A 160-hour, $1,500-4,000 mistake.
You’re picking classes for next semester. You have four selected, and you’re now looking for a fifth. There are three options. How do you know which to pick? They’re equally interesting, albeit different routes, and they have different professors. The fact of the matter is, you have little information to base your choice off of. Likely no syllabus. Likely no knowledge of the professor. And likely no real insights.
There are really only a few routes to try to get more information in these regards.
- Visit Rate my Professor: This is a weak option. The site has declined in popularity and has a word-count to keep posts concise, which basically leads to ‘it was good’-esque responses from students. There is no room for specificity. There is no room for discussion.
- Ask around: This is not a viable option. It’s incredibly inefficient, and even if you manage to find somebody that had a particular class, the lack of a relationship and the spontaneity of the question will likely result in a poorly- and rashly-thought out response. I think people would articulate their experiences better in an online platform, devoid of awkward social encounters.
- Request a syllabus: I don’t know why syllabi aren’t more accessible. I’ve often wanted to see what would be covered in a class, only to not be able to find a syllabus. And I’ve had experiences where I have emailed a professor multiple times for one, only for no response. Then I’ve even gone to the program adviser to get a copy of a course syllabus, which was also not helpful. Still, even if I did get one, there is a great deal of information that would be lacking. Learning experiences (and teaching styles) tend to be more nuanced than syllabi content.
This is why we need a new site to facilitate insightful discussions about courses.
What do I mean by insightful?
Maybe a particular student took Course ‘A’ alongside Course ‘H’. This student found that the courses complemented each other unexpectedly, and extraordinarily. She was able to build parallels between two disciplines, and find much more meaning in both subjects. This information would surely be beneficial to students selecting their classes for the next semester.
Or maybe one professor talks very quietly and has illegible handwriting. Some professors assign homework and classwork that don’t seem to have any real-world application, discouraging students from pursuing the field further. If a professor killed this student’s dreams with their choices in assignments, that might be significant information; it could cause a student to change major (and likely, career), but it could also be a tremendous waste of time and money (yay, tuition!)
You will always get insubstantial reviews. Students will irrationally pin blame on professors, failing to take responsibility for their own lack of effort or whatever. You might even get advertisements of some sort: Take this CLASS with PROFESSIRE MIRANDA, you’ll have your dream career in ONE MONTH!! But people can use their intuition to judge the quality of a review for themselves. Given the advent of spam filters and verification methods, this is trivial. Less trivial, schools could try to sabotage each other’s programs.
Implementation.
The site would be relatively simple. Create a database of schools. Allow somebody to post a review about a program or class for a particular school. If somebody is interested in a program or class that has yet to be posted, they can create a request. A school might be inclined to use alumni mailing-lists to try to fulfill a request (though admittedly, this might ignore important groups, like those that switched programs, or dropped out). The community can respond to different reviews; it would be useful to have the ability to ask more questions, or to agree/disagree with a post, or to give relevant feedback (like a professor switching school).
TL;DR: the core functionality is post, request, and discuss. +1 for allowing anonymity.
Would the site be successful?
There is a natural incentive for universities to subtly promote a website like this—if you have a great neuroscience program, wouldn’t you want the world to know? That would be a great way to instill confidence in students to travel and pay ridiculous out-of-state tuition. It would then be beneficial for students and the school itself to not force the hand of students in completing these sorts of class/professor-reviews. End-of-grade bonus points would get the participation of students that may not have anything valuable or insightful to contribute. It’s best if the students post if they want to, if they really feel compelled. Of course, that requires knowledge of the site’s existence, and a student that wants to participate. I’m sure many wouldn’t want to share their experiences, even if others would find them useful. I don’t believe a site like this would be difficult to market. It would just need a mission statement that students can identify and connect with. Like not leaving education up to chance, by making informed decisions.