Interesting class, but poorly rated professor

[NYRN]

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There is a class I registered for during the fall that includes embryology and genetics, I think it would be very helpful for the MCAT.

The problem is, I just read the professors review on ratemyprofessor and almost all of them were pretty bad. He is the only professor teaching this class. The regular genetics course is full, and its only offered 3 days a week which won't work with my schedule anyway.

I'm a nontrad, and when I was an undergrad ratemyprof didn't exist so I didn't have any fair warning, I wonder if I'm just being paranoid or setting myself up to fail?? Has anyone had this experience before where they went ahead and took a class knowing that the professor is known to be a jerk or extremely hard? Did you find that the reviews were true or just a bunch of bitter people who failed out because they didn't have the ability or put forth the effort?

BTW, I'm also taking Orgo 1 this fall in addition to this class. Thanks in advance for any advice.

 

[Whatyousay]

There is a class I registered for during the fall that includes embryology and genetics, I think it would be very helpful for the MCAT.

Are you taking the class because you're genuinely interested in the material, or purely for MCAT prep? If it's for the latter situation, it's not worth taking a class that you not required to take simply to cover material that may amount to 1 or 2 questions on the MCAT.

Take the ratings websites with a grain of salt. Don't put a lot of weight on individual reviews... instead, try to look for trends. If only one or two reviewers say a professor is a jerk,then they're just bitter. But if "jerkiness" is a common theme among reviewers, it's something that I would consider.

 

[NYRN]

Are you taking the class because you're genuinely interested in the material, or purely for MCAT prep? If it's for the latter situation, it's not worth taking a class that you not required to take simply to cover material that may amount to 1 or 2 questions on the MCAT.

Take the ratings websites with a grain of salt. Don't put a lot of weight on individual reviews... instead, try to look for trends. If only one or two reviewers say a professor is a jerk,then they're just bitter. But if "jerkiness" is a common theme among reviewers, it's something that I would consider.

I am interested in the material, but I think it would also be very helpful for MCAT review as I have not taken general bio in over 10 years (I have taken cell physiology though and got an A in that class) as well as a boost to my sgpa if I do well.

The reviews were almost all bad, but there was one person that says he is in med school now and he liked the class, so I don't know. I guess I will take my chances, I believe at my school you have 2 weeks to drop a class from the beginning and it never shows up on your transcript.

Thanks!

 

[jhay]

The reviews were almost all bad, but there was one person that says he is in med school now and he liked the class, so I don't know. I guess I will take my chances, I believe at my school you have 2 weeks to drop a class from the beginning and it never shows up on your transcript.

Thanks!

The thing you need to realize about sites like RateMyProfessor is that, for the most part, people only post if they're extremely pleased or displeased with the teacher--for most people in the middle, they see no incentive to post mediocre reviews.

So, moral of the story: take sites like that with a BIG grain of salt.

At my school, many professors with poor RateMyProfessor reviews are great teachers--they're just not pushovers. And many people don't like that quality, so they post negative things.

 

[NYRN]

Thank you guys for the advice, I'm going to keep the class and at least try it out. If I'm lucky, I may remember the material from general bio or maybe some of the embryology will include topics I covered in nursing school, although I'm not counting on that. The title of the class is "becoming human" so unless someone who signs up for this has a science background, they probably wouldn't realize what this class entails (although genetics and embryology are included in the course description), I can see how this title could make this class sound like its about how babies are born LOL

Good luck to all of you

 

[MilkmanAl]

I totally agree that you need to take RateMyProfessors with a truck bed full of salt, but there aren't bunches of people posting bad things about this professor for no reason whatsoever. Even if you assume the reviews were all from "a bunch of bitter people who failed out because they didn't have the ability or put forth the effort," do you really want to be taking a class that you can't coast through, as opposed to taking one over the same material that you can coast through? You don't get a gold star from adcoms for selecting professors who have a reputation for cornholing students. If it's MCAT prep you need, just read the material in a review book. That's presumably what you're going to do for class, anyway.

 

[Amalgamate]

People always say bad things about rate my professor, and while it's not as black and white as that site makes it seem, you still get a feel for the professors weaknesses as well as if the class is difficult (regardless of professor) There are some that are bitter, but if you search you can find the constructive ones.

I use it for picking most classes, but not like you would think, I use it to get an idea of the workload so I know to take a light or heavy load. If all the reviews say easy class, I take 18+ credits. If they are all negative, I cut back to a lighter load of 15 credits I know I can get an A regardless of the class or professor if I have enough time to dedicate, rate my professor just functions as a filter for me to judge if it'll be a busy semester.

So based on that I would say if you have a light load take it, if you already are going to be hitting the books hard, this may be unneeded stress.

Just my two cents

 

[deleted357625]

don't risk it

 

[Tapepsi]

Well...I wouldn't necessarily say to take ratemyprofessors with a grain of salt. There was one prof at my college who was the biggest jerk and taught genetics. It was nearly impossible to get an A. If you look at the reviews, they are overwhelmingly negative with only one or two positives.

If one or two people complained than I wouldn't worry about it. But if there are a lot of negative reviews I'd say be cautious.