# (2 for 1 thread) www.ratemyteacher.com?!? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [March 19, 2004, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2-for-1-thread-www-ratemyteacher-com/235133 "2004-03-19T02:34:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![JoeBitt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/51bf81/32.png) [@JoeBitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoeBitt)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2004, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2-for-1-thread-www-ratemyteacher-com/235133/1 "2004-03-19T02:34:41Z")
Goto [www.ratemyteacher.com](http://www.ratemyteacher.com) . Being a teacher I was kind of disturbed with this website at first. What if my name was on the web page? Then I realized some of the replies were from typical high school students. Ignorant. What do you think of this web site? Do you think it is appropriate? (2 for 1 thread) I am always in a good mood for a funny web site. Respond to this thread if you have a funny website link. ---
**Author:** ![cheddarsnax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a587f6/32.png) [@cheddarsnax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cheddarsnax)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2004, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2-for-1-thread-www-ratemyteacher-com/235133/2 "2004-03-19T02:39:21Z")
I think it’s amusing to read what others think of my teachers, and I think it’s appropriate. Why _not_ let people post opinions of their teachers? ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2004, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2-for-1-thread-www-ratemyteacher-com/235133/3 "2004-03-19T02:44:12Z")
Unfortunetly, none of the teachers I had back at Redwood High appear to still be working there. Or at the very least, haven’t taught any students who know about that website. So I can’t say if it provides an accurate portrayal of the teachers included. But even if it doesn’t, so what? Not like the students have any real say in who will be teaching them. Why would this be inappropriate? ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2004, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2-for-1-thread-www-ratemyteacher-com/235133/4 "2004-03-19T02:51:56Z")
I wouldn’t say it’s inappropriate – just not very useful. It’s pretty clear that the “ratings” are popularity based. A positive rating for an English teacher at my old high school has a lot of gushing comments like > [@](#): > > Shes a kewl teacher… gives us free time… overall awsome …okay. On the other hand, there are plenty of comments that might be useful. A less popular English teacher had a couple of comments along the lines of “Why does she spend so much time talking about her husband?” That might very well be a useful criticism, unless she likes to cite the fella’s poor grammar by way of example, or something. ---
**Author:** ![Hosayf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/2acd7d/32.png) [@Hosayf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hosayf)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2004, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2-for-1-thread-www-ratemyteacher-com/235133/5 "2004-03-19T02:55:04Z")
There’s a guy at my school who’s really into [ratemyteachers.com](http://ratemyteachers.com), and I think all the teachers there are posted, but as far as other schools in the county go, the lists are incomplete, and it appears that this is more common than complete listings. I’ve made a couple posts on it–anonymous or not, I thought it was a good way to pay compliments to some great teachers I’ve had. The only thing that really bugs me about it is that you can rate a teacher on how easy his class is. That’s just idiotic IMO since classes in which you actually learn something are usually more difficult. ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2004, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2-for-1-thread-www-ratemyteacher-com/235133/6 "2004-03-19T02:58:49Z")
It’s no worse than any of the other ratemywhatever.coms out there. I’m just sad that my favorite teacher at Cleveland High is no longer there. I wanted to see how she ranked. ---
**Author:** ![syncrolecyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f08c70/32.png) [@syncrolecyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/syncrolecyne)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2004, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2-for-1-thread-www-ratemyteacher-com/235133/7 "2004-03-19T03:11:14Z")
The [ratemyprofessors.com](http://ratemyprofessors.com) site is better. Of course anyone whith a chip on their shoulder can unjustly smear someone there, but the critiques of professors that I know are all accurate here. ---
**Author:** ![Doomtrain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/0ea827/32.png) [@Doomtrain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doomtrain)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2004, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2-for-1-thread-www-ratemyteacher-com/235133/8 "2004-03-19T03:21:19Z")
> [@syncrolecyne](#): > > The [ratemyprofessors.com](http://ratemyprofessors.com) site is better. Of course anyone whith a chip on their shoulder can unjustly smear someone there, but the critiques of professors that I know are all accurate here. I use Rate My Professors all the time. In fact, when I’m setting up my schedule, I have it open in one window and the signup thing on another. It’s just another tool, like talking to people who’ve taken the class before, only on a grand scale. Appropriate? Hell yes. When you have little/no choice in teachers, I can’t think of a better defense. ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2004, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2-for-1-thread-www-ratemyteacher-com/235133/9 "2004-03-19T03:29:02Z")
