May 8, 2006

‘Hotness’ and Quality

If you’re not sexy, you might want to be easy.

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At least if you’re a professor concerned about your rating on RateMyProfessors.com. James Felton, a professor of finance and law at Central Michigan University, and colleagues looked at ratings for nearly 7,000 faculty members from 370 institutions in the United States and Canada, and his verdict is: the hotter and easier professors are, the more likely they’ll get rated as a good teacher.

As far as students — or whoever is rating professors on the open Rate My Professor site — are concerned, nothing predicts a quality instructor like hotness.

Felton found a positive correlation of 0.64 (0.00 means there is no correlaton whatsoever, and 1.0 describes a perfectly linear relationship) between the “hotness” and “quality” — quality is a composite of “helpfulness” and “clarity” — ratings on the site. “Hotness” is determined by evaluators choosing “hot” or “not hot,” with each click counting as either +1 or -1. “Quality” is on a simple 1-5 scale. (Felton may be an exception on the correlation — while he doesn’t get any hotness points from RateMyProfessors, he does well on quality.)

The potential bad news, for professors who thought the way to a student’s heart is only through a grade, is that being “easy” doesn’t trump being hot, when it comes to the quality ranking. The easiness-quality correlation was 0.62.

Some faculty members might be happy to know, however, that being hot and easy don’t necessarily go together. The hotness-easiness correlation was 0.39.

The relationships are most pronounced for professors that students rated as really, really hot, or really, really not.

The 102 professors ranked as least attractive in the sample had an average quality rating of 2.14, and an average easiness rating of 2.20. Meanwhile the 99 “hottest” profs had an average quality score of 4.43, and an easiness rating of 3.5.

Felton said that the vast majority of the 750,000 past and present professors rated on RMP don’t have extreme hot or not ratings, but he said that, beyond the obvious drawbacks of RMP – “anybody can post, and post as much as they want” – the survey “shows us just how biased students are by easiness and sexiness.”

Felton said that the study is not an attack, or an endorsement of RateMyProfessors, but the site provided data, and a good way to get a sense of what might influence anonymous student evaluations, whether on RMP or elsewhere. Many institutions have started their own, internal online rating systems to offer students a reliable alternative to RateMyProfessors.

In terms of discipline, engineering, computer science, and chemistry had both the lowest quality and hotness ratings. Languages, sociology, and political science had the top quality ratings, and ranked first, sixth, and fifth, respectively, out of 36 disciplines for hotness.

When Felton subtracted the easiness score and an adjusted hotness score from the quality score, chemistry jumped to the top of the “adjusted quality” list.

In a previous paper, Felton and colleagues offered two explanations, from other researchers, for the relationship between hotness and quality. The first is the “Immediacy Principle,” which posits that students are more engaged by attractive teachers who they think they’d want to socialize with, and might consequently do a better job learning.

The other is the “Halo Effect,” the idea that students approach attractive teachers with the mindset that “they can do no wrong,” Felton said.

Halo “is the one we’ve sided with,” Felton said, adding that “it’s really a guess, just based on the comments” that go with the scores.

Felton said that most comments tend to be either glowing, or biting, and added that the comments that bothered him most are those that say: “It was a really boring class. I didn’t learn much, but it was easy, so I recommend it.” Felton said he joked about naming a 2004 article he co-authored on the topic: “Great Class, Easy as Hell.”

Felton said that, for the most part, he thinks professors and administrators take RMP with a grain of salt, but he added that it has become a widely recognized part of college culture, and that “if a department is trying to hire somebody new and they don’t really know much about them, they might take a peek.”

In a previous article, “The Professor,” who asked to remain anonymous and is the founder of Rate Your Students, a response to RMP, recalled Googling someone who was applying for a job at his institution. Up came the RateMyProfessors.com comments, and several noted that the person in question would bring her cat to class. “I have no way to know if this is true,” The Professor said. “But once it was in there, I couldn’t get it out of my brain.”

Patrick Nagle, 23-year-old chief operating officer of RateMyProfessors.com, said that a recent survey showed that 60 percent of all quality ratings are “positive,” or are at least the score of 3.5 which merits a smiley face.

