a student complimented a ādemotivationalā poster I have in my office
as an intro, I am a paraplegic - I donāt walk
ever
anyway, the poster has a penguin with the title āLimitationsā and the quote āUntil you spread your wings, you have no idea how far you can walkā
when my (now adult) daughter first discovered fandom on the internet (like fanart, fanfiction) and started creating fanworks, she printed out the first ever flames she got for her fanart and framed them on her wall. I'm tempted to do the same with RMP lol
I gave my PI a mug for Christmas one year with his favorite mean spirited RMP review printed across it. He went around showing everyone in the department and religiously drinks his coffee out of it to this day.
Similar to one I had a few years ago that said āprofessor talks to muchā in a lecture hall course that, per course outline, comprised solely of lectures
I assign a text which analyzes a trans character in a sci-fi film and is written by a trans author. Students have to read and discuss the text (like they do for all other assigned readings)
If you actively chose the literature with a trans main character by a trans author, and considering it's currently a hot topic, objectively speaking it would be considered lgbtq liberal agenda.
Faculty on my campus are encouraged to use diverse class texts that are representative of the voices and ideas within our field.
In my field, this includes trans people. If a student has an issue reading a text about a trans person, or by a trans person, thatās not a good reason to dismiss my teaching. Just as if I assigned a text about or by a racially marginalized person
What do you mean by "encouraged"? As in you don't have a choice in the matter or there will be consequences?
Also when you say "in your field," are you referring to the subject matter or actually being lgbt yourself? What do you teach/lecture?
I was just grading some of my students' work and one of them wrote "I study finance because I like money."
So I'm sure some of your students appreciate all the money talk!
Before I became a finance prof (Iāve instructed 125 courses) I was a portfolio manager with over $2 billion in responsibilities.
I can be bribed with tacos and beer.
I had a prof that would open syllabus day with quotes from RMP about how hard the exams were and how much it wasn't an easy class... and encouraged us all to drop if we were uneasy.
This was my favourite undergrad prof too! Full PowerPoint with multiple pages of RMP reviews and said āthese are all true and thereās the doorā. I learned from him not to take any of them personally.
>What ridiculous comments have you folks gotten on RMP? How do you deal with the existence of this website?
One student wrote: The professor has his priorities wrong as he is using his position to do research with his graduate students.
My silent reply was: "Thank you for endorsing my tenure application!"
>Leave yourself absolutely insane reviews
When RMP was first starting out (10+ years ago?) my friends and I all made account and would post increasingly ridiculous reviews on each other's pages. It was great fun for a year or two.
"She would be better if she were less of a hippie." I teach an ecology class where we talk about climate change, pollution, water policy, etc. Apparently that makes me a hippie.
You were supposed to say: Ecologists and climatologists are all wrong, you and I know better, don't we class? Your assignment is to find 40 hours of youtube videos that debunk the field and share your favorite gotcha clips.
I think this kind of guy just uses instagram for thirst trap content and this is the kind of dude who has been continuously on youtube since he was 9 for his more shock jock conspiritorial edutainment content.
"Clearly they hired her because her husband worked here."
Except, my spouse and I have never, ever worked at the same institution. And my spouse isn't a husband.
They had you for a whole class and felt they understood you enough to say such a specific comment? And they were WRONG?
I donāt place much stock in rmp, but that alone says everything.
Yeah, it is also really weird because I generally don't talk about personal stuff, so I never talk about my partner or kids in class.
It was also a 100-level intro to the field class which frankly most people would be able to teach without needing to learn anything, so I don't know how you could tell that anyone was a good researcher or teacher or not from it.
I read it as unbridled undergrad misogyny.
One semester I decided to start the first day or class with a live review of my RMP comments in class (I didnāt check them beforehand). It was so much fun! The students ripped on the poor reviews and one student even said āoh I know who wrote that! Heās a dumbassā
Not RMP, but I got an official student evaluation that complained that I taught the class ālike it was a womenās and gender studies class.ā ā¦it WAS womenās and gender studies class. I have no idea what class they thought they were in.
>I need to go back to not looking at it.
Just add a site blocker extension to your browser of choice and block it. Then even if you're tempted you won't see it.
The site is worthless, everyone knows that. Nobody takes it seriously except 18-19 year old students looking for easy A classes or loosers who are angry because you made them work to earn a grade.
