Trying to decide which courses to enroll in next semester, or do you simply wish to show your appreciation for a teacher who truly inspired you? Sites that rate teachers can help you with both of these tasks.
Unfortunately, these websites can be a mixed bag. They can sometimes give you helpful insight into how a course works and what to expect. Other times, they’re simply dumping grounds for students to vent their frustration, regardless of whether the teacher is good. The following sites are among the best to help you rate teachers, read teachers’ ratings, and determine which courses to take next.
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1. Uloop
Uloop is much more than just a rating site for professors and teachers. It’s an all-around resource portal for students, letting you search for everything from textbooks and test preparation materials to information on things like housing and student loans. Yet, the “Professor Rating” section is comprehensive, and you’ll find a repository of nearly a million professors as rated by students. You can filter professors by subject, department, or university. Ratings are entirely anonymous, and professors are rated on a scale of 1 to 5 in the categories of Easiness, Helpfulness, and Clarity. There is also an option to leave additional comments you find relevant.
Pros
- Professors are easy to find
- You don’t have to create an account to leave a rating
Cons
- Almost anyone can post a review
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2. Rate My Teachers
Since its creation, Rate My Teachers has changed hands and seen a redesign. The site has attempted to stymie the negative commentary from students by breaking it down into a questionnaire. To start a review, students can find a teacher they wish to rate by using the search button at the top of the website, then go through a list of questions that can help the site assess the professor’s qualifications and teaching style. Just as importantly, students are asked to provide advice on how to best succeed in the class. Once they submit their review, the data extracted from the form will be added to the professor’s review page, which features pie charts for each quality in the reviews, including Clarity, Easy, and Helpful.
Pros
- Modern, aesthetic interface
- Easy to find professors and schools
- Includes a “Resources” section to help find articles, study tips, and even funny videos and posts
Cons
- Limited amount of student reviews
3. Rate My Professors
If you want to see more personal student comments, try Rate My Professors. This format can be a double-edged sword, though, so remember to take the reviews with a grain of salt. However, it’s worth a look, if only to see what people are saying. Professors can be rated on a scale from 1 to 5, and students can leave their own impressions. On top of viewing professor reviews, you can see how users of the site have rated the particular university you’re attending or planning to attend.
Pros
- Attractive UI/UX design
- Features “Like/Unlike” buttons for student comments
- Super responsive website
- Leaving a comment or a review is super simple
Cons
- Suffers from a lack of recent reviews
- Some fictional professors on the site, including characters from the popular TV show “The Big Bang Theory”
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Honorable Mentions
Below you’ll find two websites geared toward rating teachers that have stopped functioning at total capacity. You can still view teacher reviews that other people have posted but won’t be able to post your reviews.
Rate Your Lecturer
Rate Your Lecturer is a relatively unknown entry in the teacher-rating niche and a UK-based middle ground. It asks for six ratings for different aspects of a teacher’s performance and allows the student to enter the pros and cons for the lecturer manually. The site highlights the top professors in an institution. When you search for a specific school, the site will let you know who the top five highest-rated professors are, making it easy to identify the best. As of this writing, the site offers up an error and refuses to create a new account to provide a review. For now, you can only check out others’ reviews of professors across UK institutions.
Pros
- Reviews include both personal commentary and skill ratings
- Decent interface
- Shows the best courses, universities, and cities
Cons
- Creating an account on the website appears to be broken
- Most reviews are probably quite old
Docsity
The teacher-rating site Koofers has recently been purchased by and integrated into Docsity. While Docsity focuses more on practice exam tests and documentation, you can still find the Koofers professor ratings by clicking through. Unfortunately, while you can see a professor’s star ratings, it appears you can’t click to reveal the full review. At this time, it’s also impossible to leave any reviews, but you can view the star reviews others have left. If you want to view the accompanying text, you can use a workaround and Google “[professor name] reviews docsity.” If you’re okay with seeing just the star ratings, you can either scroll through the list or enter the professor’s name in the “Find a professor” box. Click through on a professor, and you’ll see their documentation for various lectures, which is extremely handy.
Pros
- Allows users to upload study materials and courses
- Includes university reviews
Cons
- Full professor ratings not visible
- Few newer ratings
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Frequently Asked Questions
How can professors remove their profiles from these sites?
Generally, these sites do not allow professors to remove their profiles, as that would conflict with the sites’ whole purpose for accountability in a teaching environment. Teachers only get removed if they no longer teach at a university or college. However, Docsity allows teachers to send a request via a form to remove or modify personal ratings, and Rate My Professor has a professor signup option.
Are these sites really anonymous?
Yes, all the rating sites are committed to creating a safe space for students to voice their concerns and are, therefore, anonymous. However, professors can respond to your feedback, even if they don’t specifically know who you are!
Can I add a professor to a rating site?
Yes, all professors added to these sites are added by students and carefully moderated by the sites with some exceptions (as noted for Rate My Professors). These sites depend on students submitting their reviews, so don’t be shy about it – just be aware that some moderators can be pretty rigorous in reviewing profile applications.
Image credit: Pexels. All screenshots by Alexandra Arici.
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