped.  That's the time to look for openings in the other time slots.  If you can register for one and be waitlisted for another, I'd go with that option, but I'd be surprised if that's allowable.

[Sebastian (a lady)]

We are almost there.  Registration is complete.  We got to stand in line with a couple other students trying to register in person after the online registration crashed.  I had a lot of time to people watch.  Interesting how little difference I see between a 16 yo junior and a high school graduate. 

 

He got into the first choice section.  It's with the instructor who may be iffy, but he'll have to deal with it since the other sections really weren't options time wise.

 

Now I just need to get one more form signed by dh's work so that we can demonstrate that we fall into the category for an exception to get in state tuition.

 

Almost there, almost there.

[raptor_dad]

I went back to school in my 30s at a top ~15 state school circa 2005. My experience was that RmP correlated well with how easy the class was. I had great professors with easy curves who rated well. I had crappy professors with easy curves who rated well. Any profs that had with stringent curves had very low RmP ratings.

 

I went to a top LAC out of HS. I returned to a top state school later. Among the best professors I've *ever* had was my O-chem prof. He was a *very* formal Indian. He did all his lectures on an overhead projecter. It was all rather quaint. However, he structured his lectures amazingly well... if you wanted to learn the material it was amazingly approachable. Likewise, the biochem and immunology profs who were reputed to be A*holes, did a great job and were well worth the effort. The social science and biology profs who were highly ranked on RmP were clearly wasting my time and theirs.

 

RmP is great for two things. It can either find you an easy course to meet distributional requirements -or- it can help you avoid the most incompetent/disinterested profs. Beyond that it is worthless.

[creekland]

RmP is great for two things. It can either find you an easy course to meet distributional requirements -or- it can help you avoid the most incompetent/disinterested profs. Beyond that it is worthless.

 

Our experience has been quite a bit different.  My guys look for comments that include "best professor ever, very organized" or "makes a difficult class easier to understand," or "difficult class, but the professor is worth it," and things like that.  When they've found these types of comments, they've never been disappointed.  Generally the "easy" rating is not necessarily the highest, but then again, mine have been taking tough classes, so it's doubtful many could make them "easy" and still pass the tests later.

 

Mine have not have the "pleasure" of meeting totally incompetent/disinterested profs.  They have met some with less than stellar ratings who weren't the best at teaching or had various quirks, but they still got to know them personally and tended to find that once they did so, the prof was interested.  Teaching classes might still not have been their thing, but office hours could help with explanations, etc.

 

Nonetheless, given a choice, they'll prefer those in the first paragraph as classes tend to be far more educational with them.

 

Mine have not had any profs they didn't get to know in person regardless of the size of the class.

[Gwen in VA]

About TBA -- I totally agree that often the "to be announced" means that a newbie prof is being hired, one that has little experience teaching.

 

Sometimes, however, TBA can mean a truly outstanding visiting professor. Many years ago as a dual enrolled student, dd was the LAST person to sign up for Calc 1 at our local r-year college. The olnly spot available with a TBA class, so she had to sign up for the unknown prof.

 

The TBA prof was a visiting prof from a country that has a strong reputation in math, and he definitely lived up to the reputation. Yes, he was foreign and difficult to understand. On the other hand, he was brilliant mathematician, a fantastic teacher, and a helpful tutor. His quizzes were challenging beyond belief, but she learned so much in the class that the final (taken by ALL sections of Calc 1 at the school) was trivial. Because of this prof, she ended up the class with a love of math that has lasted through grad school in engineering. Dd would rank this unknown TBA prof as one of her best profs ever.

 

This post was meant to encourage those who end up having to take classes with TBA profs. It may be a blessing in disguise!

[regentrude]

About TBA -- I totally agree that often the "to be announced" means that a newbie prof is being hired, one that has little experience teaching.

 

Sometimes, however, TBA can mean a truly outstanding visiting professor. ....

 

This post was meant to encourage those who end up having to take classes with TBA profs. It may be a blessing in disguise!

