![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/nicole.jpg\")
<\/a>I wanted to know if I could really enhance my college experience by consulting a website before I chose my instructors, or at least have a legit reason to read through pages and pages of hilarious reviews. I figured, what better way to find out than to ask students, and teachers, what they think of the site.<\/p>\n
Student feedback\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n
With a name like Rate My Professors, it\u2019s obvious the website is geared towards students. So hopefully students are using it.<\/p>\n
For some Camosun students, like first-year Business Administration student Dan Ramage, Rate My Professors is an essential resource.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve picked seven different instructors from Rate My Professors,\u201d says Ramage, \u201cand I think it\u2019s been an accurate representation.\u201d<\/p>\n
And for others, it\u2019s more of a decision-making aid. Melanie Winter has used the website to scout out her instructors both at MacEwan University in Alberta and here at Camosun College during her first year of her Business Administration HR degree.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I go back and read the reviews of teachers I had, I find that they\u2019re pretty accurate,\u201d says Winter, \u201cbut when I look at reviews to find teachers I get a different outcome than what I thought.\u201d<\/p>\n
So Rate My Profs, as it\u2019s called, may not be a one-stop shop for class picking, but what is it good for?<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s effective if you want to know if a person is a tough marker, or not easy to meet up with, or unhelpful, and that\u2019s important,\u201d says Winter. \u201cLike if a person says, \u2018That teacher grades completely hard and I\u2019m usually an A+ student,\u2019 I know it\u2019s tough to do good in that class.\u201d<\/p>\n
But, of course, an online rating system like Rate My Professors has its negatives. \u201cThere are trolls who will write reviews just for the sake of doing negative reviews,\u201d complains Ramage.<\/p>\n
There is something about an anonymous online review service that can bring out the worst in people. Winter says that negativity can definitely be a downside on the website.<\/p>\n
\u201cI find people have the tendency to write more negative reviews than positive reviews,\u201d says Winter. \u201cThat\u2019s where it\u2019s a downfall.\u201d<\/p>\n
But the apples aren\u2019t all bruised on Rate My Professors, says Winter.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt draws two types of people,\u201d she says. \u201cIt draws the completely negative people who want to slam their teacher cause they\u2019re mad, and it draws those who are top-notch students in the class who are into meeting with their teachers all the time and stuff like that, and want to write a good review.\u201d<\/p>\n
It may be hard to tell if someone who posts on Rate My Profs has a legitimate claim to shame or if they are just \u201csomebody just didn\u2019t do their work or has beef with the teacher for some reason,\u201d says Winter.<\/p>\n
But not everyone has trouble weeding out the legit from the less legit. \u201cI can generally see through the trolls,\u201d says Ramage. \u201cIt\u2019s pretty easy if you ask me.\u201d<\/p>\n Although Winter says she uses the site a lot to read comments and reviews on instructors, she usually refrains from posting herself unless it\u2019s absolutely necessary.<\/p>\n \u201cI just made my first review last semester,\u201d says Winter. \u201cIt was a class I was nervous going in to and I wrote a review because I knew people out there like me, who are average students, would want to know what I wanted to know.\u201d<\/p>\n The majority of the reviews on Rate My Prof stay on one end of the scale or the other. In the case of Ramage, he would only post \u201cif I had a really bad experience, or if I had a really good experience.\u201d<\/p>\n Winter says she is willing to go out of her way to recognize a good prof.<\/p>\n \u201cIf I went to a class and understood everything,\u201d she says, \u201cI would want to recognize the teacher for that.\u201d<\/p>\n Teacher feature<\/b><\/p>\n There are two sides to every story, and what good is Rate My Professors without any professors?<\/p>\n Although you might think that your profs are stuck in the Stone Age, it\u2019s likely they know about Rate My Profs as well.<\/p>\n \u201cI knew it existed, but it had been a long time since I looked at it,\u201d says Camosun Criminal Law professor Brian Young. \u201cIt was great, though. I got to look at a bunch of other profs; it\u2019s hilarious.\u201d<\/p>\n And if teachers are looking at it as well, it may have other uses than just helping you choose the least evil professor for next semester; it might help the teacher know what they need to change.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I read the reviews, I kind of go, \u2018Well, that\u2019s good,\u2019 because that [feedback] is what I want,\u201d says Young. \u201cI think it\u2019s great for me to be able to read it, and it\u2019s completely anonymous.\u201d<\/p>\n The anonymity of the site might make it an even more valuable resource for students.<\/p>\n \u201cI used to use those hand out end-of-term review things and even that\u2019s kind of difficult,\u201d says Young, \u201cbecause you are there in the class, they have this kind of subconscious awareness of it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n