By Riley Horton
We have already reached the week in our academic calendar where we know what the next semester has in store for us. Most of us have made our schedules already, but for those who haven’t or are already anticipating the next enrollment, you might be seeking ways to make the enrollment process easier. Class registration can be easy, hard, or, for most of us, somewhere in the middle. One of the biggest tools college students have been using since 1999 to make this process easier is the one and only Ratemyprofessors.com. But how useful is it actually? Is this website helpful or hurtful to the registration process?
If you haven't heard of the popular website already, Ratemyprofessors.com gives students the opportunity to rate a professor from 1-5, in overall quality and level of difficulty. Student’s can also share their reason for taking the class and leave whatever other comments they may have.
After rating their professor in all of these categories, they can then go on to write any information about the professor’s class that they think is of good use to fellow students. This information could include the professor's teaching style, how their attitude is when interacting with students, and how reliable they are when it comes to office hours and replying to emails. Usually when students choose to rate a professor, it is because they absolutely loved them, or absolutely hated them.
The first student I interviewed, who we will call “Student 1” has mixed feelings about my professor but overall finds it to be a valuable resource.
“I used it last summer before my freshman year, and while it was helpful, I do feel like covid last year made it harder for the students to give ratings that were accurate since they did not get to take their professor’s class under normal circumstances,” Student 1 says. “My current chemistry professor had very high ratings but I personally am not a fan of his teaching style, so I felt like that was misleading.
Overall Student 1 finds the website “very useful” and plans on using it for spring enrollment, but will also get the scoop on professors by talking to older students in person.
The next student I interviewed, who will be referred to as “Student 2”, didn’t get much use out of the website.
“Every professor I currently have either has a rating of 3, or no page with ratings whatsoever,” Student 2 said. “None of my professors without pages were as bad as my logic professor. It is unlikely I will be using rate my professor when picking my spring classes. My top priority for next spring is scheduling classes at a time that I like, regardless of who is teaching it. I feel like I can deal with a tough professor if I need to.”
Overall, every student will have a different experience with my professor. Some may find it to be very accurate, while others tend to be blindsided by it. As always, it is good to seek out help from multiple resources when signing up for classes, whether it be from your academic advisor, older students, or your own family.
Comments