It’s that time of year again. Students are in a panic to get their summer and fall schedules perfected before they zip away to a Spring Break destination. Many students are not only worried about making sure they can avoid those dreaded 8 am’s, but also making sure they get the best professor. Numerous amounts of students, including myself, still use RateMyProfessor.com, but the question is, is it even helpful?

RateMyProfessor.com started in 1999 as a way for college and university students to give their professors ratings. Future students would see the ratings from previous students and know which teachers were the best and which were the best to avoid. It has over one million ratings as well as over 8,000 universities. Teachers’ ratings are based off of easiness, clarity, and helpfulness, which combine for an overall score.

There are two types of RateMyProfessor users. Those that love the professor and those that loathes him. Most teachers receive a mixture of both, making it difficult to gather a good grasp of how the professor is as a whole.

In my observations, I have noticed that the website is not as up-to-date as a user would like it to be. It is time for some spring-cleaning! A new rating category could be how digitally savvy the professor is. After all, most teachers now post lectures online. Maybe, in addition to the personal description of the students experience, there could be more yes and no questions.

Many universities do evaluations at the end of every semester where students can give their honest and anonymous feedback on the professors. The only problem is other students never hear the criticism. This is why RateMyProfessor.com is a great website. Simply put, it needs more unbiased reviews but students. The idea is there and it seems like the content used to be there. I think students need to rally together and start giving their feedback.