How reliable are sites like Rate My Professor and MyEdu when they rate professors at A&M? I’m looking at taking an Engineering Honors section of Math 151. Only prof showing in Howdy is Arthur P. Belmonte, but both of the rating sites show his average grade as C. Any input on him or others? Kept hearing Amy Austin was great, but it doesn’t look like she’s teaching this year. Thanks in advance for any advice you can give me before my NSC.
Very reliable. If the average grade for a prof on MyEdu is an A then you’re very likely to get an A in their course. If it’s C then yeah most people are more likely to get a C but you should just take that into consideration and not to heart.
You can also Google “TAMU Grade Distribution” and you will see a Registrar distribution of all grades by semester. You can search the Science section for your math prof and see what his actual grade distribution was for any semester. This worked very well for my son when picking profs.
Those sites are not accurate for grade distribution. They are based on student-reported grades and often there are few grades reported. Also, the grades may vary depending on the course, so if you see an average grade of C, the same prof may have an average of A in a different course he/she teaches. In other words, be sure you are looking at the grades/reviews for the same course, not just the same prof. Also, when you get to your NSC, many of the sections will not have a seat available, so don’t plan on getting the prof you want. You may have to take what you can get. Finally, my kids did have profs change after they enrolled. This happened only in their math courses. Not sure why, but more than once they signed up for a great prof only to have a last minute replacement. Amy Austin is an excellent prof but there is no curve in her class and no room for careless errors. Also, she makes her makeup exams intentionally extra difficult, regardless of the reason the student needs to take a makeup, and that cost my son his A when we had a death in the family.
MyEdu is very accurate for grade distribution. They’re not based on student-reported grades, the grades come directly from the universities. This is why I always go by the grade distribution rather than the comments/recommendations on the site. Amy Austin, for example, was the most recommended Math 151/152 professor when I took those courses. However, she did not have the best grade distributions so I didn’t enroll in her sections.
Mine found it reliable too. There are also courses that are TBA when you sign up - so you won’t know until class starts but you do have a week to switch ( and mine have). Sometimes the comments help, like all essay/no essay/ mc etc. or just learning styles - one person may give a bad review but complain about something you like (e.g… attendance grade, lectures from book, memorization,group projects, etc.) or visa versa.