 

Yet another take on TBA:

our department for example does not announce the instructors for multi-section courses until the first day of class. While almost all of the instructors already know way in advance which course they will be teaching, the distribution of the sections is not decided until a  few days before classes start, when we know exactly how many sections we need to run and are able to work out a schedule. Most of the instructors have been with the department for years or decades.

So, sometimes, tba just means that the department has not made a final decision about scheduling. Nothing more.

[Sebastian (a lady)]

Yet another take on TBA:

our department for example does not announce the instructors for multi-section courses until the first day of class. While almost all of the instructors already know way in advance which course they will be teaching, the distribution of the sections is not decided until a few days before classes start, when we know exactly how many sections we need to run and are able to work out a schedule. Most of the instructors have been with the department for years or decades.

So, sometimes, tba just means that the department has not made a final decision about scheduling. Nothing more.

This is much like the system I had for undergrad. Classes that were one of a kind had a particular prof listed. But math, science and engineering core classes, which hundreds of us were taking were unknown until the prof walked in.

 

In this case it looks like instructor who taught before isn't teaching this year. The tba now has a name and I think it is someone who's been on campus a while. But for us it didn't actually matter because that ended up overlapping with Latin III.

 

I just have one more form to chase down. Hopefully I can do it within the 5 days needed to pay after registration or we're starting over again.

[Dmmetler]

FWIW, for years, all my classes were "TBA" because there were three people job-sharing one position, and the department left it up to us as to how to divide the workload. In practice, we all had our own specialties, so usually we'd slice the pie the same way each time, but it never made it in the course schedule that way.

[G5052]

I'd be uneasy, but it doesn't sound like a disaster.  As long as he's available for questions, it should go fine.  Sometimes the way a professor explains things will click with the majority of the class, and not with a few individuals.  And people do tend to complain more about the bad experiences than the good.

 

Red flags would be things like this: late and unprepared for class, doesn't respond to emails, disorganized, bad temper, etc.

 

At the college where I work, TBA usually means a professor left and they're still working on hiring someone.  Last fall they hired a professor in my department five days before the semester with little teaching experience, but I heard from a few of his students that he was very organized and did fine with just a few hitches that he resolved.  So new isn't all bad.  Sometimes they will actually hold a TBA for a full-time professor if they are 90% sure that a full-time professor's section is going to be cancelled as a back-up so they retain a full load.

 

Every school is different though.

[regentrude]

Not entirely on topic, but related: this seems like a good moment for a reminder that adjunct or part time instructors are not worse at teaching than full time tenured, or tenure track, professors. You can have part time, non tenured faculty who are outstanding teachers, and you can have full professors who are absolutely horrible (and vice versa). The title and sort of appointment are no indication about the quality of the teaching. Neither do decades of experience always translate into better quality; you don't want a prof who has not revised his lecture notes for 20 years.

 

And lastly, some instructors are fantastic in a small class, but horrible in a large course where organization skills and attention to detail are much more crucial. So, the same person can excel in one course and be a disaster in another. A good department chair recognizes those different talents of the faculty and distributes teaching assignments accordingly.

[flyingiguana]

Hard courses tend to get worse reviews.  And teachers who present more material are often seen as harder.

 

I made the mistake of taking the "best" professor for genetics.  All the students I know told me he was the best.  His ratings were always consistently high.  But I found out later that he had skipped a huge pile of material that we really should have had.  I had to learn it on my own later.

 

So I'm leery of ratings.  Sometimes they're true.  But sometimes professors who are super easy or don't cover much get ranked really high  And the more thorough professors get rated really low because there are a lot of students who realize too late that they could have taken the easy guy.

 

I've also taken courses from other highly ranked professors that were really pretty bad.  Seems if someone comes in and tells jokes and spends a part of class time discussing movies and such, there are a lot of students who will rank him/her high, even if the professor can't teach.  And if it's a non-majors class in a science/math field, the reviews are just going to be all over the place. 

 

I know that the Univ of Chicago was doing a study on student grades and professor ratings.  Does anyone know if they ever published the results of that?

[swimmermom3]

Hard courses tend to get worse reviews.  And teachers who present more material are often seen as harder.

