How reliable is Rate My Professor

[neurophil5]

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I'm trying to decide between a major in biochemistry and microbiology. Though I am interested in both, I am more interested in microbiology. I was checking the professors in Rate My Professor for both majors and those in biochem are much better than those in microbio. I was just wondering how accurate/reliable these ratings are.

Better professors would most likely lead to a better grade/GPA and that's more important to me than choosing which major I would like more. Though, if these ratings don't tend to be to reliable, then I would go with microbio.

Thanks in advance!


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[Endoxifen]

Sampling bias. Take everything said with a grain of salt.

 

[raiderette]

Just don't skip biochemistry entirely. That class is essential for the MCAT, but microbiology is not required to do well on the test, but may be required for the major.

 

[JustAPhD]

As reliable a source as the people doing the ratings. Two (or any N) students can have vastly differing views on a professor. Doesn't make that professor good nor bad.

 

[AttemptingScholar]

Depends on the school. In general, if there are more than 10 ratings from less than 5 years ago, I'll trust it.

 

[DameJulie]

For my school it's pretty accurate for the extremes (e.g. best professor vs. worst professor). The ones in the middle are pretty mixed. The rating score isn't too important though; I usually just focused on what the class is like based on the comments (e.g. how many midterms, papers, attendance required)

 

[workaholic181]

I have used rate my professor to pick between classes, but definitely don't use it to decide your major! Do what you're more interested in.

 

[LnSin]

Just my personal opinion, but I figure we will learn by ourselves plenty in Med school, so best not to rely on the professor too much in undergrad. I never cared who I had (or what anyone said about them) and just focused on teaching myself.

After all, we're only really accountable to ourselves. Ignore rate my prof, in my opinion


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[rxrd]

RMP typically only gets submissions from kids that have a really bad experience with a professor or a really good one. That being said, it seems to be pretty accurate for the intro classes at my undergrad

 

[aldol16]

It's usually pretty reliable for the average student. But if you're above average or below average, the reviews probably won't mean much for you.

 

[sliceofbread136]

Do they still percentages of each letter grade given? I always went with the highest percent A

 

[Optimist Prime]

It hasn't let me down yet

 

[Turkishking]

I'm trying to decide between a major in biochemistry and microbiology. Though I am interested in both, I am more interested in microbiology. I was checking the professors in Rate My Professor for both majors and those in biochem are much better than those in microbio. I was just wondering how accurate/reliable these ratings are.

Better professors would most likely lead to a better grade/GPA and that's more important to me than choosing which major I would like more. Though, if these ratings don't tend to be to reliable, then I would go with microbio.

Thanks in advance!


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile

My general chemistry professor had a rating of a 1.6? Turned out to be my favorite professor.

 

[IslandStyle808]

Its accurate for the most part. I think the rule of thumb is that if there is 10+ people who have commented and have given similar ratings, then you have a gauge of how good a professor he or she is.

 

[deleted446889]

It's usually pretty reliable for the average student. But if you're above average or below average, the reviews probably won't mean much for you.

No matter how above average you are, you can still have an easier or harder time depending on how the professor is so I don't agree with this point.

 

[On_The_Way_Up]

It's pretty accurate. Also if you can't look up there syllabus it's nice to get an idea how they test and what all goes toward your grade for each professor.

 

[Turkishking]

No matter how above average you are, you can still have an easier or harder time depending on how the professor is so I don't agree with this point.

See my post

I had an A+

 

[Turkishking]

No matter how above average you are, you can still have an easier or harder time depending on how the professor is so I don't agree with this point.

I had a friend who took this bio course. The professor had terrible ratings, and he ended up with an A+

 

[aldol16]

No matter how above average you are, you can still have an easier or harder time depending on how the professor is so I don't agree with this point.

Can specific top students struggle with bad professors? Sure. In general, does it happen? Not often. We normalize classes such that even if the professor is super tough, everybody else in the class has the same professor and so everybody's grades will struggle relative to their peers who took the same course with a different professor. That's taken into account in assigning grades - for instance, whereas a 90 might be an A in one class, that number might be a 70 in another since the professor just grades hard or teaches poorly or just plain doesn't speak English. A student might have a harder time understanding the professor - that's completely agreeable - but we try to make sure grades don't suffer as a result. This is how we do things at my institution - it could be that at other schools, there is an absolute scale for getting an A in the class and things aren't normalized.

 

[RYost234]

My best professor had an overall rating of 1.7.

Remember that people are more likely to write a review if they did poorly as opposed to doing well.

 

[cactusman]

Also consider whether a professor is new. I've seen one Professor who had only been at my school for a couple years and just had three 1-star reviews with similar complaints; I checked her reviews from the place she had previously taught (during post doc or PhD I think) and the reviews were average to good.

 

[efle]

There are some common biases, like if a class grades more harshly than most or has more work than most, it will likely get a lower average review. If you're actually interested in the material and/or it comes easier to you than most, it might still end up being a favorite class for you.

It is usually pretty accurate for identifying the really abysmal teachers though. Like if a Calc class has two sections both with many reviews and one score is much higher, I'd trust it and try to get in that prof's section.

 

[fouracle]

I don't think I would trust it to make a decision on a major, but I definitely do trust and have trusted it to make a decision between 2 professors for a course I want to take. I think I would trust most prof's pages with 5+ reviews.