Professor reads their rate my professor and cries
About the author
Hi there. I am the prolific professor with 15 years of experience teaching online and in-person. I have a graduate degree. I have a passion for education. But I’ve also worked in the professional world (outside of education) too. Thanks for visiting.
Do professors look at rate my professor?
As a former professor of 15 years, I swallowed my pride and read my reviews on rate my professor. And I will tell you what happened when I did in this article.
It can be scary for professors to read their ratings because you never know what you are going to get. Oftentimes people go and rate their professors when they absolutely LOVE or HATE them. There isn’t a lot of middle ground here.
So, it’s very likely that professors are going to have a few reviews that are rude and negative. This is the case no matter how good the professor is at their job. Someone is going to be unhappy at some point.
In this article, a REAL professor is going to share with you what they thought when they read their rate my professor ratings, and I will discuss with you why you have to be very careful when relying on these ratings. Don’t take everything at face value.
Disadvantages of rate my professor
You should be careful making decisions about course enrollment solely on the professor’s ratings at rate my professor (RMP). You could be missing an opportunity to learn from an amazing professor just because they have a few bad reviews.
I also think you need to be careful using these ratings because you may have dishonest reviews from some students. Or reviews from angry students who are retaliating against the professor. Finally, some students leave vague reviews or only point out the negative things about the professor and neglect to mention any positive things.
I think it can be a helpful tool. It’s not all doom and gloom, but you have to take everything with a grain of salt. I’d rather you talk to other students and ask them personally. This way you can get more information and clarify things more.
I usually tell people that these reviews can be helpful to understand the general demeanor of a professor, but only if you see a pattern. If you see that half of the reviews are mentioning the same things over and over again, there’s probably some truth to it.
But a few bad reviews here and there, that’s to be expected.
Should you trust rate my professor (RMP)?
When you rely on anonymous reviews, you should ALWAYS be cautious, no matter the website. But with rate my professor, students get to rate their professors without being identified.
So, you can’t really vet their review, can you?
It’s not like you can talk to them and ask them if they were just mad at their professor because they failed the class or because they disagreed with them.
You just have their short review, which may be biased.
When was the last time that you went and rated service that was mediocre? Maybe you did a review to get some perk like a free item or a coupon code, but most of us don’t randomly review places we’ve visited when everything was just OKAY.
I find that this is true with websites like rate professor. You have the extremes. People who LOVED their professor and were so happy with their experience that they were compelled to go and review them.
Or you have those students who HATED their professor and can’t wait to unleash their fury online and let the world know just how awful they think they were.
I would be really careful when interpreting these reviews because you don’t know the student’s state of mind.
How accurate is rate my professor?
The rate my professor website may not always be credible because students could accidentally rate the wrong professor. It sort of happened to me as a professor.
When I was a professor, our students completed course evaluations where they could anonymously tell us what they thought of the course and our instruction.
A student got my class confused with another professor’s and left me a terrible evaluation. I was bummed that this happened because I knew the student wasn’t talking about me because of the context of the feedback. It was clearly obvious he/she got me mixed up with someone else.
This could totally happen with these rating websites too. Students could leave a review for the wrong professor. And there really isn’t anything that the REAL professor can do about it.
That is ONE bad thing about these ratings. But there’s more.
Another consideration is the reliability of the student leaving the review. Think about it for just a second. Consider how many different types of students there are.
Would you trust every students’ opinion?
Probably not. There are just some people you shouldn’t listen to and you should IGNORE their feedback. These might be people who are impossible to please or those individuals who never even showed up to class and failed and got angry.
Another problem to consider is that some students might have differing opinions than yours. For example, you might appreciate a professor who challenges you to think critically but a lot of these ratings are highly focused on how EASY the class is instead.
So, the ratings might lack depth. This isn’t always true but I have noticed this with my own ratings.
Okay, so as far as the accuracy is concerned, when I went and reviewed my own ratings, most were accurate, but a few lacked some details that are noteworthy.
I have mostly rave reviews. I really do. I am not just bragging. But there are some negative ones here and there. When I look at the reviews and read them, it makes me sad because I obviously made someone upset, sad, or frustrated for some reason or another.
I cried, a little knowing that. I wish I could have fixed it or talked to them and clarified things more.
I wish I could rebuttal and provide some explanation because their review doesn’t tell the whole story.
So, yes, some of them are spot on reviews, and others have some truth within the review but aren’t quite telling you what really went down. Very few reviewers talk about their shortcomings as students. So, you don’t get the entire truth.
But again, you are looking for patterns in the reviews.
Do professors read their rate my professor reviews?
Yes, professors read their reviews on rate my professor and other similar websites. But, they don’t take them too seriously. And once they visit the website once, they usually never visit again. Most professors are aware of the rate my professor website, but as a former professor, we never ever discussed our reviews with our colleagues.
As I just mentioned in this article, I read my own reviews and it made me a little sad.
First, professors do not know who wrote the review. They are truly anonymous, at least from my perspective. So, it’s hard to really know if it’s an honest review.
Secondly, students rarely write reviews. I have had thousands and thousands of students over the years, and I only have around 50 reviews. This is a very SMALL sample size and hardly explains my abilities as a professor.
Thirdly, I noticed students left reviews when they were mad about their grade or when they didn’t get their way.
When I first visited the website, my ratings were stellar. But they were basic. Students would say things like, “this is an easy A if you just show up” or “she gives lots of extra credit.”
I have to be honest with you. I changed my grading policies over time and I didn’t always give extra credit and I updated my lecture style and quizzes.
I say that because what was accurate 10 years ago, is not the way it is now. So, definitely look at how recent the reviews are.
These ratings have made me cry a little bit. My sadness doesn’t last long because I knew what kind of professor I really was but they can be hurtful.
This is why I stayed off them after visiting the website a few times. I could have 48 positive reviews and 2 negative ones, and those negative ratings would always stick with me more than the positive ones.
I felt like it impacted me emotionally so I stopped visiting them.
But feel free to use them as you’d like, but keep my tips in mind.
Can professors delete their bad rate my professor reviews?
No, professors do not have the ability to get bad reviews deleted on rate my professor. Now, if there was a review that was threatening or derogatory, I suppose that they could report it to them and see if it can get removed.
There website specifically says that someone can flag a review so I guess they could get reviews removed if they violated the site guidelines.
You should feel secure in reading these reviews and knowing that professors can’t easily delete bad reviews.
Good luck with your search and if you want to find the perfect professor, follow this guide here that I have loaded with tips.
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