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Angelina Alvarado

Professor Mahta Rosenfeld

English 113B

12 November 2017

Is Rate My Professor Credible?

In 1999 a website was created to help college students pick the right professor for them.

For the most part trends begin to die down overtime, but eighteen years later this website is more

popular than ever, it is known as RateMyProfessors.com (RMP). Few people believe that RMP is

not a credible source because writers can post anonymously, however, many college students

still rely on RMP. In Michael J. Browns article Rating RateMyProfessors.com a Comparison of

Online and Official Student Evaluations of Teaching, he writes, 36 percent have rated an

instructor and the Web site, and 71 percent have avoided taking an instructor based on his or her

ratings (Brown). College students visit RMP out of curiosity, to rate a professor themselves, or

in this case, to decide which professor is best for them. Although several people believe that

RateMyProfessors.com is not credible, it should not be viewed in a negative aspect.

RateMyProfessors.com allows students to find a professor that is compatible for their learning

experience.

People who do not know much about how RMP came to be will assume that it is a

university or student created website; The site is not owned by students or by their universities;

it is owned by mtvU. a TV network that in turn is owned by media giant Viacom (Murphy 523).

Kevin Murphy explains that this website was created by the exact opposite of what many would

assume. Knowing that RMP was created by an entertainment driven company automatically

makes people want to run away from using this site. Despite the fact that RMP was not created
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by some type of school related title, college students still depend on the site to determine their

professors. Many people I know who have used RMP have had nothing but an honest outcome.

A good friend of mine turned to the website when he had to choose a professor for Business

Law. To my friend, the information in this class was already tedious and he wanted to make sure

he found a professor that was able to teach the topic in an open and understanding way.

Eventually he chose a professor. Long story short, he received a B+ in the class and found the

posts on RMP to be true. Even though most of the reviews on RMP are anonymous, students still

choose to rely on this website every time.

It is known that on RMP people who submit their reviews can do so anonymously. Some

may argue that writing an anonymous post gives the writer power to write false information

about professors, however, when it comes to looking at the reviews college students can see it as

a survey. Going with this perspective can often sway a students decision. If seven reviews are

positive and coincide with each other, but there is one negative review, it is safe to say that the

seven positive reviews hold the truth. Through Browns research we are informed that there are

many reviews on RMP; As of January 2009, RMP boasts more than 6.8 million ratings for over

6,000 different colleges (Brown 89). With all of the ratings that are posted on RMP, there are

plenty for a college student to decipher from. It is safe to decide that there is meaning and

sincerity in the reviews when there are more than one that relate to each other. Even though some

posts may be bias, whether it be a good review or not, keeping in mind that your experience will

not be the exact same as someone elses is key.

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At least one student will have a bad experience or they will disagree with the professor,

because of this they are able to go onto RMP and slander them as a human being, along with

their profession. The edited picture to the left depicts exactly this. People will go on RMP and

give a review based on

how they feel at the

moment, instead of how

they may feel about the

professor and their way

of teaching overall. Most

college students will

decide to turn away

when they see a picture

expressing RMP like

this, but this should not

stray students. In fact,

this should encourage students to turn a negative review into something positive. While going

through these reviews, students should keep in mind that their experience will not be that exact

same as the person who wrote the review.

The reviews posted on RMP are from ones own personal experience. Some writers will

write reviews that are completely out of spite and because of this it will lead the reader to only

view the negative aspects of a professor. After talking with a few classmates, I was informed that

some professors have gone onto RMP to ease all of the negative reviews. Professors have done

this by writing a positive review about themselves. It is fair to think unbiased while going
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through the professors reviews. Michael Arnzen states, I think it is important to separate

evaluations from the politics of judgement whenever possible and instead turn evaluations into a

method of inquiry (Carey, From). Focusing on the negative aspects will often lead to nothing

but a dead end. It is important to remember that the reviews are only from someones own

experience. What did not work for them, may work for you. Writers may post that a professor

was hard because they gave a lot of work, however, those who are willing to challenge their

ability to learn would take that review as a positive note and go for it. Just because people post

negative reflections does not mean that will be the same experience for the next student, same

goes for the positive reviews.

Now that we are aware these reviews are based off of personal experiences, let me inform

you of mine. I have used RMP since the fall of my freshman year at California State University,

Northridge. I have had two experiences that stood out to me when using this website. The rating

on this professor mainly stated that he was reasonable with grading and made the topic quite

interesting. This professor taught Microeconomics, he lectured for the most part and students

were held accountable to take notes on what seemed important to them. After taking this

professors class, I agreed with how reasonable the grading was, however the way the professor

taught was a little hard for me to grasp. This shows that although what majority wrote on RMP

was correct, it was not quite fitting for myself. Just as Arzen stated how it is good to separate

evaluations from judgement I can agree through this situation. It is not that the professor was

bad at teaching, it just was not suitable for the way I learn best. Another experience of mine

was completely spot on accurate. History is normally a pretty uninteresting topic for me. I tend to

get lost in what happened during earlier years, as well as all of the facts and important dates.

While looking on RMP for a history professor, I was looking at reviews that described the
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professor made the topic interesting because of the passion they had for the subject. Eventually, I

was able to find a professor that fit the reviews I was hoping to read. This was the first time I

took a history class and received an A. I can sincerely say that the professor showed an

incredible amount of passion for the subject and because of this, I was automatically interested in

the subject. Although some reviews are not 110%, you can always find some truth in them.

Regardless of all the reasons to not use RateMyProffesors.com, college students are still

drawn towards it. The argument of posts being anonymous is not a great enough reason for

students to not trust this website. RMP can be looked at for all the positive attributions it offers.

It all depends on the person, if an individual goes onto RMP with a negative mindset they will

leave the website with just that. In Kowai-Bells article he explains, The RMP site allows for

open-ended comments and provides 5-point scales for students to rate the professors

helpfulness, clarity, and easiness, and also report level of interest in the course matter. Overall

quality is computed by combining the helpfulness and clarity ratings. Contrary to what some

may assume, most of the RMP ratings of overall quality are positive (Bell Rate). Though

there are still some negative reviews on RMP, not all are. This site is set up to help students at

the end of the day. Each review posted is categorized into an overall outlook that is easy to

understand and above all else, helpful. Remember that your experience will not be the exact

same as someone elses. Despite all of the negative relations people feel about

RateMyProfessors.com, it should still continue to be used with all of the years to come.
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Works Cited

Brown, Michael J. RATING RATEMYPROFESSORS.COM: A COMPARISON OF ONLINE AND

OFFICIAL STUDENT EVALUATIONS OF TEACHING. College Teaching, vol. 57, no. 2, 1

Apr. 2009, pp. 8992. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/25763370?ref=search-

gateway:487d737a86e5a696f2f4cc21a492986c.

Carey, Shelley Johnson. From the Editor. 2009, p. 3.

Crawford, Stephanie. How RateMyProfessors Works. Benefits of RateMyProfessors - Benefits of

RateMyProfessors | HowStuffWorks, HowStuffWorks, 14 July 2009,

computer.howstuffworks.com/internet/social-networking/networks/ratemyprofessors2.htm.

Kirszner, Laurie G., and Stephen R. Mandel. Evaluation of a Website:

Ratemyprofessors.com. Practical Argument, Bedford/St. Martin's, 2017, pp. 522525.

Kowai-Bell, Guadagno, Little, Preiss, & Hensley. (2011). Rate My Expectations: How online

evaluations of professors impact students perceived control. Computers in Human Behavior,

27(5), 1862-1867.