Grraduated from high school in 1984. I went to [ratemyteacher.com](http://ratemyteacher.com), and saw that anout half the teachers I had are still there. While I was in school, I thought they were some of the best in the city. Looking back on it, I still believe that. ---
**Author:** ![dwc1970](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a183cd/32.png) [@dwc1970](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dwc1970)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2004, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2-for-1-thread-www-ratemyteacher-com/235133/10 "2004-03-19T06:39:44Z")
I graduated in 1988. I found one of my teachers from seventh grade still teaching (he’s now at the high school). He was rated 1.7 (on a scale of 1 to 5). I was not surprised at his low rating. One of the students stated he gave out too many silly and pointless assignments and was very difficult. I got Cs and Ds in his class but I was otherwise a good student. How I would have _loved_ to have had a site like this when I was in school. I think it gives students a chance to honestly air their feelings about their teachers, particularly the bad ones, as well as the good ones whom they may feel too bashful to compliment in person (or don’t want to appear as an ass-kisser). ---
**Author:** ![Ooner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/c67d28/32.png) [@Ooner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ooner)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2004, 8:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2-for-1-thread-www-ratemyteacher-com/235133/11 "2004-03-19T08:24:49Z")
In my (limited) experience with [ratemyprofessors.com](http://ratemyprofessors.com) they suffered from the same thing as the high school site. The easy teachers all get great reviews and the more difficult (and better) ones get bad reviews. The worst professor I ever had has rave reviews because everyone gets an A and nobody has to learn anything in her class. It’s great if you just want to get through school as easily as possible with little concern over the quality of your education. ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2004, 9:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2-for-1-thread-www-ratemyteacher-com/235133/12 "2004-03-19T09:09:42Z")
Well, my father retired a couple of years ago, so he’s not listed. That would have been interesting to see. In general, it just looks like a popularity site. ---
**Author:** ![MsRobyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/90ced4/32.png) [@MsRobyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsRobyn)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2004, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2-for-1-thread-www-ratemyteacher-com/235133/13 "2004-03-19T11:53:26Z")
My university has an “underground” ratings website that, I think, is somewhat more accurate. I use it to research professors outside my major department, particularly those who teach gen-ed courses. So far, it’s been helpful, although next semester, I’m taking three courses that are taught by only one professor, so finding a rating is moot. Robin ---
**Author:** ![zweisamkeit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zweisamkeit/32/4360_2.png) [@zweisamkeit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zweisamkeit)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2004, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2-for-1-thread-www-ratemyteacher-com/235133/14 "2004-03-19T16:30:59Z")
> [@Ooner](#): > > In my (limited) experience with [ratemyprofessors.com](http://ratemyprofessors.com) they suffered from the same thing as the high school site. The easy teachers all get great reviews and the more difficult (and better) ones get bad reviews. The worst professor I ever had has rave reviews because everyone gets an A and nobody has to learn anything in her class. > > It’s great if you just want to get through school as easily as possible with little concern over the quality of your education. I don’t know about that. Here is a link to one of the profs at my uni\*: > **[Philip Vogt at Lawrence Technological University - RateMyProfessors.com](https://www.ratemyprofessors.com/ShowRatings.jsp?tid=158169&sid=4333)** > > Check out the ratings and reviews for Philip Vogt from Lawrence Technological University in Southfield, MI Now, I’m a writing tutor, so I get many many _many_ “Vogt papers” to help out with (and after a few weeks, many rewrites). He teaches our equivalent of “Philosophy 101”, which is required for _all_ majors (which doesn’t make many of the engineering majors happy ;)). He _is_ extremely challenging and demanding, but look at some of the quotes there: > [@](#): > > Very hard. Almost too harsh on papers. Knows the subject extremly well and can go into great detail about stuff. If you want to learn this philosphy stuff take him, but be prepared to not get an A. Even if you are a straight A student. But the student still rated Prof. Vogt as a 5 in helpfulness and clarity, only giving a 1 to the easiness of the class. Note that the only student to rate him at a 2 and 3 didn’t even leave any comments (really now, what’s the point of rating if you’re not going to explain why you rated the prof the way you did?). Looking around, there are a lot of reviews like that for my uni’s profs. Many of the ones who are hard, and even bitchy in how they say things to you, still get damn good ratings because of the fact they _teach_ well. \*[sub]I figured it was fine to link to the rating page, since it’s right there on the site and unrestricted, so really, anyone could get to it if they wanted to anyway.