Professor ratings useful — to an extent

A lot of my friends, including me, use ratemyprofessors.com to check the quality of the professors before choosing the courses. I even compared the school index when I applied to universities. However I do not trust it 100 per cent because, at that time, I found there was a lot of junk information on the website.

I still remember when, skimming through the page of Carleton University, I discovered a bunch of one-mark comments posted by students from University of Ottawa. Maybe that is just a single case but it definitely decreases the credibility of ratemyprofessors.com.

It seems we always want to know more about what will happen in the future. Therefore, we search for information on the Internet and talk with fellows who have experience. But do not forget that those are others’ lives, not your own know-how. Maybe they gave negative feedback just because it is hard for them to achieve a high level.

Every single person is different. Why not just try the first class and you can evaluate the professor in your own mind? Or choose a program without only staring at employment rates in that area?

Remember you are unique and life always needs challenges. If you focus on others’ comments too much, you may miss a great opportunity to improve your own expertise. Think about that.
 

Hongyu Zhang

Faculty of Environment