Sites post uninhibited student reviews of courses, professors

Finding a top-notch professor at the U of C can be serious business, and for new and relatively unknown professors, solid information can be hard to come by. Some students have found a solution by bypassing their friends and the University’s own evaluation system entirely and heading straight to the Internet for advice.

Students at schools around the country now frequently post their uncensored opinions of professors at sites like coursereviews.com and ratemyprofessors.com. While the U of C lags behind many schools in numbers of postings, many are worth reading for their uninhibited frankness.

These sites allow students to post general comments and rate their professors based on categories like helpfulness, leniency in grading, and hotness. A student on ratemyprofessors.com noted of Jonathan Z. Smith, professor of religion in the College, “J.Z. Smith is God—convert to J.Z. religion and worship him.” Smith was rated “hot” by 6 of 11 evaluators.

While not as in-depth as the University’s evaluations, these sites offer a general summary of a particular professor’s abilities and allow students to offer honest and even entertaining commentary.