By Marcella Shandor —
Rate My Professor is a review website used by students to give their previous and current professors ratings based on their experiences in a classroom concerning the class itself as well as each professor. You can think of it as an academic version of Yelp.
Students can give ratings ranging from class level of difficulty to overall quality of the student’s experience and include specific tags such as “gives good feedback,” and “tough grader.”
Communication professor Gina Firenzi said the ratings seem to be accurate, but she thinks students should take classes that hold interest for them or classes that challenge them.
“I appreciate when students can give me feedback to make the course stronger – that is, ways the instructions or assignments could be made clearer. But I don’t really enjoy being reviewed based on my personality or other subjective feelings towards me personally,” Firenzi said.
She said some students might be deterred by others’ opinions of a course, not the facts of it.
“I wouldn’t want a student to get spooked by a class simply because another student felt negatively towards the teacher,” Firenzi said.
Sophomore Murphy Lamb said he has heard of Rate My Professor, but doesn’t base his class or professor choice by it. Instead he uses it once his classes are chosen to give him an idea of what to expect going into the semester.
“I think it can be a useful tool knowing what to expect going into a class,” Lamb said. He also said he likes the website as a whole but believes that some students can be a little harsh on the professors.
Sophomore Carter Cantrell uses Rate My Professor every semester before he schedules his classes.
“I feel like sometimes people exaggerate on the site but most of the time it is pretty accurate,” Cantrell said.
File Photo / The Louisville Cardinal
