Rate your professor online; sacrifice your grade

RateMyProfessor.com (RMP) is a website where students from any college can rate and make comments about their professors. Professors are critiqued on clarity, ease, helpfulness and as unsound as it seems, their physical appearance.

The battle of the ethics: Many people believe that RMP is a pathetic chance for students to settle grudges and grievances with their past professors. The website claims to monitor the comments and weed out the ones unrelated to the professor's teaching. While I would like to believe that is accurate, I have seen otherwise. Some professors see the website as offensive (the fact that student a has the power to rate them on their "hotness") while others use it as a chance to improve their technique and teaching style.

The professors that believe their students should not have this power are usually the professors who think they can do no wrong and more times than not, they are blaming their students for their poor performance.

The reality of it is that some professors are not as good as others. As a student paying out of pocket for school, I deserve to get the full value of my investment. A professor can make or break a subject. Our professors hold that power when it comes to the dynamics of the class they teach. If you are past the refund deadline before you learn the professors' true colors, you are stuck in the class for a full semester not getting your money's worth.

Some professors are required to conduct evaluations but the result are not released to the students, nor is the information about students who withdraw, drop or switch classes due to a bad professor. So RMP is an alternative that I, along with millions of students around the nation, use as a tool while planning my academic future.

As well as using the ratings to point me in a good direction, I also communicate my opinions about past professors so I can help others in their academic planning.

All adults with strong opinions are entitled to voice them. But just as clearly, there are individuals who would take personal offense to a student criticizing their work and would be inclined to retaliate. I speak from personal experience. I received a C in a course because the professor knew I gave her a negative review. I informed the professor that I knew that was not the grade I had earned and if changes weren't made I would go to the department chair. My grade changed to a "B" within day.

I think more professors should read the comments of their students and act like adults, taking constructive criticism for what it is.

There are many great professors at SCC but there are still the not so great professors in the world who take advantage of their power and RMP can save a student from stepping in to the wrong door.