 

I made the mistake of taking the "best" professor for genetics.  All the students I know told me he was the best.  His ratings were always consistently high.  But I found out later that he had skipped a huge pile of material that we really should have had.  I had to learn it on my own later.

 

So I'm leery of ratings.  Sometimes they're true.  But sometimes professors who are super easy or don't cover much get ranked really high  And the more thorough professors get rated really low because there are a lot of students who realize too late that they could have taken the easy guy.

 

I've also taken courses from other highly ranked professors that were really pretty bad.  Seems if someone comes in and tells jokes and spends a part of class time discussing movies and such, there are a lot of students who will rank him/her high, even if the professor can't teach.  And if it's a non-majors class in a science/math field, the reviews are just going to be all over the place. 

 

I know that the Univ of Chicago was doing a study on student grades and professor ratings.  Does anyone know if they ever published the results of that?

 

I will look at RMP and Great Courses reviews, but I do so with some reservations, keeping in mind the best teachers in my own life.   The top two teachers that come to mind would never win any warm, fuzzy awards. My eighth grade teacher was a tall, sternly lovely nun who pushed for excellence and who had zero tolerance for slacking. I was more than a bit terrified of her, and yet, I couldn't work up the vehemence towards her that many of my classmates expressed. I pushed harder than I ever had before in school and when she dropped a graded essay on my desk, tapped the grade on the top of the paper with her finger, and gave me a slight smile, I knew that my writing was truly improving and that I had earned that grade.

 

In grad school, my favorite professor, that I can still quote, was an acerbic, demanding man who could set half the class on edge. Several students loathed him.  My feeling is that I don't pay a professor to be charming or to entertain me or to make me feel good about my deficiencies; I pay them to teach me. Interestingly, one of the things that enraged students in Dr. B's classes was that he insisted that all papers turned in be of the highest quality: no spelling errors, proper grammar and citations, and logical, clear thinking that was well-supported.  An older student commented loudly  that it "wasn't an effing English class."  Dr. B. shot back that without clear communication skills one would be worthless as a manager no matter how good your ideas or other skills were.  He kept that class at the edge of near mutiny, but he also kept the hamsters running on the wheels in our minds going at full speed. By the end of the year, it was one of the most exciting classrooms to be in.

 

I am amazed at how often students equate fun and easy with "good."

 

 

[Sebastian (a lady)]

I do agree with folks about the failings of the RMP site.  I was mostly looking for comments about understandability, ditching class, relying on online course sites without also teaching in class and similar issues. 

 

One thing that was interesting was to see which courses the student had been enrolled in.  A student who is enrolled in a low level remedial course may not be able to give good insight about the quality of teaching of pre-calc.

 

I did once see an amusing article that used comments in RMP as a means of evaluating two colleges.  The point of the authors (who were students at College A) was that if you looked at the comments, the reviews from College A students were about about course content and professor ability (and were mostly grammatically correct).  The reviews from College B were about what grade the student got and how good looking the prof was (and contained many errors and lots of profanity).  They asked which group of students you would most want to be in class with.

 

 

I do agree with folks about the failings of the RMP site.  I was mostly looking for comments about understandability, ditching class, relying on online course sites without also teaching in class and similar issues. 

 

One thing that was interesting was to see which courses the student had been enrolled in.  A student who is enrolled in a low level remedial course may not be able to give good insight about the quality of teaching of pre-calc.

 

I did once see an amusing article that used comments in RMP as a means of evaluating two colleges.  The point of the authors (who were students at College A) was that if you looked at the comments, the reviews from College A students were about about course content and professor ability (and were mostly grammatically correct).  The reviews from College B were about what grade the student got and how good looking the prof was (and contained many errors and lots of profanity).  They asked which group of students you would most want to be in class with.

 

And that article is here: http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/~wcd/rateprof.html  A little rough in places, but a good read.

 

And I agree with everyone above that the numerical ratings for professors are generally useless, but you can learn a thing or two by carefully reading the reviews themselves.

[Sebastian (a lady)]

And that article is here: http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/~wcd/rateprof.html  A little rough in places, but a good read.

 

And I agree with everyone above that the numerical ratings for professors are generally useless, but you can learn a thing or two by carefully reading the reviews themselves.

