The Hunter Envoy

Issue date: 2/24/10 Section: Features

Media Credit: John Briggs

Professor Bernard Stein of Hunter's media department often starts the first class of the semester by polling his students. "How many of you have checked me out?" he inquires.

He does this to highlight the importance of curiosity to his student reporters. But it also speaks to something else in the media world: Thanks to online resources like ratemyprofessors.com, students can scout out their professors long before they set foot in the classroom.

Lucky for Stein, his reviews on the website are favorable. He has a 4.7 helpfulness rating, a 4.6 clarity rating, and a 2.6 easiness rating (all out of a total of 5).

Many students rely on the site to assist them in constructing their schedules come registration time. Sophomore Michael Elka uses it before registration each semester. "I heavily rely on it to decide between two sections of the same class, or even between two different classes if I'm equally interested in both."

Erica Jordan, class of 2012, also takes advantage of the site. Overall, she has found the reviews to be helpful and accurate. That said, she still wouldn't allow a bad review to stop her from taking a class of interest. "If there was another class offered at the same time, I'd opt out of the class with the bad review, but if it was the only one available I'd take it and brave it out."

While many students find the site useful, others remain skeptical of its accuracy. "I don't trust it," said sophomore Michelle Pelan. She argued that many students base their reviews on how well they did in a professors' class, not on the quality of the professor.

On two occasions, Rate My Professors misled Pelan. The first time was in a Greek mythology class. She had read glowing reviews of her professor on the website, only to be let down. "It was honestly the worst class I've ever taken in my life," she said. "Everyone got an A of course, but the professor was horrible and boring."

The other instance was in a sociology theory class. According to the site, Pelan was in for a rough semester. "I was scared because I read that my teacher was so hard and unfair and gave way too much work." It turns out the class was fine, and only one paper was assigned the entire semester.

Jordan, recognizes the site's limitations in spite of using it regularly. "Some reviewers seem to be lazy and expect everything to be easy and handed to them without work," she acknowledged.

Professor Stein also finds fault with the way difficult professors are criticized with a low "Easiness" rating. This could lead to poor reviews for a challenging professor who seeks to stimulate his or her students, Stein said.

According to Stein, most professors are not terribly fond of the site, especially those who have bad reviews. Many of his colleagues, he said, are unhappy that such information is available to the public.

For Elka, the reviews have proven accurate. Still, he is not completely satisfied. "The only thing I've ever found to be inaccurate more often than not have been the 'chili peppers' used to tell you how many people thought the teacher was physically attractive," he said. "People have no eye for aesthetics these days."

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