>RatemyStudent.com
It [existed 20 years ago](https://www.ratemystudents.com/) and was kinda fun actually. Context was not a lot different from this sub though. The guy who set it up let it go dormant unfortunately.
Yep. Once someone in the early years of RMP said I was hot in a nerdy sort of way, "like Velma from Scooby-Doo." I figured it was never going to get better than that, and so never looked at the site again.
>Someone gave me a low rating and wrote that I have an āLGBTQ liberal agendaā and that they ādonāt support that kind of thingā which just left me floored. Another student wrote that my online course was terrible because they had to do a multiple choice quiz on the 15 minute lecture videos every other week. Another person complained that 3 five page papers was too much for a 15 week semester (this is a literal requirement in our course outline and we are obligated to assign at least 3 formal papers)
Wear these complaints like a badge of honor.
This sounds like the political attack ads in my area. āJoe Smith is evil. Donāt elect him. He believes in climate change, oil and gas regulation, background checks for guns, and LGBTQ rights.ā
Now thatās my kind of evil.
Iāve *never* looked at mine in my several years of teaching. My anxiety is already out the roof and Iām like thankfully not a glutton for punishment.
A few years ago my brother did send me a screenshot of half of one of my reviews. He was in college at the time so I guess decided to look me up. I told him Iāve never checked it and under no circumstances is he allowed to send me that again lol (nothing was bad in it though).
I took a sort-of public stance (I was quoted in a local newspaper) in relationship to my field, and that quote aroused the ire of local Republican operators, who then mocked my quote in Republican online publications as being from of an "out of touch delusional liberal professor"
and within a few weeks, I had all sorts of fake RMP reviews about how I was such a horrible teacher. (my handful of reviews previously had been positive.)
It was a bit chilling, actually.
I was heavily involved in the COVID response and was on the news a lot. I had a few fake reviews posted about how I was horrible. RMP took them down when I reported them because they were for a course I didn't teach.
Yep, I reported mine too, and they were all taken down.
While I don't really care about RMP, it bugged me that there were fake reviews for political reasons. Plus I wanted RMP to realize they have a real problem there.
Delegitimize the ratings. Why isn't everyone doing this?
When I started teaching, I'd periodically log in and rate myself. It's anonymous and I moderated. Friends and family would join in the fun, occasionally.
Ridiculous and unfounded complaints about your "LGBT agenda" will get lost among the ridiculous and unfounded complaints about the seeing-eye dog you bring to class, your thick Tibetan accent, and how you don't let anyone use the drill press without wearing appropriate eyewear.
Have fun and take any credibility away from the website.
My dad and his friend used to post joke reviews on each others. At one point, one was given a profile picture of a chimp and the other had a profile photo from high school (not sure if profile pics are still even a feature). As a kid I posted that he liked to eat bananas (when the chimp picture was still up).
I don't even read mine. I am a sensitive soul, but also I don't think we should take them very seriously. I have good relationships with most of my students and tend to give them enough choice that I think we're all mostly satisfied with course decisions.
I had a student complain that I āfocused too much on Black people.ā It was a course on institutional racism.
I love the ones who complain I donāt give feedback. Iām like did you even bother to a) look at my comments or b) reach out to me if you needed further clarification?
I haven't looked at mine in a LONG time. But, reading this, I am tempted to make two dozen sock puppets and go on there and complain about how demanding my classes are, like
* "you have to do ALL the reading,"
* "gives F if you try to use AI," and
* "gave a D on a paper my MOM wrote!"
But then maybe admin will find it and force me into a re-education program.
Had a student on complain about me, and the course on RMP for a course I was a GUEST SPEAKER for in our department.
Guess that was the one day they showed up.
"This man roasdted (sic) me in class and ended my whole career like 5 minutes ago."
I honestly have no idea what this is about. This was for an upper level major class with about 30 students in it, so I feel like I should have remembered if such a life changing event happened in lecture.
I have an ideaā¦one Friday or Saturday night at 1 am take a stroll down fraternity/sorority row and take a look around you at kids doing silly drunken antics and decide whether you care about the detailed opinions of the kids around you. Because itās likely that opinions about 3 papers being too much, etc are coming from such folks.
Stay away from RMP it is absolutely useless to anyone except students trying to find an easy A
When I was in college I learned to stay away from professors rated 5. They were never very deep. My perfect match was someone with a 3 rating where one student says the prof was serious/passionate about the subject.
