Despite Drawbacks, Rate AUC Professors Still Popular

By: Farah Ihab Fawzy
@farahihab82

As the time nears for fall course registration, many students will be seeking feedback from their peers on the Facebook group Rate AUC Professors.

The group was initially created on May 7, 2007 “by students, for students” to post queries regarding academic issues, such as test banks, declaration requirements and grading. It is restricted to AUC students who must provide their email and university ID number to be allowed access. 

In recent years, it has become a critical part of the AUC student experience – for better or for worse.

Neda Hamed, a Rate AUC Professors administrator and graduating senior, said that students find the group useful to communicate information which may not have been provided by the university.  

“The university offers students many services, but I don’t think it relays enough information about the Career Center for example, or the Office of Student Well-being. I especially find [university] advice on how to pick suitable courses deficient,” said Hamed. 

She added that the Facebook page receives queries about a large range of issues such as how to balance a selection of courses with a reasonable workload for the semester. 

In responding to student queries, Hamed believes that Rate AUC Professors is helpful because it goes beyond “rating” professors or sharing opinions about their teaching. 

Some students, however, totally depend on Rate AUC Professors to choose their courses and encourage others to do so. 

Omar Molham, a Construction Engineering graduating senior, believes that Rate AUC Professors has helped him quite a bit throughout his journey at AUC. 

“Previous students would write their reviews about certain professors and this helped me in choosing the right professors for me in terms of easy grading, better teaching or both,” Molham explained.

He also added that he used Rate AUC Professors to find test banks to practice before exams and that senior students would help freshmen and sophomores by giving them advice on which courses to take first and which to leave for later. 

Sherif Eissa, a Construction Engineering graduating senior, affirms that the group is actually beneficial since it serves different purposes.

“I used to ask for help in some challenging courses, and many colleagues offered help without any hesitation, although there was no prior personal knowledge between us. Beside academic help, Rate AUC Professors gives space for students to express themselves, thoughts, and interests. Students also use such a platform to interact and provide emotional and psychological support for each other,” Eissa added. 

But some alumni and students say that the information shared on the group may not necessarily be accurate. 

Ehab El Shimi ‘14, an Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) alumnus and an instructor at the Rhetoric and Composition department, questioned whether students should depend on the group exclusively when choosing their courses or whether they should instead turn to other sources. 

He agrees that Rate AUC Professors is useful as it provides a platform for students to ask quick questions about course-related issues and to share information about student clubs and work-study programs, but cautioned that it can be unreliable at times. 

He also said that opinions about professors are based on students’ personal thoughts and experiences, which might not be reflective of the actual quality of a course or instructor.

“I didn’t really rely on Rate AUC Professors in choosing my courses back when I was a student and now I rarely share my experience about courses I had taken on Rate AUC Professors,” El Shimi said.

Amr Ashour, a Finance junior, also said that students’ opinions about their professors are usually biased and based on their own experiences. 

“I personally took courses with some of the most avoided professors and I was able to deal with them and know exactly what they expected. The best way to utilize Rate AUC Professors is to ask questions that aren’t just subjective,” Ashour said.

Ashour recommended that students ask how professors structure their courses in order to determine if they would be a good fit for them.

Wasim Khaled, a political science graduating senior, says that Rate AUC Professors hasn’t been beneficial when it came to knowing more about professors. It was however beneficial with almost everything else such as raising awareness, knowing more about the community, and getting updates about lost items. 

“I would recommend that we have a Google document shared with all AUC professors that would link the professors, the courses they teach and an attachment of the syllabus of the course. I guess reading the syllabus would explain a lot more about the professor than any other unreliable recommendation someone would get from Rate AUC Professors,” Khaled told The Caravan. 

He finally added that he enjoyed being a member in this community for other reasons including the memes and the useful awareness campaigns shared by the group members. 

In the meantime, the Facebook page continues to be a destination for many students looking for answers or short cuts. 

“I think this platform is for the students to reach what they can’t reach regularly through the uni[versity] itself,” said Hamed.