<p>My son, a high school junior, is doing well in AP chem and leaning towards chem major at a liberal arts college. People tout the benefit of student/faculty ratios at LA colleges but when we looked at the faculty evaluations for a couple of schools on ratemy professor, they were pretty bad. Many students complained that the classes were confusing and tests much harder than practice tests or homework. Does this just reflect that chemistry is a hard major everywhere and many students struggle? Is it possible that a potential chem major would want to pick a less selective college where there would be more hand holding in the intro level classes? ie big fish in small pool?</p>
<p>You should ignore ratemyprofessors. Bad students, disgruntled students are much more likely to submit a rating. Demanding professors are more likely to get bad ratings.</p>
<p>This is not to say there are not some bad professors out there. I am saying that ratemyprofessors is not a good way to find out who they are.</p>
<p>Once you get to the school, ask upperclassmen who to avoid.</p>
<p>Yes. Entry-level college chemistry classes are notoriously difficult and an unscientific internet poll like ratemyprofessors will reflect that. Remember, a “really good” professor would give everyone A’s…</p>
<p>I don’t think the “selectivity” of the college correlates whatsoever to the difficulty of entry-level science track courses. There are certain courses (intro Chem, organic Chem, intro Bio, calculus) that are demanding at virtually all schools.</p>
<p>Also remember that intro Chem is required for a wide variety of majors so you end up with a good chunk of students who are not particularly interested in the subject but are there to fill a requirement.</p>
<p>I don’t think ratemyprofessor.com is always just the disgruntled student. Look at another department in the sciences and see if every professor got a blue face (bad). If they all are, then don’t trust data for that school. Some other schools actually have a variety of students reporting. I’ve looked up my alma mater, and it’s amazing how some professors I had many years ago are listed. It’s pretty much what I experienced for each one.</p>
<p>A word of advice though, don’t trust ratings with just one or two ratings per professor. I personally disregard any professor’s rating that does not have at least 20 ratings. I also pretting much disregard the number rating system and read the comments instead. One of the numerics is Ease of class. That is so subjective that it should not be in the compilation of a good or bad professor. I mean, Chemistry is a difficult subject. I would be wary of a Chemistry class that is rated as “Super Easy”–or wonder if all you had to do for that class is memorize the table of elements.</p>
<p>Also, realize that as CollegeHelp remarked above, the upset students are most likely to rate. If a professor has 20 posts, do these 20 posts represent 20/100 of his students over the years, 200/1000, or 2000/10000?<br>
Are the complainers the ones trying their hardest to do the work or are they griping because (gasp) they have to do work in college? It can be very subjective.</p>