Hey there! So remember when you’re picking classes and you immediately hit up RateMyProf like it’s some kind of sacred text? Well, we had this brilliant idea (I think?) to scrape all the UNBC prof ratings and actually analyze them by faculty. You know, for science. Or procrastination. Honestly, at this point, I can’t remember which.
We were really hoping to find something spicy – like maybe the Business faculty was secretly crushing it while Engineering was in shambles, or vice versa. Some kind of faculty beef we could exploit for content, you know? But here’s the thing about data analysis: sometimes you spend hours sorting professors into their faculties (why doesn’t UNBC have a clear way to see departments) only to discover that… everyone’s basically the same.
Look at these ratings – they range from 3.15 to 4.10. That’s like the difference between a B and a B+. Revolutionary stuff, right? The Division of Medical Sciences technically “wins” with their 4.10, but with literally one person responding to the “would take again” question, I’m not sure we can call that a victory lap.
The “would take again” percentages are even more hilarious – they’re all hovering around 50%, give or take. It’s literally a coin flip for most faculties. Environmental Studies is slightly above at 54.5%, and Human and Health Sciences is playing hard to get at 35.5%, but honestly? These differences are about as significant as choosing between Tim’s medium and large coffee (it’s all caffeine in the end).
Here’s what I actually learned from this whole exercise: RateMyProf is kind of like horoscopes. We all check it, we all pretend it matters, but deep down we know that whether you enjoy a class depends way more on whether you slept the night before, if you actually like the subject, or if your crush is in that lecture. The ratings are so subjective that one person’s “worst prof ever” is another person’s “changed my life” mentor.
The real takeaway? Stop stressing so much about professor ratings. Half the people would take the class again, half wouldn’t – those are basically the odds for any life decision at this age. Should I eat dining hall pizza for the third time this week? 50/50. Should I join that club that meets at 8am on Saturdays? Also 50/50 (but probably no).
The truth is, you’re going to have good profs and not-so-good profs regardless of what faculty you’re in. The data says we’re all in this together, suffering at roughly equal rates across all departments. There’s something beautifully democratic about that, isn’t there?
