The Validity of RateMyProfessors.com

This is my first year of college, and the entire process of choosing which courses to take was, to me, somewhat arduous. Before the beginning of this semester I spent practically hours trying to come up with the "ideal" 5-class schedule; I accomplished this task with only one more item of interest to look into--the professors themselves. Since I'm relatively new to the campus and don't know that many people who could possibly offer tid-bits of information, I turned to the ever infamous college website (at least for the instructors) of ratemyprofessors.com.  What turned out to be my supposedly ideal schedule turned out to be 5 courses containing professors that ranged from "murderously boring" to "self-proclaimed self-centered jerks." Blue frowny faces included.

If you don't know what ratemyprofessors.com is about, then here's a quick overview: this website includes a list of colleges from several countries. Choose your desired country, state, school, etc., and the name of the professor you would like to know more about. The list is usually in alphabetical order, and is split into several columns, to the right of the professors name are general ratings of their "Overall Quality" and "Ease" on a scale of 1-5, 5 being the highest. On the far left is the eye-catching icon of either a yellow smiley face (great), a green face that looks like an individual on the verge of vomiting (average), and a blue frowny face (poor.) There is also the icon of a red chilli-pepper signifying whether or not that particular instructor is "hot," a fun, yet questionable section. Click on the teacher's name and you can read what former students think of him/her; if you sign up to be a member of the site, which is free, you can leave comments as well.

Okay, moving on. I was wary of all the negative comments, but not wanting to have to start a new quest for the ideal schedule, time-wise, I signed up for the courses I already had in mind, regardless of the low ratings all of my instructors possessed. Two weeks of school have come and gone and I am slowly starting to regret not taking heed to those warnings former students left on all of my blue frowny-faced professors. A particular comment permanently etched out in my mind is one that described my politicial science professor as the "possible reincarnate of Strom Thurmond"; I thought this comment was ridiculous, and told myself that I'm a relatively open individual who wouldn't mind having a conservative professor. It is only now that I realize that using the term "conservative" to describe this man can be likened to calling Ann Coulter a devoted liberal; he far exceeds any possible limit there is to the right side of the political spectrum. Then I have to question why I may think of my poli.sci. professor so poorly. Is it because of the poor ratings that I read about him beforehand? Ratings that may have created subconscious preconceptions that only serve to strengthen any possible dislike I may begin to harbor towards him? On the flip side, since I knew ahead of time that this professor's views would be different than mine, I sort of mentally prepared myself to receive opinions that I may disagree with, and exerted more effort into staying relatively open to what he says; in a way, I expect every comment he says to be something not in accordance to my beliefs and opinions, and the challenge of trying to find some type of middle ground has been fairly interesting. However, this situation has somewhat brought to light the advantages of actually listening to the ratings on the website. On a different note, the issue that leads me to believe that there are definitely aspects of this site that are not to be trusted lies in the fact that:

People think my mom is "hot." My mother just started teaching at the school I attend, and with each of the five ratings she has received so far, all have been accompanied with little red chilli-pepper icons. My mother.......52 years old......Hot?