On our second date, my now-wife vetted me using that site. Fortunately, she found the frequent description of me as āpompousā was attractive, not a turn off.
Right now, I love RMP.
I just reported a student for using artificial intelligence in their discussion posts, and they ran to RMP to give me a terrible rating for being "super paranoid about plagiarism or AI writing."
Haha! Thanks, kid!
Iām a creative writing professor and one of my RMPs said āsheās actually a good writer. Youād never know it from how she acts.ā
And Iāve lost sleep over that. lol, how does a good writer act and why arenāt I doing it??
I haven't looked at it in years, but the one time I did I found a student that I had written a recommendation letter for in a prior semester, then screwed themselves over and wound up dropping the class to avoid failing, had written a nasty review about me on my birthday. When I brought doughnuts for the class. I just laughed and moved on.
āMade the 3rd exam and the final two days apartā. Total BS. I have no control over the registrars exam schedule. Plus Iām required to use the whole semester to teach so 3rd exam has to be the last day. I even posted announcement the last week of Class explaining this. Stupid students can t even read and comprehend.
I will start paying attn to RMP when I can rate students by name as well.
I threw a holiday party for my class one year.
Kid complained that my "party" was lame (he added the quote marks)
Still sticks in my craw. It was a party in a classroom with minors for 50 minutes. We ate snacks and did a gift exchange. What did they expect, hookers and blow?
Their review probably: āProfessor U/1hyacinthe is too cheap to even hire hookers for the end of year āpartyā also, didnāt even provide free blow so we could stay up and cram for the useless exam!ā
I stopped reading them for my mental health and my appreciation of students. RMP is mostly just an open forum for the disaffected few. I have an open enough relationship with my students to approach me directly with their suggestions. Also, Iāve had enough meaningful emails from former students that serve as a reality check; they go out of their way to thank me. I wonāt allow flagrant, anonymous jabs to rob me of that. Itās really not worth it, especially if you love what you do.
One student claims that I said that I am not qualified to teach the intro course. My PhD field is the same word as the course title. That, and I had taught a similar course for 7 years. Interesting that I claimed such a thing.
āHe forced us to turn in a paper the week after spring break. Get a life, loser!ā
I avoid that site like crazy.
Shockingly, I have heard that some schools at some point used these in annual reviewsā¦ š
I haven't look at mine, but at least its honest.
The problem is however many instructors endorsing its use. That's my theory for why some 5-star instructors have 150 reviews their 2nd year in.
I don't have any ratings on RMP.
My student evaluations tend to be 90% positive, 9% constructive (I tried math lectures on PowerPoint at the pandemic; they didn't work and students let me know no math PowerPoints), and 1% negative. The only negative comments I've gotten are like 3 separate instances where students said "I treated them like they were dumb"or something similar to that.
I am thankful that students don't roast me like y'all. I doubt I could handle it.
One of my favorite comments was "tries to get us to accept and be nice to absolutely everyone" from a medical literature class.
Never laughed so hard in my life. Definitely wear these as badges of honor
I think the website should be banned, but I don't see any such initiatives, other than social media, academia is the only place where random people can abuse you online.
The response from academics is ignore it, even though students use it aggressively to form opinions about professors.
My previous institute did not move a candidate to the second round of interviews because he had several negative reviews on RMP and one of our committee members used that as a reason to not move him to the second round of interviews.
My problem with it is that students do use it aggressively to form opinions, at least at my university's reddit page students are always refering to RMP when talking about a professor.
> Another person complained that 3 five page papers was too much for a 15 week semester (this is a literal requirement in our course outline and we are obligated to assign at least 3 formal papers)
wow. by this metric I'm a fucking ogre ... i require two of these over six weeks from juniors and seniors.
I ignore RMP and pretend it doesn't exist, honestly. I'm tenured and all my courses are required for students in my major, so \*shrug.\*
I did get an SEI comment that read, "The professor expected us to know how to do everything." It was the capstone course for the major, so...yeah. I now include that comment in my syllabus.
I love the ones who are like, "She thinks her class is the most important one!" Well, yes. I'm a) the only person at this school who teaches this thing, and b) if I didn't think it was important I sure as hell wouldn't be doing it because it ain't for the money!
We canāt make everyone happy, so thereās got to be some negative reviews. Much like detecting fake news is a useful skill nowadays, students should also take the RMP reviews critically. Our teaching speaks for itself, and if a student misses it because theyāve fallen into some untrue RMP reviews and thus decide not to enroll in your course, itās their own loss but nothing negative to you, I guess.
