<p>I was wondering if any of you know of websites to visit where you can check what students think of specific professors? I've seen ratemyprofessor.com but thought there might be others out there worth visiting.</p>
<p>S has to register online for classes soon and I thought this kind of information would be very helpful.</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>Some colleges and universities maintain their own site for professor ratings and comments. For example, villanova has two separate sites for prof/course evaluations which they maintain on their own website. You may be able to find out whether your Son's school has a similar service by searching from the homepage of the school website for course/prof evals. If that doesn't work see if you can get to the website of either the school newspaper or the student government as these are the two organizations which will often sponsor school specific rankings of the profs.</p>
<p>I have to say the best advice is from previous students. If you are a freshman, that may be hard to get, but in calling my son's school now during the summer to get some things straightened out, I am finding I am talking to a lot of students, and they are giving me their opinions if I ask, which I am very grateful for. Perhaps just calling and asking, "are you a student?" could get you some good advice. I wish schools had a site where you could network, students and parents alike. at my son's school, I feel very alone, especially when I have a problem that I need help with.</p>
<p>A problem with asking an individual student about a professor is the possibility that you will get an overly biased sense of that prof. Look at rate my professor.com and you will see a wide variety of rankings for the same professor and the same class. To find the best professors on campus you need a relatively wide sample of student evaluations for the prof and the course in question.</p>
<p>Another reason for widely varying ratings could be accomplices. I read one professor's ranking, whom I knew to be a particularly poor lecturer so was astonished that he had three or four ratings all of which were outstanding. Then it struck me that the comments were ones I had often heard him apply to himself. Could it be that either he or his family wrote the ratings? Sure enough, about a year later, several times as many negative ratings were posted. The students were outraged that they had been led by the site to believe he was a good prof when he was horrible. </p>
<p>I've read several ratings for other professors I know and found them to be fairly accurate. If most of the ratings say the same thing, whether or not that those qualities appeal to the individual rater, it's probably a good picture of the professor's abilities and style. It doesn't matter if student A likes a lack of homework, while student B wants more, you know that the prof doesn't assign much. If the opinions seem to describe two different people, I'd view them as suspect.</p>
<p>If you're comfortable revealing your son's school and interests, I'll bet you could get some fairly specific and current advice here.</p>