The years have proved word-of-mouth recommendations to be an effective way for students to avoid boring lectures, unfair tests and confusing assignments that come with a bad professor.
But what can students do when considering a professor that nobody knows?
Online rating sites provide a forum for students to share information about professors.
"I am a huge fan of making every bit of accurate information about professors available to students," said James MacArthur, clinical professor of student development and associate director of the BYU counseling center. "When I was in college, I had no idea who I was getting or what their strengths or weaknesses were."
Ratings sites allow students to grade professors on certain characteristics and to make comments on the quality of the professor.
Some comments flatter the professor, for instance, "He's a great mentor and example."
Other comments can be very negative, such as, "He will destroy you like an academic ninja," or, "Emotional scarring may fade away, but that big fat F on your transcript won't."
MacArthur said as long as comments are not personal, he thinks student feedback can help teachers improve.
"If students rate me down, students should know it," he said. "But it would bother me if a few disgruntled students looked like they represented a cross section of the population."
Most sites take precautions to ensure ratings are fair to the professors, like using student moderators to edit comments.
TeacherReviews.com even provides a fake school where students can vent their personal vendettas so that the real reviews will contain helpful suggestions.
"The system is probably less useful for the teacher interested in improving his or her skills," said Ann Cannon, BYU English professor. "There isn't enough specific information provided to be really helpful."
Cannon said she does believe the site could be useful for students if proper context is provided.
Lauren Gessel, a senior from Kent, Wash., majoring in microbiology, said she used a ratings site last semester to learn more about a professor.
"The students gave a good evaluation of him - an honest evaluation," she said. "It was rude, but it was completely honest."
Gessel said even though she still had to take the class, the review helped her prepare for a difficult semester.
The following are online rating sites:
RateMyProfessors.com is the biggest online database with almost 70,000 ratings on more than 16,000 professors.
Brigham Young University is one of 2,888 schools with professors in the database.
The school with the most ratings is Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Miss., with 24,436 ratings on 1,371 professors.
Even though BYU has a relatively small presence on the site, students can find information on more than 200 professors.
Students give professors a score from 1.0 (poor) to 5.0 (good) in the categories of easiness, clarity and helpfulness, which are averaged to create the professor's overall score.
The site also allows students to rate how sexy their professors are by giving them a "hotness" vote.
The English department had 21 professors with ratings, more than any other department.
Students gave the highest ratings to Randy Bott, professor of church history, who received a perfect 5.0 with five reviews.
The award for sexiest professor goes to Brett Latimer, who instructs American Heritage, with four "hotness" votes, but Norman Nemrow, associate professor of accounting, came in a close second with three votes.
Dean Duncan, associate professor of theatre and media arts, found his 5.0 rating humorous.
"Based on those results, I would say that there is something very wrong with the system," he quipped.
Ryan McLaughlin, a BYU senior from Spanish Fork, majoring in computer science, started Educatorater.com in 1999.
The site uses a longer survey than most ratings sites do, and the questions asked are similar to questions found on the student evaluations administered by BYU.
Educatorater.com has several unique features, including a forum allowing students to get specific information and allowing professors to refute ratings.
McLaughlin said he has tried to keep the site professional, unlike other online ratings sites.
"Some other teacher-rating sites allow you to rate a teacher's sexiness," he said. "I have to ask how relevant is that to education?"
Educatorater.com has ratings for 81 BYU professors and requires students to register before rating professors.
TeacherReviews.com has reviews for 41 BYU professors, mostly from the mathematics and English departments.
The site allows students to give teachers a letter grade based on exams, office hours, handwriting, personality, homework, speaking skills, projects and lectures.
BYU professors average a B+, with James Kearl, professor of economics, earning the highest score.
Students have to provide a legitimate e-mail address before they can review teachers on this site so the webmaster can ensure the quality of the reviews.
This site only has information on three BYU professors.
Students can score professors on their coolness, ease and worth, as well as type teacher-specific comments.
This site requires users to register before they can view or make comments on professors.
Only 14 BYU professors have received scores, and the categories listed for rating are preparation, enthusiasm, focus, availability, material, exam preparation and quality.
Copyright Brigham Young University 7 Apr 2003