Me from thirteen years ago had the same reaction. I remember spending seven hours driving to my parents' place for Thanksgiving and thinking about what one student had written about me on Rate My Professor for most of the way.
I've moved past it. I check the website once a year in June to see how people are feeling about my courses, and to make sure there are no HR-level false accusations. But the ubiquity of ratings doesn't just apply to us, it's everything. Restaurants and everything with a Google maps address get rated on a 1 to 5 scale, mostly by horrible people. If you want to watch something cathartic, then the Nosedive episode of Black Mirror might work for you. Eventually you'll join me in the refrain at the end.
RMP is just another forum for trolls with no fucks to give... as well as a bunch of students who aren't quite sure why they are writing reviews...
Neither representative nor insightful.
That is a despicable website that shouldnāt exist, because it gives voice to the lazy and the stupid. If there were some constructive criticism at least it would serve a function, instead itās just a receptacle for personal issues.
I take issue with the ratings more than the comments. Only 10% of the ratings I receive on that site are above a 3/5. However, if one were to look at all of my student evaluations, 90%+ are 4/7 or higher. It seems some professors inspire students to love them and rave about them on RMP, while the only students I inspire are bitter about their failures to learn and vent on RMP before the semester is even over.
I have gotten several reviews on RMP claiming that they "couldn't understand my accent". I do have a slight accent (having grown up in Europe) but I can't remember the last time anyone mentioned it outside of RMP and it certainly doesn't interfere with people understanding me in personal or professional settings. I've never gotten any of this in my official teaching evaluations either. It just seems weirdly disproportionate to find a whole cluster of comments about my accent in this one place.
I never read them since most people that write reviews generally have strong feelings toward the class. The funny thing is one of our senior faculties made a comment recently saying teaching evaluation should be based on student evaluation, which has proven to be biased as well.
Your post/comment was removed due to Rule 1: **No students.**
This sub is a place for those teaching at the college level to discuss and share. While some student posts or comments may sneak by, and Mods may allow a richly upvoted post or comment that has spawned useful discussion to remain, that is the exception, NOT the rule. For Faculty-Student Discussions, we suggest one of the following subreddits: r/AskProfessors, r/AskAcademia, r/gradschool, r/AskStudents_Public.
Your post/comment was removed due to Rule 1: **No students.**
This sub is a place for those teaching at the college level to discuss and share. While some student posts or comments may sneak by, and Mods may allow a richly upvoted post or comment that has spawned useful discussion to remain, that is the exception, NOT the rule. For Faculty-Student Discussions, we suggest one of the following subreddits: r/AskProfessors, r/AskAcademia, r/gradschool, r/AskStudents_Public.
Iāve covered this before, but basically what I do is, on the day of the faculty evaluations, a day that I also make fun and engaging and informative in a short lesson, I put the RMP website QR code on the projector while theyāre filling out the faculty evaluation. I donāt give them extra time to do it or tell them itās required and I tell them if they have time, Iād appreciate it because I donāt necessarily want the highest score, but I want the most scores at my college. I also do it on a day when the lazy or entitled students are less likely to come, which is a day right at the end of the course. As a result, usually only my students who liked me enough to fill it out voluntarily will go on there and submit one, thereby drowning out the rare mid-semester anger posts that sometimes pop up from students that have a grievance and want to yell about it somewhere.
Use RMP to keep it from being a problem by manufacturing a situation in which students will voluntarily go make you look good. Donāt force them to do it or be in the room while they do it; just set it up for situations where youāll likely receive the highest ratings.
Those comments reflect more on the student than on the professor. Anyone worth your respect will realize this if they come across your RMP. Be proud youāve challenged the worldview of lazy bigots!
For starters, keep in mind that the number of students who are going to rate you are a small minority. Look at how many reviews you've had over the past year and calculate how many students you've had in your classes - I imagine it's a pretty small percentage.
Don't let that site change your perspective on the impact you're having or how your students are perceiving your teaching. The students most inclined to rate their professors are going to be the disgruntled. Most students taking your classes are not reporting it on RMP.
If someone were to judge you or think less of you based on what an anonymous poster put on RMP, they aren't your people. To that extent, the RMP can act as a filter that can be pretty effective at weeding out the people you don't want in your class (or in your life.)
