ratemyprofessors.com

What RateMyProfessors.com Is and How It Works

RateMyProfessors.com (often referred to as RMP) is a long-running online platform where students can read and submit reviews of college and university instructors. It isn’t a formal research database or institutional evaluation system; it’s a student-powered review site where current and former students share their experiences about professors and, in some cases, academic programs.

The site launched back in 1999 under the name TeacherRatings.com and was renamed Rate My Professors in 2001. Since then, it has grown into one of the most widely used student review services for higher education faculty in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. As of recent data, RMP hosts millions of ratings and reviews covering thousands of schools and over a million instructors.

Users can search for a professor by school, name, or department and see an aggregated score for that professor’s overall quality. You can also see how difficult students found the courses and read brief written comments submitted by other students.

The site is free to use, and ratings are submitted anonymously. You don’t need to register to read reviews, though accounts are required to write them. Moderators review submissions to enforce community guidelines and remove content that violates terms of use.

What Students Rate and What the Scores Mean

When you look up an instructor on RateMyProfessors.com, the platform will display a few things:

• Overall Quality: A star rating (1–5) meant to reflect general teaching effectiveness and helpfulness.
• Level of Difficulty: Often shown on the same interface, this score indicates how challenging students found the professor’s classes.
• “Would Take Again” Percentage: Shows the percentage of raters who would take another class with the same professor.
• Optional Tags and Written Comments: Students can mention specific traits like workload, grading style, attendance policies, and more.

These metrics are entirely student-generated and subjective. The overall rating is designed to help other students choose classes or get a sense of what to expect, but it’s not a scientifically validated measure of teaching quality.

Why Students Use the Site

Students use RateMyProfessors.com primarily as an informal planning tool. When course registration opens each term, many students check RMP:

• to avoid instructors they think will be overly harsh or boring
• to find professors whose teaching style fits their learning preferences
• to see how much work they might expect in a class

Because official university evaluations are often private and only available to faculty or administrators, RMP fills a gap by offering a public place to see peer feedback about instructors.

The usefulness of the site as a decision-making tool comes down to how you interpret the data. Some users find RMP reviews helpful for practical planning. Others view them as mixed quality, because they reflect personal opinions rather than objective measures of teaching.

Strengths of the Website

There are some clear reasons why RateMyProfessors.com is widely used:

• Large Coverage: The site includes a very broad range of schools and instructors, giving students access to reviews that they might not otherwise see.
• Ease of Use: It’s simple to search for professors and quickly gauge overall student sentiment.
• Free and Public: No paywall or login is required to read reviews.
• Peer Perspective: Students often describe workload, test style, grading, and classroom expectations in ways that official evaluations don’t.

For many students choosing between instructors with similar schedules or requirements, this kind of peer-to-peer insight feels valuable when planning their semesters.

Limitations and Criticisms

At the same time, there are important limitations and criticisms to understand:

• Subjectivity and Bias: Ratings are based on individual impressions, and studies have found that these can reflect biases or non-teaching-related factors (like likeability or personal frustration).
• Small Sample Sizes: Some professors have only a handful of reviews, which makes averages unreliable.
• No Verification of Raters: Although guidelines suggest reviewers should be current or former students, there’s no strict verification that every reviewer actually took the professor’s class.
• Anonymity Issues: Anonymity can encourage emotional or retaliatory comments that might not reflect broad experience.
• External Complaints: Business review sites like the BBB show complaints about responsiveness and handling of issues, indicating that some professors and users find the platform’s moderation and support lacking.

Because of these factors, many educators urge students not to rely solely on RMP when evaluating instructors. Instead, it should be one source among several, including official evaluations, peer advice, and direct communication with instructors.

How to Make the Most of It

If you choose to use RateMyProfessors.com, there are practical ways to approach the data thoughtfully:

• Look at the Written Reviews: The qualitative comments often give context that star ratings alone can’t.
• Check Multiple Reviews: One outlier review doesn’t tell you much; patterns matter more.
• Consider Workload and Style Tags: Many users include tags about grading, exams, and homework, which help you understand the professor beyond quality scores.
• Combine with Other Sources: Talk to classmates, advisors, or academic departments for a fuller picture.

Key Takeaways

• RateMyProfessors.com is a widely used student review site for rating college professors and classes.
• Students can submit anonymous ratings and comments about overall quality, difficulty, and classroom experience.
• The platform offers practical insights for course planning but is not a validated academic evaluation tool.
• Reviews are subjective and often reflect personal views more than objective teaching metrics.
• Use RMP reviews cautiously and alongside other information sources.

FAQs

Is RateMyProfessors.com accurate?
It provides subjective student opinions. Some find the insights useful, but it’s not necessarily an accurate measure of teaching effectiveness.

Can professors see their ratings?
Professors generally don’t know who posted a given rating because submissions are anonymous, though they can access their profile if they register.

Should students rely on it for class decisions?
It’s best used as one input among many—talk to peers, advisors, and consult official course evaluations if available.

Can anyone post a review?
Technically yes, but guidelines state that only students who have taken or are taking a class should rate.