Is Ratemyprofessors.com reliable and trustworthy?

[Neil45]

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Does anyone use this site for picking out professors? I am going to take Genetics and Biochemistry(required by my major) next year, and only one available professor teaches each course. They both have very low ratings. I am scared that my GPA might lower as a result. Is the site accurate in the professor's teaching skills?

 

[Neil45]

Does anyone use this site for picking out professors? I am going to take Genetics and Biochemistry(required by my major) next year, and only one available professor teaches each course. They both have very low ratings. I am scared that my GPA might lower as a result. Is the site accurate in the professor's teaching skills?

 

[Neil45]

Oops. Sorry about the double post.

 

[signomi]

I think you have to take it with a grain of salt. The people most likely to post are the ones with an axe to grind.
My friend is on staff at Geo. Mason and she can tell who the negative posters are because they write the same stuff in their class evals...they are uniformly the people with D-F grades.

 

[Turnerjo13]

yeah the only one's who will post are the ones who love the professor or the ones who hate them. The student who are indifferent have no reason to post.

 

[EngDentist]

You have to read between the line - in a manner of speaking.
If the professor has more comments listed that would give you a better picture about him - you would have a chance to weed out the overtly glowing tributes (could be the prof himself trying to boost his image) or downright negative ones from people with no interest in the subject anyway.
It has proved invaluable for me - both for selecting a prof and for anticipating his teaching methods.
Goodluck!!

 

[Mackchops]

I've had good luck using it in the past. Just remember to take into account how many people have posted to contribute to the low rating. Also, I've found that I'm smarter than many of the people at my school (or at least harder working) so I automatically discount any thread that says "so hard! Impossible to get an A!" Do your work, use the text, go the class, and most teachers will give you the opportunity to do well.

 

[mmasurf]

its very good and when u read 5 or 6 comments about a professor and they all sound similar then u know for sure its true, trust me it helped me select my professors and got me better grades.

 

[reapply2007]

It's about as reliable as anything on the internet. Some postings are garbage and some are poor. It's worth reading the posts at a minimum. At least you know what you are getting in to if something goes bad. I've been saved from two really poor professors by ratemyprofessor.com

 

[mshheaddoc]

I use it and I have to say so far its been dead on. I've avoided a few professors who were horrible. usually low rating sometimes can mean a hard class. I know some profs that had high difficulty but many users said it was the best prof they've ever had. Read the comments.

 

[ItsGavinC]

I used it in college and thought that it was phenomenal. As an above poster mentioned, the information gotten out is only as good as the information put in.

 

[Blitzdt]

i used pickaprof...so far it has been good to me.

 

[JMJRDH1]

Ratemyprofessor is nearly spot on for the 6-7 teachers that I have chosen/avoided.