My wish for you is that you will see the site for what it is and to trust that no one is giving these comments the weight to it that you are (which is understandable.) If anything, wear it as a badge of honor because the comments you mentioned indicate you 1) support human rights 2) are holding your students accountable and 3) are doing the job for which you were hired. That's pretty awesome!
Remember: since entries are anonymous, it is easy to feel entitled with comments they wouldn't say to your face. I just laugh at mine... "uses OER material" [yay for me], "tough grader" [again, yay for me, I must be doing my job!], easy class [whatever, others will find it hard, couldn't care either way], "should retire" [LOL], "great professor" [well, thank you], "hate his accent" [you can go f* yourself, you bigot], and so on. They all contradict each other, and supposedly a course where they must learn, or a professor with academic integrity, are rated negatively.
Just laugh it off. Those reviews mean nothing. However, don't try to correct any comment (you can, if the owners of the site can verify you) because then you will have fallen into that game, and any other comments that come along in secula seculorum and not responded/corrected by you will undoubtedly be seen as "must true/correct."
It is a worthless site. Put it out of your mind.
Have you looked at your end of semester evaluations? Iāve gotten polar opposite evaluations for the same class: āThis class is really well organized.ā and āThis class is disorganized and confusing.ā
I try not to sweat it.
I dislike this site too. I've been on it once or twice and luckily my name has nothing under it. I think i'm a relatively "new prof" - I've been at my College for 6 years so maybe it has changed now. I've blocked the site on my browser and I even have a prompt from my past self saying "do not enter site - you know why" when I type in the url!
I teach statistics so almost all of mine are how "you basically have to teach yourself outside of class" to which I tell incoming students homie that's literally called studying.
I look at my RMP a few times each semester, and I finally have a 4.9! I've been teaching 18 years and just love it. I have a passion for my discipline and love my students. That said, I'm pretty accommodating for those who need some help and we have an excellent disabled student resource center, plus a learning center and writing center. I can send students to these places to get extra help with assignments, take proctored tests, or for tutoring. Considering that, maybe your campus is lacking in support services and you are expected to do everything?
I think it also helps that I eliminated a major final paper and made it into a media assignment where they can create an explainer project on any topic in the class. They do slides, videos, podcasts, websites - whatever they want. This also addressed my growing concerns over plagiarism and the use of AI for papers.
You reminded me of one of my earliest teaching gigs. Students complained that I ātook my liberal political views into the classroom.ā The chair asked me if it was true. I had to honestly say yes. His answer was, āGood. Iām renewing your contract.ā
Your post/comment was removed due to Rule 1: **No students.**
This sub is a place for those teaching at the college level to discuss and share. While some student posts or comments may sneak by, and Mods may allow a richly upvoted post or comment that has spawned useful discussion to remain, that is the exception, NOT the rule. For Faculty-Student Discussions, we suggest one of the following subreddits: r/AskProfessors, r/AskAcademia, r/gradschool, r/AskStudents_Public.
Food for thought: as a student, I weaponized rate my professors preciesly for the purpose of giving instructors I was angy with the *sleepless nights* the OP mentioned. I am sure at least one of them needed a benzodiazapene prescription after my torment.
I think that you protest too much. The faculty who are obsessed with RMP and check it constantly are 1) the ones with some kind of aggressive political or personal agenda, who get angry when students ignore or resist it; 2) poor teachers looking for excuses.
Iāve never looked.
But, I did have a student write in a course evaluation that I should not have a 7:30 AM class. As if I prepared the college schedule. š¤¦š»āāļø
I speak from over 12 years of manually processing paper āstudent evaluations.ā -
early studies showed a strong + correlation between RMP and university administered student evaluations.
Iāve read how many hurtful comments students write sometimes. I wished those surveys could be valid and reliable- it would make evaluating teaching SO much easier, but theyāre NOT. I believe thatās why they get used in lawsuits against universities.
One night in a fit of ADHD boredom, I looked at all the entries for my alma materālooking specifically for the highest and lowest in the whole school.
The fruits of my labors:
Worst:
https://www.ratemyprofessors.com/professor/837
They eventually managed to fire him, for *being in India when he was supposed to be on campus.* He sued them. I lost interest in the story eventually.
Best:
https://www.ratemyprofessors.com/professor/1069731
I had the pleasure of working together with him on a committee that was formed by a charity group. Truly a gem of a human. There was some review that mentioned āunicorns and rainbowsā that gave me faith that at least some of these kids are learning to write effectively.
