Ratemyprofessors.com (RMP) is not as reliable as most people may think, in fact plenty of professors have been inaccurately rated in one way or another.

Today any person can go on the internet, make up an account and go around rating professors negatively or positively while never having been in a class of theirs. Or maybe a student with a grudge just might want to smear that professor’s reputation.

Almost every student who has heard of this website uses it when registration time comes around to select the professor they think would best suit their learning style. Then they go through the search process and either read good or bad things about a certain professor from “reliable” students that have taken the professor before. And when it comes to selecting what comments to read, most people want to find out the negative before the positive things about that professor. Those alone could make somebody think twice before picking them as a professor.

Some students that hold a grudge or had a bad experience with a professor could go about making multiple accounts in an attempt at trashing their reputation.

Some students could find it funny to pull a prank and trick students into taking it by saying that the course or professor is easy, that there is no homework, doesn’t take attendance, etc. When in fact it is actually a difficult class, with difficult work.

Also take into consideration the quality of students who are rating these professors. Any student from a grade range of A to F can rate them, each having their own individual experience with that professor. They can all give an “honest” rating, but the fact that there are differing standards of students giving ratings is cause for inconsistencies throughout the score given to the professor.

RMP could possibly be more accurate if the students testify their grade to be true and maybe have to prove some validity to the website before the post goes up. As for right now RMP should not be taken as completely accurate and use careful consideration before choosing what to believe or not to believe when it comes to that site.