Nagle said that RMP gets inquiries now and then from faculty members asking why a chili pepper, which symbolizes a positive hotness score, disappeared. As to any hotness or easiness bias on the part of students, Nagle said that students have a right to express their opinions, and to help other students choose professors in any way they see fit.

As for the contention that RMP scores can actually hurt a professor’s career, Nagle said he thinks the sentiment is “overblown.” He added that RMP collects the IP addresses of users, and said that, on a few occasions, the Rate My Professors staff has decided to report to an institution a professor who was excessively ripping his or her colleagues on the site. “There have been issues where a school has cracked down on professors grading their colleagues,” he said.

In case any faculty members are worried that RateMyProfessors has no heart at all, the site doesn’t display hotness scores below zero, because it does not want to embarrass professors. According to Felton’s study, however, they may well be able to infer such ratings from quality ratings that are in the gutter.

— David Epstein

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Comments

Hotness and Charisma

We should consider that “hotness” could also be charisma, in the Weberian sense of the charismatic leader. If that’s true, the hotness rating is even more disturbing, because charisma is, by definition, extremely influential—much more powerful than physical beauty alone. Visually ordinary people can be very charismatic, and visually stunning people can be uncharismatic, which would explain some of the chili-effects people have been talking about. A charismatic teacher can get away with a lot, which is pedagogically useful and ethically problematic. And that is the hundred-thousandth reason that student evaluations should not be taken at face value.

Dr. Oi, Assistant Professor of English at The Juilliard School, at 12:00 pm EDT on May 20, 2008

Cause and Effect?

Although I have little doubt that the conclusions presented are reasonable, I would point out that the chili pepper may also be the undeserved result of an genuinely positive evaluation of a prof’s teaching. No objective judge of physical “hotness” would give me a chili pepper, but my students (who have rated me positively in the two critical categories, despite only a mid-range “easiness") have nevertheless awarded me that spicy distinction. I can only attribute that to generosity on their part — not that I’m complaining...

Ron Schott, Dr. at Fort Hays State University, at 6:05 am EDT on May 8, 2006

scoring ratings

It would be interesting to see a male vs. female comparison for ratings, over types of colleges and universities, since the data is present.

LM, at 7:45 am EDT on May 8, 2006

confirmation

This studies findings about “hotness” merely confirms what Hamermesh and Parker have already reported in their Economics of Education Review article (v. 24, 2005, pp. 369-376). BTW, that study also shows the effect of gender—male instructors’ scores are disproportionately affected by their perceived attractivenss. Go figure.

ex-prof, at 8:40 am EDT on May 8, 2006

Dr. Schott is on the right track. Social science 101 tells us that correlation does not mean causation, and in this case the arrow might easily run the other way. A quality instructor certainly makes the material seem much easier than an incompetent one. And certainly someone’s skill and dynamism in any field has a lot to do with attractiveness.

Dave S., Assoc Prof at Land Grant U, at 9:32 am EDT on May 8, 2006

I have worked at three institutions in the last few years, and I find virtually all the published ratings of instructors I know personally to be pretty accurate.

As to favorable ratings and easiness — don’t you think there has to be a postivie correlation? Instructors who provide clear expectations, lecture in an organized manner in plain English, and are helpful outside of class are going to be rated easy. Won’t these teachers SEEM easy as opposed to confusing, non-helpful teachers?

Admittedly, rated well, at 9:32 am EDT on May 8, 2006

Let’s also not forget that the validity of student surveys often is called into question because of... irony.

In other words, I know that many teachers are labeled “hot” as a complete joke.

db, at 10:05 am EDT on May 8, 2006

Bogus research, bogus story

Sorry, guys, but there’s a key phrase in here that negates the whole study and, therefore, any reporting or commentary on it.

When Epstein wrote this: “but he said that, beyond the obvious drawbacks of RMP – ‘anybody can post, and post as much as they want’ – the survey ’shows us just how biased students are by easiness and sexiness’ ” he put us on notice that the research is totally specious and that no valid conclusions or statements — no, as in none, dada, rien — can be made about the “data.” The only statement can be made with certainty based on this study is that the researcher is criminally ignorant of research methodology.