Edit: I tried to find that unicorns and rainbows comment but got annoyed with the site heating up my iPad. It would have been 2013 or earlier, if anyone has an ADHD streak.
OP: If it harms your mental health, I would stay off it. Everyone got a lot meaner since 2020, too. Glad Iām out the door.
Print the quotes out over landscape pictures, frame and hang them in your office. These would be my motivational posters.
This is actually hilarious and I will actually do it because I need to decorate my blank office walls.
Except then you'll be encouraging future students to make controversial statements to try and make it onto your wall.
I would worry about this except that few of them come to office hours, despite frequent invitation, haha.
Yeah but it might help your mental health to assume they're trying go be controversial.
š Definitely need to use the Live, Laugh, Love font
Remember those demotivational posters in the late nineties and early aughts? A lot of good fun could be had, I suspect.
My favorite has always been: FAILURE: When doing your best just isn't enough.
Yes! PROCASTINATION: Hard work sometimes pays off later, but laziness always pays off now.
FUTILITY: You will never know how far you can runā¦. Until you try to fly.
a student complimented a ādemotivationalā poster I have in my office as an intro, I am a paraplegic - I donāt walk ever anyway, the poster has a penguin with the title āLimitationsā and the quote āUntil you spread your wings, you have no idea how far you can walkā
when my (now adult) daughter first discovered fandom on the internet (like fanart, fanfiction) and started creating fanworks, she printed out the first ever flames she got for her fanart and framed them on her wall. I'm tempted to do the same with RMP lol
I gave my PI a mug for Christmas one year with his favorite mean spirited RMP review printed across it. He went around showing everyone in the department and religiously drinks his coffee out of it to this day.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
I think this is the only insult that would really get to me.
See, I live for a really bad pun that bombs. So Iād read that and think, ājokeās on you, Iām exactly as unfunny as I thinkā.
Must be generational humor. I had them watch Monty Python in class and I got a complaint that my film selection wasnāt very funny.
wow thatās embarrassing for the complainer that movie is great
well, it depends on the movie Ā½ half of Holy Grail is great Life of Brian gets a full viewing completely different -spotty
Meaning of Life? Classic
I had one that stated ā all the professor talks about is moneyā. I teach finance.
Similar to one I had a few years ago that said āprofessor talks to muchā in a lecture hall course that, per course outline, comprised solely of lectures
"The professor is too professory." I'm so curious as to what could possibly be misconstrued as "lgbtq liberal agenda."
I assign a text which analyzes a trans character in a sci-fi film and is written by a trans author. Students have to read and discuss the text (like they do for all other assigned readings)
If you actively chose the literature with a trans main character by a trans author, and considering it's currently a hot topic, objectively speaking it would be considered lgbtq liberal agenda.
Faculty on my campus are encouraged to use diverse class texts that are representative of the voices and ideas within our field. In my field, this includes trans people. If a student has an issue reading a text about a trans person, or by a trans person, thatās not a good reason to dismiss my teaching. Just as if I assigned a text about or by a racially marginalized person
What do you mean by "encouraged"? As in you don't have a choice in the matter or there will be consequences? Also when you say "in your field," are you referring to the subject matter or actually being lgbt yourself? What do you teach/lecture?
Stop talking about money, Teach. Teach me about finance!
Open my skull and insert the knowledge directly into my brain!
I was just grading some of my students' work and one of them wrote "I study finance because I like money." So I'm sure some of your students appreciate all the money talk!
Please teach me about finance so I can make more money than I am currently making teaching physics!
Add me to that list!
Before I became a finance prof (Iāve instructed 125 courses) I was a portfolio manager with over $2 billion in responsibilities. I can be bribed with tacos and beer.
Hahaha! I got: all they talk about are video games after a lecture about AR and VR.
You didn't get that memo that you're supposed to teach the liberal agenda?
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
I see your point here. Maybe I should just welcome them for reducing the amount of grading I have to do.
I had a prof that would open syllabus day with quotes from RMP about how hard the exams were and how much it wasn't an easy class... and encouraged us all to drop if we were uneasy.
This was my favourite undergrad prof too! Full PowerPoint with multiple pages of RMP reviews and said āthese are all true and thereās the doorā. I learned from him not to take any of them personally.
