By Kortni Robinson
Have you ever wondered how difficult a class or professor will be before registering for a class? Rate My Professors is a website that could possibly answer some of these questions for you.
With more than 15 million ratings, along with listings of 1.4 million professors and over 7,000 schools, RateMyProfessors is one of the largest websites to check out whether that teacher you’re taking next semester is one you will enjoy or will be a total drag. Students can log on to comment and rate schools as well.
History Professor Richard Verrone laughed at some of his reviews. Kortni Robinson/The Hub@TTU.
According to the website, “choosing the best courses and professors is a rite of passage for every student, and connecting with peers on the site has become a key way for millions of students to navigate this process.”
However, some students and professors do not find the information on the site to be very accurate.
“I think the kinds of students that tend to review me, or any other faculty, on Rate My Professors are typically the ones who have had a really negative experience,” said Kristina Mitchell, a political science instructor at Texas Tech.
Senior finance major Haiden Bick disagrees. She said the website has been accurate, in her experiences with it.
“Students ranked one of my professors as hot, and he definitely was hot,” she said.
Rate My Professors lets students anonymously evaluate their professors or schools. However, there is no way to tell whether the commenters even took that course or attended that university.
Sophomore business management major Courtney Mills said she has used it but has come across some reviews she found to be untrue.
“One professor I looked up — all the reviews said he was a hard grader and that you’d pretty much fail even if you go to class,” Mills said. “They also said he was a really bad professor. I got in his class, and I ended up getting an A and enjoyed the class.”
Kassidy Cox, a sophomore psychology major, agrees with Mills. She said some of the reviews about history instructor Richard Verrone are not necessarily true as well.
“In my opinion, some of Dr. Verrone’s ratings on Rate My Professor are inaccurate,” she said. “He is one of the best teachers I have had during my time at Tech. He made a subject I struggled with in high school so much more entertaining to where I looked forward to it. He’s a great professor, and he always showed his students he cared about us as people, too!”
Click on this ThingLink to learn more about Rate My Professors!
For a more accurate depiction of what a course will be like, or at least how the professor has graded previous students, check out the course’s grade distribution on Raiderlink. This tool shows how many of each letter grade were given out during the previous semester, which may help students decide which professor to take a course with.
Example of Bill Dean’s Intro to Mass Communications course grade distribution for Fall 2015.
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