Web site gets student feedback
Professors have mixed feelings on RateMyProfessors.com
By Jacque Nguyen
Staff Reporter

“He will destroy you like an academic ninja.”

“He teaches well, invites questions and then insults you for 20 minutes.”

“This class is boring, but I learned there are 137 tiles on the ceiling.”

To avoid professors and classes like these, John Swapceinski said he founded RateMyProfessors.com, a free Web site that offers a public review of university professors from across the United States and Canada.

Ronald Pitcock, an English professor, said he is familiar with the Web site and said it’s always a good idea for students to give feedback.

“It’s just one of many places for students to give specific feedback,” Pitcock said. “It’s a valuable site for students to share their views with each other.”

Sociology professor Keith Whitworth said he is also familiar with the Web site and that any kind of feedback from students is helpful to his teaching, as long as it is consistent.

“The more opportunity for evaluation, the better — formal or informal,” Whitworth said. “I want to know how I’m performing in the classroom. If the feedback is consistent, I would be glad I had the opportunity to gain that feedback.”

With the many other professor-review Web sites on the Internet, like PickAProf.com and TeacherReviews.com, some professors say they are a little skeptical about the accuracy of the information.

H.G. Dollar, a math professor, said he has mixed feelings about the Web sites.

“I don’t know how objective they are and kind of wonder how valid it really is,” Dollar said. “But evaluations are always important to me.”

Brian Youngblood, associate director of bands, is also skeptical but said the site is a reasonably fair way for students to voice their opinions.

“A Web site or any kind of discussion board can have very skewed information,” Youngblood said. “But most students have to pay money to be in a class and like with anything you pay for, you would want your money’s worth.”

Swapceinski, now a software engineer in California, said an instructor who made his life miserable at San Jose State University provided the inspiration for the site.

“She was a real ogre,” he said. “It made me realize that my life for those three to four months would have been a lot different if it hadn’t been for her. Later, I thought, ‘If only there was a Web site where I could have found out about her ahead of time.’ I searched for one and couldn’t find any, so I started my own.”

Some students say teacher-review Web sites are beneficial to them when registering for classes.

Curt Rolston, a sophomore business major, said the Web site helps students decide if they want to take the class or not.

“Seeing the ratings would influence me to take a class or not,” Rolston said.

Junior business major Raphael Kreklau said the Web site is a way for students to communicate with other students to find out what he or she really thinks about a certain professor or class.

“(The site) is a way of sincere evaluation from students,” Kreklau said.

According to the Web site, RateMyProfessors.com has been online since 1999 and now contains more than 200,000 ratings for professors from 1,700 schools, with hundreds of new ratings added each day.

“When word of the Web site gets out at a university, the ratings grow like wildfire and students really begin to benefit from the information,” Swapceinski said.

j.f.nguyen@tcu.edu