January 8, 2018
While it us easy to establish the issues associated with the Rate My Professors system, it can nevertheless be useful when deciding between the various sections of a class. “I generally find that Rate My Professors helps entail confidence in my decisions,” said Foothill student Josh Greenstein. “But if a professor has egregiously low [reviews], I’ll try to look more closely into second opinions. I always use multiple sources.
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When asked about his take on how trustworthy Rate My Professor reviews were, his response was in line with The Script’s observations. “I doubt that [the reviews] are entirely correlational given the differing needs of students,” Greenstein said. “A lot of negative comments focus on difficulty, which can sometimes mean that the reviewer may have struggled where many other students didn’t. How well the professor actually teaches can be hard to assess from the ratings.”
Student Anwesha Mukherji expressed similar sentiment. “Sometimes people who are not doing well because they don’t try will rant about the teacher on Rate My Professors, so you really have to read the reviews themselves,” Mukherji said. “If a review doesn’t have any detail and says things like ‘this professor is garbage,’ I’ll tend to not believe it.” While Rate My Professors certainly has system-
ic issues, it can still an expedient way to make decisions regarding what classes or sections to take. But students should use discretion and common sense when reading through a given professor’s ratings. Rate My Professors, like any other tool or service, can be abused — and students must take care to recognize such abuse when using it. Logan Keifling is a staff writer for The Script. logan@keifling.net
UPCOMING GAMES Women’s Basketball • January 10th, 5:00 PM - Hartnell • January 12th, 5:00 PM - De Anza • January 24th, 7:00 PM - Gavilan • January 26th, 5:00 PM - Monterey • January 31st, 5:00 PM - Cabrillo • February 9th, 7:00 PM - Mission Men’s Basketball • January 5th, 5:00 PM - Las Positas • January 17th, 7:00 PM - Skyline • January 19th, 5:00 PM - Canada • January 26th, 7:00 PM - Chabot • February 2nd, 7:00 PM - San Francisco • February 7th, 5:00 PM - Ohlone Women’s Tennis • January 19th, All day - Doubles Scrimmage Tournament • January 26th, 2:00 PM - Diablo Valley • February 16th, 2:00 PM - Cabrillo • February 23rd, 2:00 PM - Chabot • March 2nd, 2:00 PM - Mission • March 9th, 2:00 PM - San Francisco • March 16th, 2:00 PM - Monterey Peninsula • March 23rd, 2:00 PM - De Anza • March 30th, 2:00 PM - Canada Men’s Tennis • January 31st, 2:00 PM - Solano • February 14th, 2:00 PM - TBA • February 28th, 2:00 PM - De Anza • March 21st, 2:00 PM - Cabrillo • March 28th, 2:00 PM - Chabot • March 31st, 2:00 PM - Mission Women’s Softball • February 18th, 12:00 & 2:00 PM - Mendocino • February 28th, 3:00 PM - De Anza • March 1st, 1:00 & 3:00 PM - Folsom Lake • March 2nd, 3:00 PM - Ohlone • March 9th, 3:00 PM - Chabot • March 16th, 3:00 PM - West Valley • March 18th, 12:00 & 2:00 PM - Shasta • March 19th, 12:00 & 2:00 PM - Butte • March 28th, 3:00 PM - Gavilan • April 4th, 3:00 PM - San Jose • April 6th, 3:00 PM - San Mateo • April 8th, 12:00 & 2:00 PM - Monterey Peninsula • April 18th, 1:00 & 3:00 PM - Siskiyous • April 24th, 3:00 PM - De Anza • April 26th, 3:00 PM - West Valley
SERENA PHANITDASACK | THE SCRIPT
Swimming & Diving • January 26th, 2:00 PM - Scrimmage • February 9th, 2:00 PM - De Anza, Chabot