[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![neofishboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/neofishboy/32/444_2.png) [@neofishboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/neofishboy)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2004, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2-for-1-thread-www-ratemyteacher-com/235133/15 "2004-03-19T16:46:18Z")
> [@Sublight](#): > > Well, my father retired a couple of years ago, so he’s not listed. That would have been interesting to see. In general, it just looks like a popularity site. I found my mom! Apparently, she’s a 4.5 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Duke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e8c25b/32.png) [@Duke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2004, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2-for-1-thread-www-ratemyteacher-com/235133/16 "2004-03-19T17:08:02Z")
My best friend’s parents are both professors, so she looked them up. She found that one person thought her dad was “hot,” and another thought her mom was “crazy.” Probably not what she’d hoped to see… ---
**Author:** ![spudbucket](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/85e7bf/32.png) [@spudbucket](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spudbucket)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2004, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2-for-1-thread-www-ratemyteacher-com/235133/17 "2004-03-19T18:32:52Z")
As someone who is actually rated by the ratemyprofessor site, here is my two cents… Entertaining\* but relatively unreliable. It just goes back to the number and reliability of anonymous postings. I can compare my colleagues real student evaluations (those things you fill out at the end of the semester) to the ratings at ratemyprofessor and sometimes they match up well and sometimes it is a complete disconnect. People who are pissed off at someone for a bad grade, etc. will give bad posts. Also…high ratings (both via the official way and the end of the semester way) often correlate with easy classes…not always but often…and it seems to be more often the case with ratemyprofessor. \*always fun to see people talk trash about co-workers you don’t like and so far my ratings have been good. Also nice to be rated hot. ---
**Author:** ![Iacob\_Matthew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Iacob\_Matthew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iacob_Matthew)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2004, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2-for-1-thread-www-ratemyteacher-com/235133/18 "2004-03-19T19:31:50Z")
I got directed there (the whole class did, actually) by [this guy](http://www.ratemyteachers.com/ShowRatings.jsp?tid=34912). The one that says he’s a great guy but an incompetent teacher is exactly right. He keeps no order whatsoever and, if he does any actual teacher, I haven’t noticed, nor has anyone else (had him Freshman and now in Senior year) in his class. He seems to think that he’s just another student, and the kid who talks the most must in control. As an experiment, I decided to try running the class one day when said twerp (who gave him all 5’s, by the way) wasn’t there, and took control merely by standing up, without even getting into the dominating voice. Fortunately for his ratings, you don’t even have to try. Again, I love the guy, but I’m not sure he even knows that he is supposed to teach. So, yes, it is a popularity site, but the popular teachers seem to like it, because it strokes their egos, and the ones who do their job honestly and are truly more mature than the students couldn’t care less. Seems like a harmless place to vent. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Bravo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_bravo/32/493_2.png) [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2004, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2-for-1-thread-www-ratemyteacher-com/235133/19 "2004-03-19T20:14:41Z")
Cool site. I checked out my old high school for kicks and even rated a professor from last semester who got a bad rap (too many people think ‘challenging’ equals ‘incompetent,’ apparantly). It’s neat, but I prefer using what my school gives me. It compiles the results of all the course evaluations and makes them available. I can check individual courses by instructor from years back. Seeing actual comments is nice, though. ---
**Author:** ![ArrMatey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/arrmatey/32/3522_2.png) [@ArrMatey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ArrMatey)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2004, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2-for-1-thread-www-ratemyteacher-com/235133/20 "2004-03-19T20:32:14Z")
> [@neofishboy](#): > > I found my mom! Apparently, she’s a 4.5 🙂 maaaaaan, taken out of context… [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2-for-1-thread-www-ratemyteacher-com/235133.md?page=2)