 

Yep, that is the one I was thinking of.

 

I do find it interesting that there were few if any reviews at this local community college that were anything like the Rutgers examples.  I think RMP has cleaned up their site (or the examples in the linked post were fictionalized).

 

 

Yep, that is the one I was thinking of.

 

I do find it interesting that there were few if any reviews at this local community college that were anything like the Rutgers examples.  I think RMP has cleaned up their site (or the examples in the linked post were fictionalized).

 

It wouldn't surprise me if the posts were fictionalized, but I still think there's a good lesson for our kids here, not just for RMP, but for amazon reviews and all kinds of things:  Your "5" ranking may be my "3", so the numbers don't mean much.  However, if you are careful, you can read into the reviews more than the raw numbers.

[Sebastian (a lady)]

I'm even closer now.  I turned in the paperwork for the waiver of out of state tuition and it was accepted with no issue.  (Actually, all of the parts of registration have gone easier than I anticipated based on the disastrous phone call with the outreach office back in April.)

 

Now I'm just waiting for email confirmation to come in so that I can pay before his registration gets kicked out.

 

Praying that this continues to be smooth.  (This part of my life really is giving me opportunity to rest in my prayer life and make sure I read my Bible each day.)

[Sebastian (a lady)]

DANCE WITH ME LADIES

:hurray: :party:

 

The waiver for in state tuition was approved, dropping the cost of the course by about $600.  Payment is made.  Classes start in a couple weeks. 

 

And I don't have the administrivia weighing on my anymore.  So happy that this has worked out.  After the horrid impression I got from the school at the beginning of this process, I found it hard to believe it would actually work out. 

[G5052]

DANCE WITH ME LADIES

:hurray: :party:

 

The waiver for in state tuition was approved, dropping the cost of the course by about $600.  Payment is made.  Classes start in a couple weeks. 

 

And I don't have the administrivia weighing on my anymore.  So happy that this has worked out.  After the horrid impression I got from the school at the beginning of this process, I found it hard to believe it would actually work out. 

 

  :hurray:  :hurray:  :hurray:

 

(because I can't dance with a bum ankle)

 

And no, I'm not on Rate My Professor at all, but for some reason there are very few ratings at all at one school I work for and pretty much just full-time professors at the other.   

[kiana]

  :hurray:  :hurray:  :hurray:

 

(because I can't dance with a bum ankle)

 

And no, I'm not on Rate My Professor at all, but for some reason there are very few ratings at all at one school I work for and pretty much just full-time professors at the other.   

 

I'm not on it either at any place I've taught, even though many are.

[Sebastian (a lady)]

I stayed up a couple nights ago looking at ratings for my alma mater. A few profs were still there from my day. And several more were friends and acquaintances who'd gone back there to teach. Funny to read.

[Rebel Yell]

We found the Rate My Professor comments to be generally accurate especially if you look at overall trends.  The more specific the comments, the more in line they seemed to be with reality.  So "This is the worst instructor ever" was not helpful but "This instructor assigns easy problems for homework and ridiculously difficult problems on exams" generally had a grain of truth.  Also, consistently poor RMP ratings in combination with lots of room in the instructor's sections (and large wait lists for others that weren't obviously at better times) was a huge red flag.

 

Yes- really read through the responses.  Diamond had an Engligh professor, HEAD OF THE DEPARTMENT, who had HORRIBLE ratings that didn't even begin to describe the uselessness of the class. Many of the ratings began with "I got an A or B in the class, so my review is not based on my grade..."

 

Diamond got an A in her class, and registered for her next semester classes on the first day she was eligible to avoid that teacher.

[MFG]

I stayed up a couple nights ago looking at ratings for my alma mater. A few profs were still there from my day. And several more were friends and acquaintances who'd gone back there to teach. Funny to read.

I checked the RMP site to see if I recognized any of my children's former professors. They have all graduated now so it was just a time wasting activity. To my surprise, I found a rating for my son! He is not any kind of professor but he did work as a lab assistant as an undergrad. 3 ratings, pretty average range, but he did get a chili pepper for hotness!