There is no worse feeling than snagging the last class needed for the semester’s schedule only to find the horrifying red frown face next to the teacher’s name on the Rate My Professors website. The perfect class at the perfect time at the perfect place has a fatal flaw.
For some students, the fight ends there. They surrender to the fact that they will be crawling out of bed for an 8 a.m. class after all. However, the red frown face may be entirely insignificant.
The most important part of research is the source. Students use many websites while signing up for classes. The two most widely used are Rate My Professors and Koofer’s. Rate my Teacher and MyEdu are also good choices.
Each site offers a slightly different design. Most sites provide reviews from students who have taken specific classes with particular professors. However, as with all reviews there can be biases. Students need to do some detective work.
“Students give opinions based on what they got in the class, not always on how the class or teacher is. So I’m careful with it,” said Martin Coley, a junior Mathematics Education major. Reviewers often rate professors on the difficulty of the class rather than the quality.
Sometimes the reviews are just petty, such as a student who complained they were not allowed to pick their own groups or a student who said the professor only gave them half the answers. These reviews are unhelpful about the class but provide amusing insight into the reviewer.
Koofer’s may be a good choice for the really inquiring student. It describes a teacher’s projects, homework, exams and whether a teacher has the tendency to curve grades or give extra credit.
MyEdu is another great alternative where students create personal profiles listing their own skills, projects and work experience. Uniquely, MyEdu offers information regarding internships and jobs. The site also has a helpful MyEdu Schedule Planner feature.
These websites can help inquiring students who want in-depth information on a teacher’s methods and work requirements as well as the students who want to cut to the chase and answer the all- important question of what grade they are likely to get.
“It all depends on how carefully you piece together the reviews of a teacher in order to get close to the truth,” said junior Human Services major Sarah Heim. It is important to remember that these rating systems are not an exact science. The 8 a.m. class may not be better than the later, more convenient class after all.