That the “data"-gathering method allows for repeated responses by the same students is an indicator of the web site’s fatal flaw — the survey sample is self-selected. The first rule of survey research is that respondents must be sampled AT RANDOM if the results are to be valid to a whole population.

Shame on the researcher, the reporter, and “Inside Higher Ed” for giving space to such tripe.

Bill Dockery, University of Tennessee, at 10:05 am EDT on May 8, 2006

Casting stones

The strange thing is, is that I have seen professors do the same kinds of things with students. Albeit before RMP. Professors will fall for halos, and often will cast judgements about students based on physical appearance.

I don’t think a position on whether the study is reliable or good.

Larry, at 10:15 am EDT on May 8, 2006

RMP ratings

Since 46% of higher ed faculty are adjunct/PT, ratings unfairly compare disadvantaged academic labor with salaried regulars. Is a low rating connected to no office/no desk/late contract/no resources—it makes a difference. Does a low rating result from a professor’s actions against plagiarism or cheating, or from expecting students to read their textbook and come to class? Revenge happens. Anyone who uses RMP.com in hiring/firing decisions—deserves to lose their own job.

GIGO, at 10:40 am EDT on May 8, 2006

And yet, any search committee that fails to consider all of the available information about a candidate (such as results of a Google search on name and email or the comments left on RatemyProfessor.com) is about equal to one that fails to consider references, publications, and history. We call that negligent.

One would need to understand exactly what these students consider “hot” before making any determination on the validity of their opinions. It is very likely that they are not referring to physical attractiveness but instead to qualities they admire in others. This isn’t always “wow she’s perty” but intead refers to the educators polish, preparation, demeanor, and appearance on a regular basis.

A well polished and presented educator, who comes to class prepared and addresses the students as though it were an exchange of information and not a simple spewing forth of facts of questionable validity or usefulness will rate as “hot” regardless of how he/she “looks". This is because that professor will display two characteristics of “hotness” important to todays youth — intelligence and confidence.

These are though, just my unscientific opinions.

Carson Turner, at 11:20 am EDT on May 8, 2006

or. . .

Of course, by neglecting one other plausible explanation for the correlation between “hotness” and ranking, this piece demonstrates professors’ well-worn disdain for (a) teaching, and (b) their students. Namely, it neglects the possibility that students see professors as attractive *because* those professors are interested in them, prepared for class, and treat them with attentiveness instead of the usual disdain, contempt, and cynicism. In other words, the causation may run the other way. But this professor, like most others, would never consider that explanation because university professors believe having passion (for others’ learning instead of one’s own lecturing) and an ability to interact with other people is below them and not “rigorous,” and because universities’ tenure processes reward people who would rather sit in an office in front of a computer than interact with other people. It is convenient for them, and consistent with their usual cynical, self-justifying view toward the world that real people populate, that professors would view themselves as victims of other people’sshallowness, instead of vice versa.

D., at 11:40 am EDT on May 8, 2006

Not consistant

The institution I work for does student evaluations on a regular basis. I have always gotten well above the norm for positive comments and my classes are always full. I have never had a student complaint to the Dean. The interesting thing is that I have had a couple zingers on that rating site. This doesn’t reflect the attitude of the majority which is supported by the “legitimate” evaluations completed by the whole. The sad thing, as stated above, is that in the right situation it mught hurt a good instructor.

Dr.P, at 12:05 pm EDT on May 8, 2006

RMP

Since “easiness” and “hotness” are eliminated from the overall scores, what’s the point of reinstering them for this study?

The Ohio State newspaper did a study on RMP and found the too hottest professors to be a 32-year-old dance instructor and a 72 year-old scientist.

The students understand the “hotness” issue better than the instructors.

Annie Hall, student at Ohio State, at 12:45 pm EDT on May 8, 2006

god forbid we should find smart and interesting sexy

I posted about the obvious causation infirmity with this study at www.worldclassfederalists.com before seeing any of these comments. There’s also a reliability problem, that people who really like a prof may rate them as attractive whether they think they are or not, and may rate an average or unattractive professor more honestly, or even mean-spiritedly.

john dickinson, Stanford Law, at 3:20 pm EDT on May 8, 2006

This article really misses the point, I think. Of course there’s a correlation between ratings of “hotness” and of overall quality — but that does not mean the former controls the latter. On the contrary, professors usually get “hot” ratings when they engage the students well, not when they actually arouse. “Hotness” is a measure of vibrant personality, and vibrant personality also tends to result in positive teaching evaluations. That, at least, is my opinion as a recent undergrad.

