During the summer of 2025, 6,100 Auburn freshmen jostled for class positions. In their preparation, many turned to an overrated website to ensure they enrolled under a decent professor: ratemyprofessors.com.
While the website is occasionally beneficial, in reality, freshmen will rarely use it. Advisors usually pre-enroll students in their required subjects before Camp War Eagle. Once assigned these classes, only one or two course times for other subjects will fit the schedule, meaning students will have a choice between one or two professors for their remaining classes.
For juniors and seniors, upper-level classes are usually too specific to constitute more than a couple of professors, and many students will already know these professors.
Furthermore, even when it does help students choose classes, Rate My Professors can be misleading.
“I feel like it's more helpful when choosing classes, but I do take it with a grain of salt, because a lot of times, the people that are on there will post all of the bad stuff,” said Noah Robert, sophomore in chemical engineering.
Despite this, Rate My Professors has advantages. Outside of the off chance that a student is fairly comparing multiple professors with accurate ratings, reading reviews about the workload, availability of professors and teaching styles can aid in time management and mental preparation. If students know three of their professors are known for assigning tedious homework assignments and two have exams that are verbatim from the study guides, the student's first exams and study sessions can run smoothly.
So, to all of the freshmen worried about a low Rate My Professors score: read the reviews with the knowledge that emailing professors, keeping a calendar and submitting assignments on time are far more important than a subjective number posted online.
This article is featured in The Auburn Plainsman's Summer 2026 print edition.
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James Dewberry, sophomore in English literature, has been with The Auburn Plainsman since Fall 2025. Dewberry previously served as a Columnist. He is currently serving as the Assistant Opinion Editor.
