Rate My Professors is a resource students have used to rant, commend and vindicate grudges for years.

The website allows students to administer ratings and comments, both positive and negative, about professors and schools all over the country. While the ratings provide a consensus among students, how do the professors react to the genuine, and sometimes cynical, comments directed toward them? After all, they are the ones that hand out our grades.

Multiple professors at Chico State provided insight on their opinions of the website. English professor Tracy Butts reflects on the idea of extremes on Rate My Professors.

“I think that the people who go to ratemyprofessors.com are people who are really upset and really don’t like the class or people who really like a class,” she said. “They are extremes. I don’t think you often see the middle-of-the-road type of people because I think someone really needs to take some extra effort to go to ratemyprofessors.com.”

Rate My Professors also has benefits. It provides a forum in which students can share their valid opinions and ideas and share their experiences. Randy Larsen, a philosophy professor, discusses the validity of the source.

“It’s not reliable in the sense that it’s going to meet any standard of research, but it’s reliable in the fact that people are giving their honest feelings and experiences about something,” he said.

Universities do not mandate Rate My Professors. It is a website designed purely for students to exchange experiences in order to provide a general consensus about what students should know about different classes.

“It’s not earth-shattering and it’s not going to affect me at all and those negative comments didn’t keep me from being teacher of the year, so bam!” said John Roussell, a communication design professor.

Stephanie Schmieding can be reached at [email protected] or @stephbottt on twitter.