Richmond makes Rate My Professors' list of top 25 universities

University of Richmond was ranked 18th out of the top 25 universities this year on RateMyProfessors.com, a website that allows students to anonymously rate their professors and universities.

Every year, RateMyProfessors.com compiles a list of the top 25 universities by combining a school’s overall average professor rating and overall average campus rating. The site states that to provide statistical significance, only schools with at least 30 rated professors and 30 campus ratings are considered for the list.

According to the site’s methodology page, students can rate professors on a scale of one to five, with five being the highest. The categories that students can rate are a professor’s helpfulness, clarity and easiness. The overall professor rating is then formed as an average of the helpfulness and clarity ratings students provide. Richmond had an average professor rating of 3.79.

The overall average campus rating is a put together based on ratings of a school’s reputation, location, career opportunities, library, campus grounds, internet speed on campus, campus food, clubs and events, social activities and whether or not the student is happy they attend that school. From 84 student reviews, Richmond averaged a 4.4 campus rating.

Some of the top rated Richmond professors on the site were David Brandenberger with a 4.8 average rating, Jim Helms with a 5.0, Stephen Long with a 4.7 and Kristine Nolin with a 4.9.

“I would encourage students to look at the website,” professor of communications Jim Helms said. “If you want to find out about how I teach, then I would say to go on RateMyProfessors.com and check out what students who have taken my class are saying about me and then base whether you want to take my class on that.”

There are over 1,000 student ratings of Richmond professors on the website, which is accessible to the public.

“I know many students who use it when they are registering for classes and at least check a professor’s ratings before enrolling, I’ve done it before,” said Campbell Heese, a junior chemistry major.

Some professors even look themselves up to see what students are saying about their classes, said Stephen Long, a political science professor.

“For those of us who know about it, it’s hard to resist looking ourselves up,” Long said. “I’m not sure how reliable it really is, but it can still provide professors with some feedback on their classes.”

Professors have even looked up potential job candidates on the website just to see what students have said about them at other universities, said Kristine Nolin, a chemistry professor.

“It wouldn’t bother me if the professor got a low easiness rating but if I’m looking at a job candidate’s portfolio and I go on RateMyProfessors.com and they have countless bad reviews from students, that’s going to make me at least think twice about them.” Nolin said. “I don’t have access to student evaluations at their previous institution, but that website is a public resource so it is interesting to use it to check out what students have to say about them.”

According to the website, it’s the largest online destination for professor and university ratings. It has more than 7,000 schools and 16 million student-submitted reviews and is the highest trafficked free site for accessing school ratings.

The top three universities on the list were the University of Mississippi, University of Wisconsin-Madison, followed by James Madison University. This is the first year Richmond has made the top 25.

Contact reporter Matt Davison at matt.davison@richmond.edu.