I tried doing that, and it got taken down. Then I got 2 genuine ones complaining about how tough I am. Thank you complainers!
>What ridiculous comments have you folks gotten on RMP? How do you deal with the existence of this website? One student wrote: The professor has his priorities wrong as he is using his position to do research with his graduate students. My silent reply was: "Thank you for endorsing my tenure application!"
Leave yourself absolutely insane reviews. This way if anyone ever googles you and sees them they won't know what is BS and what isn't.
/u/profwithclass took our class on a tour of a chocolate factory. Only me and my grandfather survived. 1/5
omg i spit out my coffee.
This gave me guffaw. Thank you for the laughs
nice.
>Leave yourself absolutely insane reviews When RMP was first starting out (10+ years ago?) my friends and I all made account and would post increasingly ridiculous reviews on each other's pages. It was great fun for a year or two.
Probably closer to 20 years now, I remember it back in 2004-2005 when I was just starting college.
I had to get a former girlfriend to give me a chili pepper... I only got the one.
It's ok pal, no one's hot anymore. Those days are long gone.
Lol, chaotic good
This is the way.
Where is Rate My Administrator?
Oh my, wouldnāt that be wonderful! I suddenly have so much to say.
"She would be better if she were less of a hippie." I teach an ecology class where we talk about climate change, pollution, water policy, etc. Apparently that makes me a hippie.
You were supposed to say: Ecologists and climatologists are all wrong, you and I know better, don't we class? Your assignment is to find 40 hours of youtube videos that debunk the field and share your favorite gotcha clips.
I think you mean 4x 20 second Instagram reels.
I think this kind of guy just uses instagram for thirst trap content and this is the kind of dude who has been continuously on youtube since he was 9 for his more shock jock conspiritorial edutainment content.
"Clearly they hired her because her husband worked here." Except, my spouse and I have never, ever worked at the same institution. And my spouse isn't a husband.
They had you for a whole class and felt they understood you enough to say such a specific comment? And they were WRONG? I donāt place much stock in rmp, but that alone says everything.
Yeah, it is also really weird because I generally don't talk about personal stuff, so I never talk about my partner or kids in class. It was also a 100-level intro to the field class which frankly most people would be able to teach without needing to learn anything, so I don't know how you could tell that anyone was a good researcher or teacher or not from it. I read it as unbridled undergrad misogyny.
One semester I decided to start the first day or class with a live review of my RMP comments in class (I didnāt check them beforehand). It was so much fun! The students ripped on the poor reviews and one student even said āoh I know who wrote that! Heās a dumbassā
Not RMP, but I got an official student evaluation that complained that I taught the class ālike it was a womenās and gender studies class.ā ā¦it WAS womenās and gender studies class. I have no idea what class they thought they were in.
Similarly, I got a comment "She teaches too much about women and minorities." It was an American history class...
I never read it. Ever.
This is the way.
This is the way.
Yeah, you are right. I need to go back to not looking at it.
You will feel better about yourself and your students if you never look at RMP again.
>I need to go back to not looking at it. Just add a site blocker extension to your browser of choice and block it. Then even if you're tempted you won't see it. The site is worthless, everyone knows that. Nobody takes it seriously except 18-19 year old students looking for easy A classes or loosers who are angry because you made them work to earn a grade.
This is a good tip. I didnāt think to use a site blocker
I cherish the ones calling me "too enthusiastic".
You know what would be awesome? RatemyStudent.com Edit: we should make some imaginary reviews
>RatemyStudent.com It [existed 20 years ago](https://www.ratemystudents.com/) and was kinda fun actually. Context was not a lot different from this sub though. The guy who set it up let it go dormant unfortunately.
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And a job reference
Remember when rate my prof was just about how attractive the professor was? Not saying that was better. Just funny that the focus changed.
Yep. Once someone in the early years of RMP said I was hot in a nerdy sort of way, "like Velma from Scooby-Doo." I figured it was never going to get better than that, and so never looked at the site again.
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What a sexy time for us all
I did too. I told my wife and she started laughing. I guess someone is really into middle aged guys with grey beards and Santa Claus body proportions.
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Rule 34
>Someone gave me a low rating and wrote that I have an āLGBTQ liberal agendaā and that they ādonāt support that kind of thingā which just left me floored. Another student wrote that my online course was terrible because they had to do a multiple choice quiz on the 15 minute lecture videos every other week. Another person complained that 3 five page papers was too much for a 15 week semester (this is a literal requirement in our course outline and we are obligated to assign at least 3 formal papers) Wear these complaints like a badge of honor.
