This is the number one reason parents complain on Facebook about their student not getting the classes they need during registration.

Athletes have already registered first. Sometimes the honors student register early. Now Susie and Johnnie build a schedule with the best RMP faculty, with every class between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m., then push enter and get 2 of 5 classes.

Professor here and I get ratings sometimes. They're pretty accurate and not negative or insulting for personally. The problem with sites like these is students can use harmful language or make untrue statements at will. They didn't like their grade or didn't like the professor? Then the professor is mean or not funny or worse. These statements seem to disproportionally harm women.

I have seen colleagues rate themselves, it's obvious and sad.

My kid uses it to check for faculty at the community college they take classes at (in high school) to ensure "easy" professors. So far so good.

Yes, for sure!

I have a sibling who is an assistant prof at CMU in their graduate studies , and they have awful reviews. They are extremely accurate, sad to say.

Definitely look at reviews. Sometimes a course is only taught by one or two professors, but it can make a huge difference.

UMD has their own student constructed one. Planetterp.com

My cousin is a professor. I know her well. And I like her.

I've read her reviews. Students with good grades find her clear and fair. Students with bad grades complain. There are a few people who complain that she's bad about e-mail. I know that she is snowed with e-mail, that students tend to write at last minute before tests, and so I think that's probably fair from a student perspective.

Some of my profs are still teaching. All of the profs I checked on are recognizable from their reviews. But there are few.

In general, I think the site is only reliable for confirming very bad professors but there can be nuggets of truth sprinkled in the small number of reviews.

I assume different schools have more of a reliance on the site.

According to my DC the only major issue is professors will go on and rate themselves to boost their score. This has happened with a few of the worst professor. Most recently, there is one hated professor at DC's program-arrogant, unable to teach the material, demeaning to students, etc. and this professor has a very distinct way of speaking. The only positive reviews have that style of speaking along with words the prof typically uses.

My kids use it. This semester my son is taking a class with a professor that had over a dozen 5 star ratings and nothing less. It’s his hardest class and his lowest grade but it is his favorite class. He said he will also leave the professor a 5 star review.

My son’s counselor actually told the entering students to look at it prior to enrolling in classes and he did. From looking at it myself, the reviews emphasize which classes are easy and which are hard, who grades easily and who doesn’t and who is really an interesting and exciting teacher.

The primary utility seems to be that it does show the profs who kids believe are universally bad, ones with really bad reviews for being poor, uninteresting instructors.

Can’t say how credible it is.

The only problem I have seen with it is that some of the negative ratings (and lots of the ratings generally) are about how much work a class is and how easy it is to get an A. DC rejected a class because of bad ratings: I looked and the bad ratings are all attributable to that; the prof otherwise has good reviews for actually, you know, teaching….

Anonymous wrote:Absolutely they use it for course selection. Just like I read reviews before buying something major.

+1 I tell my kid to take it with a grain of salt since it typically represents extremes: kids who got a bad grade and are retaliating and acolytes of a given professor. But trends can be illuminating. If over a period of years, a number of students say the professor is inspirational, boring, mean, kind, harsh grader, whatever--there is usually some truth to it.

Absolutely they use it for course selection. Just like I read reviews before buying something major.

For undergrad when they don’t know anyone and they aren’t in their major yet yes mine used it. Once the got into their major and they knew people well they would use it less instead they would ask their friends and or just pick a class with a prof that they built a relationship with or who they liked in the past

There are reviews so people do use it

They always use it and it’s generally accurate.

The more reviews, the more accurate.

Do you know if your kids use this? Do they write reviews? What about Professors? Do you read and check the Rate My Professors site?