Rate My Professor is an online resource for college students where they can read and write reviews about their professors. The website is an excellent tool for students to use as they register for courses. However, like most anything, Rate My Professor/Rate My Professors is not completely perfect. Sometimes you will stumble on vehemently biased reviews written by disgruntled students, which are subsequently, inaccurate.
The website has several functions put in place to bring objectivity to reviews, such as the "level of difficulty" metric as well as the "grade received" and "taken for credit or no" options. These quick-bits of info go a long way, as students have a fuller understanding of the writer's actual experience with a professor. Nevertheless, there are countless reviews on the site where students missed, or were too lazy, to fill out these helpful bits of info.
Additionally, Rate My Professors should have an option where students can say if they took the course as a capstone or not. Sure, a student can easily write that in, but with the already 'noticeable' amount of reviews with missing information, making it a clickable option would make students more likely to include such valuable information. If there was a capstone function, then students can be better informed when registering for one of their most important, and in most cases, challenging courses of their collegiate career.
Furthermore, it can be agreed upon that Rate My Professors is too lenient in the reviews they keep posted on the site. For sure, they have some sort of detection system to repeal reviews riddled with profanity, but how can they notice when a review is finely written but cruelly unfair? Readers who use this as a resource need to tread lightly when reading some of the impassioned payback paragraphs some students spew on the site.
One fascinating dynamic of Rate My Professors to look at is how professors respond to their ratings and reviews. Do they use the site as an opportunity to better themselves through feedback? Or do they not even consider its ratings? After all, every university on planet Earth already has a 'teacher-evaluation' survey that students fill out for the exact purpose of educators bettering themselves through reflection and accounts of the students. So, is Rate My Professor doing more harm than good for educators? Surely, the students win because they do not have access to the information garnered from evaluation surveys administered by universities. But again, how do the professors feel about Rate My Professors?
Check out this video of professors responding to their reviews on Rate My Professors that was posted on YouTube by Onward State:
After watching the video, you see that different professors respond differently to the keyboard-warrior criticisms of Rate My Professors. For instance, Marketing professor Dave Winterich seems to be the most genuinely upset professor as he reads critiques levied by his students, one of which claimed he was a "D-Bag." As mentioned earlier, Rate My Professors should sweep such ridiculous reviews from the site, as they are doing neither the registering students nor the reflective educators any good. On the other hand, we see sociology professor Sam Richards is quite amused by the insults made about himself and his class. Similar to professors like Richards, students should take the radical reviews posted on Rate My Professors with a grain of salt.
In conclusion, is Rate My Professors good or bad? Well, it appears to be a little of both. Despite the site's shortcomings, no other platform gives students the ability to freely respond to courses and professors they have taken. It will continue to be a good resource for students to use when scouting potential courses. However, some minor improvements could only make Rate My Professors more effective for everyone involved.