Jonathan, Class of 2006 at LeTourneau University, at 3:20 pm EDT on May 8, 2006

Educational Institutions?

The culture of Hollywood begins to affect many of the so-called educated as well as the mass of the uneducated. So by successive adaptations the sophistic identification of appearance and reality penetrates all layers of a society producing the dumbing down homogeneity necessary for the comprehension of the uneducated masses. And it is the uneducated masses that consume and vote.

But such less than “ideal conditions” need not obtain. Discontinuities may arise. The better educated can become a class closed in upon themselves with no task proportionate to their training: They can become effete. The less educated and the uneducated find themselves with a tradition that is beyond their means. They cannot maintain it. They lack the genius to transform it into some simpler vital and intelligible whole. It degenerates. The meaning and values of human living become impoverished. The will to achieve both slackens and narrows. Where once there were joys and sorrows, now there are just pleasures and pains. The ultimate criterion becomes the crude distinction between what’s sexy and what is not. The culture has become a slum.

The rhetoric of sexiness is an acknowledged source of wealth and power, and the power is not merely material. It is the power of the mass media to write for, speak to, be seen by all men and women. It is the power of an educational system to fashion the nation’s youth in the image of the wise woman or man or of the fool, in the image of a free man or woman or in the image prescribed by the epigones of a bankrupt culture that reduces every achievement to success and every success to popularity. We have as, Pogo used to say, met the enemy and he – and should I be politically correct and also include she? – is us.

Emile, Professor of Philosophy at Nova, at 3:20 pm EDT on May 8, 2006

Blah, Blah, Blah ... Blah, Blah

Three things:

I certainly don’t want to turn this into a discussion of statistics, but when – as is true in this case – you have three different indicators of three different constructs ... and you don’t know what those constructs are ... and you don’t know how good the indicators are at capturing what the constructs “mean” ... and the independent indicators (taken individually) explain a little over 35% of the variation in the indicator of the important dependent construct ... and the “analysis” consists of only pair-wise comparisons of the variables in question (no multivariate analyses) ... and, oh yes, there’s no thought of random sampling ... and you want to provide information like this to chairs, deans, and vice presidents for academic affairs to reinforce their pre-conceived prejudices when they “decide” the careers of young assistant professors ... well, what can I say? You must be a card-carrying member of the higher education establishment in the United States today ... and, as we all know, it’s the envy of the rest of the world. But lop off the top twenty-five or thirty of the best schools – where only a tiny fraction of our students are educated – and I can assure you the rest of the world will be snickering at what’s left.

Second, scroll down to “One Size Doesn’t Fit All”

(http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/05/04/harvard)

and read “Let’s talk About Variance.”

Finally, during the past four years I have had a young colleague who, according to his students, is dynamic, brilliant, hot, and a masterful teacher ... and he has the student evaluations to back it up. He and two other professors teach different sections of a course that is prerequisite for a required course I taught. Every term – and I do mean every term – I could predict with about 80% accuracy which students in my course came from his classes. They were so far behind the other students in the class, did so poorly on the early quizzes and tests, and, in the process, were so confident of their abilities, it was all I could do to bring them up to speed in a manner that did not call attention to what it was they all had in common.

My points? ... (1) the very mediocre teaching “quality” of my young colleague (as measured by his students’ knowledge at the conclusion of the course) continued to be positively reinforced by his students’ evaluations and (2) those administration nit-wits who give every appearance of believing the evaluations are meaningful – at least in a comparative sense — have pushed him up the promotion and tenure ladders as quickly as they could.

Oh yes, I must add that Bill Dockery is exactly right!

RWH, at 3:20 pm EDT on May 8, 2006

The article is great & stats are valid

I find Bill Dockery’s claim that the methodology “negates the whole study” to be rubbish.

