What a waste of time sites like ratemyprofessor are. After reading Gerald Lucas’ post about the site I perused the comments left about some of my professors at Stockton. As Lucas notes on his blog, the evaluations seem to be just another stupid popularity contest. If a professor is easy, they get great reviews. If a professor is tough in any way, they are ridiculed and ranked on in very personal ways. Insults about hairlines, whether a professor is a “feminazi” or how old they are come off as childish and pathetic.

I proctored a student evaluation last semester, and it was sad to watch grown adults act as if they were really sticking it to our professor (who had some disagreements with many students in the class about grading, including two who confronted her in the middle of class about it; how fucking rude!) by leaving long and negative comments about her. What a bunch of babies. As a student, I have found evaluations to be nothing more than a popularity contest or an excuse for class to end early. I have witnessed many a student who does not even fill them out, just marking all high or low marks and then rushing out of the classroom. Maybe it is time to evaluate the place and level of brevity of such evaluations.