Students no longer have to wait until the end of the semester to evaluate their professors. Numerous web sites are now available that allow students to grade their professors at any time.
Two of these web sites are www.ratemyprofessor.com and at www.myspace.com. On each of these sites, students are able to grade their professors in various areas. Both of these sites provide an overall picture of the professor’s strengths and weaknesses, based on student evaluations.
On ratemyprofessor.com, students can rank their instructors on easiness, helpfulness, clarity and student’s interest in the class before taking the class. The students give their professor a grade from 1 to 5 based on their abilities in that area. These are averaged together to give the professor anything from a frowny face to a smiley face.
This site also has a just-for-fun section. This section asks if the professor is still employed at the university and for those who are interested it also ranks the professor’s hotness. If the professor is voted to be really good looking, they will get a red pepper, average gets a green pepper and then there is the no-pepper rating.
The Myspace rating system is a little more serious than ratemyprofessor.com. Myspace doesn’t grade the hotness of the professor. Instead, the site focuses on school-related issues such as lectures, homework, tests, fairness, grading and accessibility. The outcome of these questions is averaged together to give the professor a grade from an A+ through an F.
Some students find these web sites to be helpful. They can be used to alert the student to what the teacher can be like and the experiences other students have had.
By knowing this information students feel they are more informed to pick their classes.
“I have used (ratemyprofessor.com) before,” said ETSU senior Brooke Cox. “It’s pretty accurate. The way they describe the professors is accurate. I use it to see what the professors are like. I take the professor with the best rating. I am glad that I do.”
Not every student is using these sites. A majority of the students questioned for this story have not been to these web sites. “I have heard of it before,” said Heather Seay, an English major. “I haven’t actually used it though.”
Some people have concerns over the fairness of these web sites. These sites are open for postings at any time so students could be posting while they are angry or upset at their professors. Another matter that should be noticed is the number of people ranking that professor.
A look at these web sites shows a mixture of both positive and negative comments about the professors. However, the negative comments do have a slight majority over the positive.
The best advice for students using these sites is to be objective. Take note of the number of postings and if the postings seem a little irrational before using these rankings for guidance in choosing which professor’s class to take.

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