The stats for this article are completely valid, the only problem with the stats (and with statistical analysis in general) is whether the human interpretation of the results matches what the data really says. The article only quoted relative correlations between variables, and the fact that ‘anybody can post, and post as much as they want’ does nothing at all to destroy the importance of the relative correlations between different pairs of statistics. The multi-posting may make it difficult to compare different professors ratings in a meaningful way, because one person can make a large difference in that persons score, but the article does not try to do that type of analysis.

In terms of the “random selection” gripe, Bill Dockery is absolutely right in implying that these results are not valid to the “whole population” — meaning that how these results would apply to students to general is unknown. However, it absolutely makes meaningful statements about the “whole population” that posts at RateMyProfessor.com — so it is a VERY interesting article to anyone who has been looking at that site... Which I am willing to bet, is most professors & instructors...

Great article.

B. Fish, at 6:15 pm EDT on May 8, 2006

correlation

The correlation between “easiness” and “quality” at RateMyProfessor is so obvious that you can see it just by eyeballing the ratings at my institution.

However, I had a look at the (very famous, very selective) institution where I did my PhD and it was a lot less obvious there. I then went to the companion site RateMyTeachers and had a look at a magnet school whose teachers I was very familier with (I went there and taught there). I found again, no correlation between quality and easiness... and the ratings approximately matched my impressions.

I’d be curious to see whether this could be shown statistically.

I also wonder whether more mature students (e.g. grad programs) might have more of an ability to separate easiness from quality.

Re: the statistical complaints. The complainers are completely wrong. If they were complaining about the accuracy of RMP, they’d be completely right — the sample isn’t random for a host of reasons. So it doesn’t say anything about the profs in question. But showing the correlation between the two ratings is very significant in showing the problems of RMP. Certainly the correlation is significant evidence of the system’s weaknesses.

AAT, postdoc, at 9:45 pm EDT on May 8, 2006

RMP

I remind my students that using the information posted to RMP is like using the grafitti in a toilet stall to find a date for a party.

PA at IUP, at 2:10 pm EDT on May 10, 2006

RMP

I’m guessing that the students who use RMP *are* getting their dates from restroom grafitti!

Santa, at 5:50 pm EDT on May 10, 2006

not research

B. Fish’s comment about the validity of the research is simply inaccurate.

Bill Dockery is correct.

Another analogy is that using RMP to get information about professors is like using fanatical websites hosted by white supremacists to get information about Jews, or using website from Islamic fundamentalist groups to get information about non-Muslims.

Also the reverse holds. RMP tells us no more about students at large the the white supremacist websites tell us about white Europeans, or the Islamic fundamentalist websites tell us about Muslims.

Joe in Eugene, private practice, at 3:55 pm EDT on May 11, 2006

These are all valid points. However, when we’re extrapolating such findings to evaluate teachers, we’re missing one key variable: the ability of a professor to produce effective and successful students.

I’d like to see how correlated “hotness” is with “student success” after controlling for the intelligence.

If ultimately we want to produce the best students, these are the questions to ask next.

PDW, Graduate Hopeful at LU, at 8:25 pm EDT on May 12, 2006

I agree with Jonathan

I don’t crush on professors (the power differential wigs me out even in the abstract), but I have rated professors as “hot” in an abstract way, because I can imagine that non-students would perceive them that way. A lot of it has to do with how funny, interesting, and engaging they are. Believe it or not, not ALL undergraduates base assessments of attractiveness solely on physical appearance. Then again, maybe I’m strange because I don’t entirely trust professors who grade leniently.

By the way, I did have a professor who brought her dog to class. The dog alternated between chewing up paper cups with great concentration and trying to convince us to play Fetch with her. I suppose a cat would be a little stranger, though....

Mel, museum worker/recent grad, at 11:25 pm EDT on May 12, 2006

Abolish Evaluations

At what point are faculty going to question the validity of student evaluations — rather than quibble over the significance of meaningless content? At what point should we begin to concern ourselves with the deleterious effects of this mode of relating to teachers, whether as students or teachers?

