During college, one of the hardest parts of each new semester is picking your classes and making your schedule. With five English classes and seven Biology I classes to pick from, how do you choose? Well, with the advent of professor rating websites, your hard decision just got easier. These websites are designed to let students rate, review and essentially grade their past professors. They can write a critique, give them a number ranking on a scale and essentially let their peers know what to expect if they were to take this class.

The benefits of these websites are obvious. If you are required to take a class to satisfy your degree plan, wouldn’t you rather take the class from a professor that is reviewed well, funny, a fair grader or an interesting lecturer? The answer is yes! No student wants to be stuck in a class with a professor that is boring, unsympathetic, unwilling to help his/her students, and unavailable for student meetings. This is the type of information that gets shared between students. Just remember to take each of the critiques lightly. Remember, what one person sees as excessive homework, another student might see as interesting additional work that is essential to the overall class.

But there are also deterrents to this website as well. Every student is different and experiences things in different and unique ways. They also have unique learning styles. If one student is an auditory learner, having a professor that is an engaging speaker is essential to them. Another student may be a visual learner and require great notes or slideshows in class. Unfortunately, sometimes students rate their professors on likeability alone. They can leave out valuable information concerning their teaching and grading style and focus solely on their character. While having a nice teacher is great, having an informative teacher that you can effectively learn from is even better.

Popular professor rating sites include: pickaprof.com, ratemyprofessor.com, professorperformance.com and more. There are a lot of website available today, so check with your university and friends to see which one is most popular at your campus. Overall, these professor rating sites are very popular and provide a beneficial service to most students. Just remember that when you rate your own past professors, be truthful, objective and honest. And at the end of the day, the majority of university professors are good at their jobs, or else they wouldn’t be there in the first place!