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> Any ideas out there? For undergrad, this might be a good place to start: https://www.ratemyprofessors.com/ https://www.ratemyprofessors.com/ How good are th

> Any ideas out there? For undergrad, this might be a good place to start: https://www.ratemyprofessors.com/ https://www.ratemyprofessors.com/ How good are the staff at actually teaching the subjects of interest?

Loughla 4y ago
Having had a prior career in college teaching, rate my professor ratings are tied, almost directly, to how friendly you are as a faculty. For institutional "data" that is tied to whether or not a student got what they wanted. Note: Not what they needed. Yes it asks about quality, but if faculty are friendly and funny, students will score you high. If you are quality but not friendly, students will score you low. It's a popularity contest for college faculty, not exactly a great way to make a decision about your college choice. If a student doesn't get what they want, even if they get what they need, they will score low. For example: the institution I am currently working with is scored pretty low. They're a science and technology focused institution with a niche related to electrical and mechanical engineering. The first year is general education, then you get into your specific major. The scores are low, because the schools inside the university are VERY selective. There are a large number of freshmen who do not get into their first choice major their sophomore year. This is because they don't have the necessary achievement to be competitive, not because the school sucks. But, if you look at the rating on rate my professor, the school looks like it's full of sociopaths bent on destroying children's futures.
- clusterhacks 4y ago
  I don't have any experience with universities that have such a competitive aspect to entry into specific fields of study for students. My gut is that is may be very good for the university reputation if the university is already pretty selective on admissions. But pretty bad for even a better than average, but not top %, student who has their heart set on a specific major. I have taught as an adjunct and was impressed by the average undergraduate at a large state school. As a person who very much doesn't like an entirely "winner takes all" mindset in life, I'm curious about in the extra pressure of getting into your preferred program. Mind sharing your thoughts on how that extra internal selectivity works out for students? I mean, clearly students complain about the process if it doesn't work for them individually, but what do those students mostly do? "Settle" for another program? Transfer?
- verall 4y ago
  > The scores are low, because the schools inside the university are VERY selective. There are a large number of freshmen who do not get into their first choice major their sophomore year. This is because they don't have the necessary achievement to be competitive, not because the school sucks. I wholly disagree. Sounds like the school sucks to me. If I had a choice between entrance into my chosen major at a different institution, and your school, I would choose my major. As students are often applying for 5+ schools, they may not understand the nuances of each schools admissions process, and the admissions departments may intentionally obscure unpleasant details like this. If this practice is bad enough to drag down scores across the whole institution on RMP, it sounds like a lot of kids are getting suckered into thinking they got into a great engineering program, but then get shoveled into whatever department needs them to fill their quota. It's _hard_ for undergraduates to transfer schools after freshman year, at least in USA.
- insane_dreamer 4y ago
  This is why you should generally always try to get admission directly into your major rather than later, or you wind up studying something else at a college you don't necessarily want to be. For example, it's MUCH harder to get directly admitted into the engineering school at most colleges than general admission (undergrad), and then equally hard to switch to engineering from another school in the college after you're already there.
- toast0 4y ago
  > The scores are low, because the schools inside the university are VERY selective. There are a large number of freshmen who do not get into their first choice major their sophomore year. This is because they don't have the necessary achievement to be competitive, not because the school sucks. I'm going to pile on here and agree that while the school may not suck academically, this is a pretty shitty academic plan for students who may not have realised they might need to make a choice of taking a major they don't want or leaving to another institution to study what they want. Transfering between institutions is possible, but it comes with a lot of barriers --- transfer admission is usually secondary to direct admission; credits may not transfer well, especially between quarter and semester systems; sequencing differences may make scheduling difficult, etc. It's unusual to get a 4 year degree in 4 years total when transferring, unless there's a specific transfer program between the two institutions; if, after one year spent working towards their chosen degree, your students are told they can't get it there and they would have to spend four years somewhere else to do it, it looks like a wasted year. Of course, maybe your institution does accept some students directly into their major and counsels the rest that most of them won't get their choice and they still accept your bargain. And it doesn't sound like a terrible place for an undesigned engineering and technology major, who would presumably be wooed into whatever specific major would accept them after the first year. EDIT to add: from my experience as a student at an engineering school, almost all the students capable of succeeding in one engineering major would have been able to succeed in the others too, with the exception of biomedical engineering --- you needed to have a hell of a lot more drive to succeed in that. There was a popular belief that mechanical engineering was easier, but I don't think it really was; just it was a lot easier to get excited about it and being excited about your major is an important factor.
insane_dreamer 4y ago
I would take it as only one factor, since it's more about whether the students like the professor (and how strict he/she is), which is different than whether they're good at teaching.