Evaluations were introduced several decades back as a way to give students a voice in the basics of their education — to alert administration to the racist, sexist, inebriated or chronically absent or abusive faculty member who could rule the classroom in such fashion without anyone knowing. Evaluations did a good job of addressing tht problem, but have now created an ugliness of their own. Reversing the charge, students (no longer likely to confront racism or sexism of the old-fashioned sort) devote themselves to evaluating a teacher’s appearance, personality, easiness, enthusiasm, and doing so convince themselves that this is what constitutes education (and in turn, more appalling, we see faculty on this board imagining that such ratings are a measure of the pedagogical ability and results of the professor under such superficial review).

What was a well-intentioned response to professorial abuse of power has become a corresponding abuse of power by students, who have turned evaluations into consumer ratings and venues for wreaking revenge upon professors who attempt to grade them fairly, demand hard work from them, or who in some fashion refuse to understand that their role is to attend to their students’ desires like jolly servants or bodice-ripped governesses. Unscrupulous or simply peeved students use evaluations recklessly and vengefully, with no fear of consequence to themselves. They should be done away with.

Poison Ivy, at 10:15 am EDT on May 16, 2006

Complete lack of understanding demonstrated in this article

This article seems to be neglecting several important possibilities.

1) A professor who is a better teacher is percieved as being more attractive (think of all the profound characters you have ever seen in movies)

2) Worse professors are percieved as less attractive. Think of the bitter professors who refuse to take responsibility for providing resources and blame students for everything.

3) Less physically attractive professors ARE worse at teaching. For this I typically think of an older professor whose only joy in life is his research and teaching is just a nuisance. Perhaps part of the drive to be a good teacher is being respected by your students.

4) It’s easier to do well in a class with a good teacher.

etc, etc... anotherwords, whats these people’s point? This says nothing about the accuracy of the site’s ratings.

Terrence Kwasha, Mr., at 1:05 pm EDT on May 16, 2006

“Hotness” discussion overlooks true merit of site

Previous posts fail to address the idea that many students (such as myself) really *do* want to learn & get the most possible out of a course. At a huge university, one can find many professors who are either teaching against their will in order to stay on to do research, or are simply poor at conveying information to students (for various reasons). At places like these it seems that there is little regard for the learning experience of the students. Certainly everyone out there must recall at some point in their lives having a teacher who most students & teachers would agree was terrible at his/her job yet somehow managed to stick around for eternity. Universities shouldn’t let this happen. But because they do, it is up to students to get the best education they can. As for those who choose professors based on easiness rather than quality of instruction, those students will get the education they deserve — not much. Take the example of buying a car. Most people probably spend more on college than on buying a car. You’d be a fool not to do research on the model of a car you were considering purchasing. As a consumer you feel entitled to quality for your money. Taking courses from professors solely based on catalogue course descriptions is like buying a car based on a 3-line classified ad.

As for the “hot” or “not hot” discussion, this should really be a non-issue. I think it is merely a distraction for professors who would prefer to blame poor ratings on superficial students rather than taking responsibility for the poor quality of their instruction. Anyone in the academic field should realize that the research correlating hotness quotient and overall rating is merely correlation and not causation, despite the implications of the article. Judging by reviews I have read & written, students seem to rate the professors’ hotness based on their overall likeability, or how attractive they would be were attractiveness based on merit and personality. I’ve seen a professor in his 80’s rated as hot even though objectively he’s certainly not, but students adore his classes. So professors need to realize this isn’t something to be overly concerned about.

Overall, I believe this site has vastly improved my college experience by helping me avoid terrible professors and alerting me to interesting professors who teach classes I would never have chosen based solely on course description. Furthermore, those who feel the sites’ ratings to be unrepresentative should encourage universities to make public the information that they collect on student evaluation forms.

PhiloSophos, at 6:00 am EDT on August 20, 2006

Student perspective

As a student I must comment. I admit that I have used RMP both as a poster and a reader.

From some of the comments above it seems that a few have overlooked the objectivity and intelligence of the student who is reading the ratings. I am sure that I cannot speak for all, but would like to think I am not alone in this."Hotness” is almost never a factor in my choice of instructor, (my institution and department has few chili pepper rated professors anyway) knowing that attractiveness is almost never universal this seems a poor method on its face (no pun intended).

