Looking for an easy A? These USC professors are rated the easiest

Annie Hildrup is no slacker.

But even Hildrup, a University of South Carolina master’s student seeking a degree in mass communication, understands it’s not a good idea to load up a class schedule with all difficult classes.

“At the beginning, I was looking for easiness and trying to make sure I didn’t overload myself,” said Hildrup, who also attended USC for her undergraduate degree. She said her primary source of stress at college was “overcommitting” to classes and extracurricular activities.

She, like many other students, uses RateMyProfessors.com to share information with other students about which professors are better than others, and yes, which professors have the easiest classes. Students say they use it to help decide which classes to take. It’s essentially Yelp (or Google Reviews, if that’s your fancy) for higher education.

“It just gives you a quick overview of what the class is like, what the professor is like,” sophomore public health major Jordyn Livingston said of RateMyProfessors. “I look at it, but I take it with a grain of salt.”

The State newspaper compiled a list of the professors with the lowest difficulty ratings by department and cross referenced it with USC’s staff directory to make sure they’re still employed (many USC instructors on RateMyProfessors no longer teach at the institution). No professors with fewer than five reviews were included.

“If I am rated ‘easy’ it is most likely because I use open-ended testing, scored on effort used to apply concepts. I do not require any memorization and I do not use ‘high stakes’ so-called objective testing,” said Patrick Saucier, a sociology professor who said he does not look at his RateMyProfessors score.

Saucier had one of the lowest difficulty scores possible on RateMyProfessors, a 1.1 out of 5. Students say he gives good feedback, is caring and has clear grading criteria. Every student who has reviewed him on the site since May 2016 said they would take his class again.

USC doesn’t factor in the anonymous ratings in professor reviews, according to spokesman Jeff Stensland.

The State newspaper talked to six USC students — three undergraduates and three graduates — about whether they use RateMyProfessors. All of them said they were familiar with the service and all but one have used it to some extent, but their opinions varies on how much it was worth.

“I don’t let it inform a lot of my decisions, but it does reduce some of my anxiety and stress going to class,” said Chandler Holgate, a graduate student pursuing an MBA. “If I see a professor is rated over a 4 (in overall quality) I usually go with that.”

RateMyProfessors, owned by Viacom’s MTV, claims to be the largest online place for students to review their professors, with 19 million ratings at 7,500 schools in the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada, according to the website.

The service isn’t without controversy. Until recently, students were able to give their professors a ranking on “hotness.” The rating system is also anonymous, and commenters don’t have to prove they were students to leave a rating.

Related: RateMyProfessor drops “hotness” ranking after backlash

“I don’t think it should be the only thing a student should rely on when taking a class,” said Sharon White, a Women’s Studies professor who now focuses mainly on research.

She was given low difficulty ratings, but that didn’t bother her — she sees her teaching style as “pretty straightforward.” Also, she used to teach introductory courses, which tend to be easier. What bothers White, who has taught at USC for 17 years, are the complaints on RateMyProfessors from her 2011 courses that she often missed class.

During that time, she had two open-heart surgeries and her daughter died from heart disease, causing her to miss class, she said. Her higher-ups in the Women’s and Gender Studies department knew what she was going through and gave her high marks, she said. When students finalized the anonymous, end-of-class surveys that USC requires for every professor, she also was reviewed well, she said.

But for some reason, that didn’t translate online.

“The main complaint about me was missing classes, and while my department knew (why), my students didn’t necessarily know that,” White said.

Results of USC’s anonymous surveys are not available to students.

USC officials encourage students to seek out their academic advisers rather than using RateMyProfessors, Claire Robinson, USC’s assistant dean of undergraduate advisement, said in a statement.

If students want to do their own research on a professor, “students can often review the syllabus online when selecting one professor or class over another. In addition, most faculty have their own websites and departmental pages where a student can find information about the professor’s research interests, publications, and even a little about his/her personal life,” Robinson said.

Five current USC professors with lowest difficulty ratings:

Patrick Saucier, sociology, difficulty: 1.1

Kimberly Simmons, anthropology, difficulty: 1.2

Rudy Mancke, environmental studies, difficulty: 1.2

Lindsay McManus, management, difficulty: 1.2

Sharon White, women’s studies, difficulty: 1.4

Source: RateMyProfessors.com

This story was originally published July 27, 2018 at 10:15 AM.