Loughla 4y ago

Having had a prior career in college teaching, rate my professor ratings are tied, almost directly, to how friendly you are as a faculty. For institutional "data" that is tied to whether or not a student got what they wanted. Note: Not what they needed. Yes it asks about quality, but if faculty are friendly and funny, students will score you high. If you are quality but not friendly, students will score you low. It's a popularity contest for college faculty, not exactly a great way to make a decision about your college choice. If a student doesn't get what they want, even if they get what they need, they will score low. For example: the institution I am currently working with is scored pretty low. They're a science and technology focused institution with a niche related to electrical and mechanical engineering. The first year is general education, then you get into your specific major. The scores are low, because the schools inside the university are VERY selective. There are a large number of freshmen who do not get into their first choice major their sophomore year. This is because they don't have the necessary achievement to be competitive, not because the school sucks. But, if you look at the rating on rate my professor, the school looks like it's full of sociopaths bent on destroying children's futures.

clusterhacks 4y ago
I don't have any experience with universities that have such a competitive aspect to entry into specific fields of study for students. My gut is that is may be very good for the university reputation if the university is already pretty selective on admissions. But pretty bad for even a better than average, but not top %, student who has their heart set on a specific major. I have taught as an adjunct and was impressed by the average undergraduate at a large state school. As a person who very much doesn't like an entirely "winner takes all" mindset in life, I'm curious about in the extra pressure of getting into your preferred program. Mind sharing your thoughts on how that extra internal selectivity works out for students? I mean, clearly students complain about the process if it doesn't work for them individually, but what do those students mostly do? "Settle" for another program? Transfer?
verall 4y ago
> The scores are low, because the schools inside the university are VERY selective. There are a large number of freshmen who do not get into their first choice major their sophomore year. This is because they don't have the necessary achievement to be competitive, not because the school sucks. I wholly disagree. Sounds like the school sucks to me. If I had a choice between entrance into my chosen major at a different institution, and your school, I would choose my major. As students are often applying for 5+ schools, they may not understand the nuances of each schools admissions process, and the admissions departments may intentionally obscure unpleasant details like this. If this practice is bad enough to drag down scores across the whole institution on RMP, it sounds like a lot of kids are getting suckered into thinking they got into a great engineering program, but then get shoveled into whatever department needs them to fill their quota. It's _hard_ for undergraduates to transfer schools after freshman year, at least in USA.
insane_dreamer 4y ago
This is why you should generally always try to get admission directly into your major rather than later, or you wind up studying something else at a college you don't necessarily want to be. For example, it's MUCH harder to get directly admitted into the engineering school at most colleges than general admission (undergrad), and then equally hard to switch to engineering from another school in the college after you're already there.
toast0 4y ago
> The scores are low, because the schools inside the university are VERY selective. There are a large number of freshmen who do not get into their first choice major their sophomore year. This is because they don't have the necessary achievement to be competitive, not because the school sucks. I'm going to pile on here and agree that while the school may not suck academically, this is a pretty shitty academic plan for students who may not have realised they might need to make a choice of taking a major they don't want or leaving to another institution to study what they want. Transfering between institutions is possible, but it comes with a lot of barriers --- transfer admission is usually secondary to direct admission; credits may not transfer well, especially between quarter and semester systems; sequencing differences may make scheduling difficult, etc. It's unusual to get a 4 year degree in 4 years total when transferring, unless there's a specific transfer program between the two institutions; if, after one year spent working towards their chosen degree, your students are told they can't get it there and they would have to spend four years somewhere else to do it, it looks like a wasted year. Of course, maybe your institution does accept some students directly into their major and counsels the rest that most of them won't get their choice and they still accept your bargain. And it doesn't sound like a terrible place for an undesigned engineering and technology major, who would presumably be wooed into whatever specific major would accept them after the first year. EDIT to add: from my experience as a student at an engineering school, almost all the students capable of succeeding in one engineering major would have been able to succeed in the others too, with the exception of biomedical engineering --- you needed to have a hell of a lot more drive to succeed in that. There was a popular belief that mechanical engineering was easier, but I don't think it really was; just it was a lot easier to get excited about it and being excited about your major is an important factor.

insane_dreamer 4y ago

I would take it as only one factor, since it's more about whether the students like the professor (and how strict he/she is), which is different than whether they're good at teaching.