Of all of the Web sites available for students to rate their professor, RateMyProfessor.com is a site containing the largest list of college teacher ratings.

The site has accumulated over 500,000 ratings since it opened to the public June 6, 1999. UTM currently has a total of 201 teachers listed on the Web site.

The Web site says it was designed to help students decide on what professor to take. A student is able to log on and rate his or her teacher on a scale ranging from one to five.

The qualities rated include easiness, helpfulness and clarity.

The student also has the opportunity to tag a red-hot chili pepper onto their teachers rating. This would imply their teacher is “hot”.

Where several teachers at UTM have been placed into this category, there are more than a few teachers who have been rated rather unkindly.

However, as long as a student is not vulgar, they have the capability to rate the teacher however they choose.

Several students feel this website is beneficial, and if used in a proper manner, this Web site could be a helpful tool for freshman students entering college.

“I think that upper classmen should use this Web site in order to provide a standard or to tell the people behind them what to expect of each professor in the years to come,” said Jericka Payne, a sophomore Child and Family Studies major.

There were numerous students who didn’t know the site existed and would have appreciated being informed about it sooner.

“I didn’t know there was a Web site where you could rate your professor,” said Maggie Bandridge, a freshman Fashion Design major. “I will use this Web site in the future to choose my professor. Freshmen should be required to use this Web site.”

The main issue with this Web site is validity. There is no way to indicate the truthfulness of the ratings. Anybody has the capability of entering a bogus rating.

“RateMyProfessor.com is not a terribly valid indicator of a professors abilities,” said Teresa Collard, professor of Communications. “One of the major problems with it is that there is no way to secure who is rating the professor. I could rate myself over and over again if I wanted, or a student who has never taken my course before can rate my course. Therefore, the indicator is seriously flawed.”

There are numerous individuals who feel this Web site has gotten out of hand, and that it has gone from having the prospect of being useful to being inadequate and hurtful.

“RateMyProfessor.com had the potential to be a wonderful site for UTM students to utilize an effective method for openly talking about professors,” said Bonnie Moore, a senior Communications major. “However, in my opinion, instead of using this Web site to share information with other students-students have used the site as a tool to bash UTM professors. This is not the case for every student, but it is definitely true for some students. I would never use this site in determining whether or not to take a teacher at UTM because the comments have gotten out of hand.”

For more information, please visit each respective site. See what other students are saying by going to pacer.utm.edu.