 |
|
Choose Your Professors
Not Your Classes!
Extend the mentor principle to choosing your professors. Good professors can be your best and most important mentors because they really know their stuff and they like to teach! Wherever you can, instead of choosing your classes, choose your professors.
The course descriptions in the catalogue have nothing to do with how well the course is taught. You can be sure that bad teaching can just about ruin your academic year; on the other hand a good teacher can make it awesome. (Of course, if you actually can’t stand a certain kind of class no professor on earth can make it interesting for you.)
Doing well in class, on your papers, exams, and your final grade is all in the hands and mind of the Professor who will teach the class, grade the papers and exams, and give you your final grade and hopefully a good recommendation. This is obvious, but so few students ever get to know their professor before, during or after class.
OK, there are some professors who are good teachers that you just don’t want to get to know, I understand. However, if your professor is someone you don’t want to get to know you probably shouldn’t take their course because it may be just like them!
On the other hand even if you do take their course you should form at least a positive professional relationship with them. What most students don’t realize is that most professors prefer to have friendly students who are interested in the subject that the professor has pretty much dedicated his or her life to mastering and teaching.
How to Choose your Professor
Let’s get a little visual and see what kind of professors are out there. The list below simply charts out the basic possibilities of combinations of Good and Bad teachers who are either Good or Bad graders.
Teacher
| Grader
|
Bad
| Bad
|
Bad
| Good
|
Good
| Bad
|
Good
| Good
|
The people with the GTBG (Good Teacher Bad Graders) are going to learn just as much as the students with the GTGG (Good Teacher Good Graders) but they won’t be getting anything (as far as grades go) to show for their hard work. The poor students who choose their course by the book and get a BTBG (Bad Teacher Bad Grader) undergo needless suffering.
Here are 15 rather funny reasons of real students who rated their professors on www.ratemyprofessor.com that make it clear why you want to choose your professor well.
15 |
| Emotional scarring may fade away, but that big fat F on your transcript won't. |
14 |
| Evil computer science teaching robot who crushes humans for pleasure. |
13 |
| Miserable professor - I wish I could sum him up without foul language. |
12 |
| Instant amnesia walking into this class. I swear he breathes sleeping gas. |
11 |
| BORING! But I learned there are 137 tiles on the ceiling. |
10 |
| Not only is the book a better teacher, it also has a better personality. |
9 |
| Teaches well, invites questions and then insults you for 20 minutes. |
8 |
| This teacher was a firecracker in a pond of slithery tadpoles. |
7 |
| I learned how to hate a language I already know. |
6 |
| Very good course, because I only went to one class. |
5 |
| He will destroy you like an academic ninja. |
4 |
| Bring a pillow. |
3 |
| Your pillow will need a pillow. |
2 |
| If I was tested on her family, I would have gotten an A. |
1 |
| She hates you already. |
Student quotes taken from the Website www.ratemyprofessors.com
I laugh every time I read this list. The comments are so funny but so true.
Why would someone hire a bad teacher who is a bad grader? Good question! There are many reasons and one is tenure. He or she was a good before but not anymore.
Another reason they are hired is because they are the top gun in their field and they were hired either for their name to make the university look good, or for their research to make the university look good. The same holds for Bad Teachers Good Graders the only difference is that these teachers give out good grades to compensate for the fact that they are not good teachers.
Don’t let things that make the university look good make you look bad, do your research and get the good teachers who are not hard graders, it can make your college time worthwhile and fun.
Find Those Teachers!
How do you know who they are? You have to ask around!
Who to ask:
1.) The student department secretary
2.) The Teacher’s assistants
3.) Majors in the subject (seniors) {*Highly Recommended*}
Out of the above three I prefer the last one – surveying seniors who are majoring in the subject. Why? – Because there are more of them and you can get a better picture of what is going on by asking a larger amount of people. Check out the student phone book and see if they have a listing of students by major and class year (look for seniors).
Just call up or email the seniors in the major and ask them. Tell them the truth, that you want to know who are the good professors (and what are the best classes) and who you should avoid and why. Most of them will be more than happy give you the information.
If you had all the information for all the departments you could make a list of this information and sell it too.
One word of caution -- just list the good teachers or the good teachers who grade well. You could get in trouble if you record negative facts about a professor so don’t tell anyone any bad news. They will know who the bad teachers are anyhow because they won’t show up on the list of good teachers.
If you actually sell this list on campus as “The favorite teachers list” you may have a hard time getting into their classes because they will all be full.
The next thing you need to do after finding your teachers is sign up for their classes as early as possible. That means you have to start doing your research ahead of time.
One slick trick is to sign up for more classes than you intend to take. This will assure you a seat in the class and also enable you choose which classes you want to take by trying them out and dropping (before the add/drop deadline) the one you don’t like.
After you have started the semester you can continue searching out next semester’s teachers. You can also try the Website www.ratemyprofessors.com and there is one for High School teachers too, www.ratemyteachers.com. Although it won’t be as up to date as your own research, it can give you a great head start.
You can click the listings links to find the school, the name of the teacher, the quality of their teaching, how hard or easy they grade, and how many people rated them and you can read the ratings of what other students say about them.
Make sure you that there are enough people rating the professor. You can’t make a decision on just one or two people’s findings; ratings from 3 or more people for the same class seem to be reliable.
Take Action
1. In the
In the
2. Make a master list for your school of all the professors that score a four or above for both overall quality and ease and helpfulness. I found the easiest way to go about it is to click on “Department” and then look for the ratings you may find another way more helpful for you. Look at everything written and rated by the students to get a clear picture!
3. Add your own research to the list by following the steps mentioned in this section. Call up or email the seniors in each major and ask them for their recommendations.
| The Straight A Life LLC |