What I do look at is the class the “rater” took. I almost always throw out scathing reviews of 100 level courses, simply because these are most often going to have been written by students who are not yet accustomed to college level work. They are upset that books had to be purchased and that papers were expected to be written on a level above high school criteria (this translates as hard grader most often). The biggest complaint I have read is “so-and-so expected us to READ before we came to class!” I pay no attention to these ramblings; I shake my head and pray for the future. I also dismiss reviews from those who praise a prof. by saying “take this prof. you never even have to show up and you can get an A". This rater does not want to be in college and is not objective at all.

What I do pay attention to is the availability of said professor at office hours, response to email, timeliness of handing assignments back...the general feel of the class. All of these things I feel go into “ease". If an instructor is clear and answers questions from students without contempt and a “how can you not understand me, for I am brilliant” attitude, then yes they are easy. Comments as to the overall fairness of a professor are also a huge factor as well as complaints(not praise) of “you never have to come to class...” are also important for me. I feel that this leads me to believe that lazy students are no more or less important to this professor than those who come to class and try to make the most of their education.

So, I agree with a lot of the previous posts, but I am also a little offended by others. Please give students the benefit of the doubt that those who take their education seriously are able to see past the spiteful, lazy, unaware, confused and overwhelmed students and glean useful information from likeminded students who are trying to help fellow students and not lampoon an instructor unfairly.

I also think the RMP is useful for instructors if they do not get all hung up on the few and look at the big picture. If you have 14 reviews and 11 of them comment (positively or negatively) on the fact that you are always late for class, perhaps it is time to get a new watch. If you are praised for being available and fair by the majority, way to go, keep it up, move on. If everyone mentions that you bring your cat to class, maybe you need a different kind of help. This is just a tool to make you a better instructor, no need to be defensive.

I have found that the ratings I have used have been spot on when I got to class. And matched opinions of people I spoke with in person about an instructor. Overall a great help in choosing between instructors when several sections of a class are offered.Cheers-

Alice_of_Wndrlnd, 30+under grad English, at 5:45 pm EDT on August 23, 2006

rate my professor

Several of the responses to this site argue repeatedly that hotness has little to do, if anything, with physical attractiveness. This may be true in a few cases, but many of the profs considered hot, just incidentally, happen to be physically attractive. If the term has little to do with physical desireability maybe a different term than “hot” should be used since most people don’t automatically equate that term with “interesting". Also the comments about he vulnerability of PT profs are important. Student evaluations are incredibly important for their continued ability to get work, rate your prof. does in a peripheral way effect that, and such a requirement is utterly unfair to PT and untenured professors who make up more and more of the instructors of many universities. PT profs get paid below poverty line wages, have no holiday pay or job security and are often landed with those courses that are required and have hundreds of students — the courses most students hate appart from the prof. It is simply NOT a level playing field, something most students do not know and Rate Your Professor seems to have chosen to ignore.

higher ed, sessional at university of new brunswick, at 6:30 pm EDT on September 6, 2006

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Assistant Professor, Department of Management
James Madison University

Join one of the finest regional universities in the nation. James Madison University, home to 18,000 + students, welcomes you ... see job

Research Coordinator
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

This position is responsible for directly overseeing outreach, education and evaluation activities for the initiative, North ... see job

Manager of Web Communications
University of South Carolina

A leader in academe, the University of South Carolina holds the Carnegie Foundation’s highest research designation and is ... see job

Assistant Professor of Methodology
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

The Department of Political Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill invites applications for a ... see job

Chair
Columbus State Community College

Columbus State Community College invests in employee development by providing numerous resources, partnerships, training and ... see job

Business Counselor
University of Texas, Brownsville

To train, counsel, facilitate and assist small businesses on how to sell and increase sales to the public sector. This ... see job

Adjunct Instructor, Computer Information Technology-Operating Systems
Lone Star College System

Located just north of Houston, Texas, our five campuses serve 1,400 square miles. Our student enrollment is nearly 50,000 in ... see job

ORCS Research Associate/Fellow
University of Minnesota, Twin Cities

The University of Minnesota is a premier employer and a talent magnet attracting leading faculty and staff from around the ... see job