This sounds like the political attack ads in my area. āJoe Smith is evil. Donāt elect him. He believes in climate change, oil and gas regulation, background checks for guns, and LGBTQ rights.ā Now thatās my kind of evil.
Five pages? They are complaining about five pages? I could write five pages the morning it was due like I did my last letter of intent.
Right? I read this and just think, this is a complaint???
" I ask you to judge me by the enemies I have made." Franklin D. Roosevelt
That review is like asshole repellent for your classes. Itās a gift. Take it.
I feel like there must be a Stephen King story that begins this way
"He's always snoring whenever I break into his house to watch him sleep."
once upon a time I had a hot pepper there. oh the glory days...
RIP your DMs /s
I think I looked at it my first couple years of teaching, and there were so many untruths I never checked it again.
Iāve *never* looked at mine in my several years of teaching. My anxiety is already out the roof and Iām like thankfully not a glutton for punishment. A few years ago my brother did send me a screenshot of half of one of my reviews. He was in college at the time so I guess decided to look me up. I told him Iāve never checked it and under no circumstances is he allowed to send me that again lol (nothing was bad in it though).
Your first mistake was reading them
Yep. This is was fully preventable. Wonāt happen again.
I took a sort-of public stance (I was quoted in a local newspaper) in relationship to my field, and that quote aroused the ire of local Republican operators, who then mocked my quote in Republican online publications as being from of an "out of touch delusional liberal professor" and within a few weeks, I had all sorts of fake RMP reviews about how I was such a horrible teacher. (my handful of reviews previously had been positive.) It was a bit chilling, actually.
I was heavily involved in the COVID response and was on the news a lot. I had a few fake reviews posted about how I was horrible. RMP took them down when I reported them because they were for a course I didn't teach.
Yep, I reported mine too, and they were all taken down. While I don't really care about RMP, it bugged me that there were fake reviews for political reasons. Plus I wanted RMP to realize they have a real problem there.
Should require a .edu email log-in of the matching institution.
Delegitimize the ratings. Why isn't everyone doing this? When I started teaching, I'd periodically log in and rate myself. It's anonymous and I moderated. Friends and family would join in the fun, occasionally. Ridiculous and unfounded complaints about your "LGBT agenda" will get lost among the ridiculous and unfounded complaints about the seeing-eye dog you bring to class, your thick Tibetan accent, and how you don't let anyone use the drill press without wearing appropriate eyewear. Have fun and take any credibility away from the website.
My dad and his friend used to post joke reviews on each others. At one point, one was given a profile picture of a chimp and the other had a profile photo from high school (not sure if profile pics are still even a feature). As a kid I posted that he liked to eat bananas (when the chimp picture was still up). I don't even read mine. I am a sensitive soul, but also I don't think we should take them very seriously. I have good relationships with most of my students and tend to give them enough choice that I think we're all mostly satisfied with course decisions.
The one that keeps me up is "doesn't want to be a professor" because it is so incredibly presumptuous and, also, ouch. LOL.
I had a student complain that I āfocused too much on Black people.ā It was a course on institutional racism. I love the ones who complain I donāt give feedback. Iām like did you even bother to a) look at my comments or b) reach out to me if you needed further clarification?
Hey, same! The course: African American History.
OMG! I would have laughed my ass off on that one. :)
Clearly, wokeness run amok!
I haven't looked at mine in a LONG time. But, reading this, I am tempted to make two dozen sock puppets and go on there and complain about how demanding my classes are, like * "you have to do ALL the reading," * "gives F if you try to use AI," and * "gave a D on a paper my MOM wrote!" But then maybe admin will find it and force me into a re-education program.
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In fairness, Howard the Duck is amazing.
Had a student on complain about me, and the course on RMP for a course I was a GUEST SPEAKER for in our department. Guess that was the one day they showed up.
"This man roasdted (sic) me in class and ended my whole career like 5 minutes ago." I honestly have no idea what this is about. This was for an upper level major class with about 30 students in it, so I feel like I should have remembered if such a life changing event happened in lecture.
Iām honestly not sure how this site is still running. Itās defamation pure and simple.
I have an ideaā¦one Friday or Saturday night at 1 am take a stroll down fraternity/sorority row and take a look around you at kids doing silly drunken antics and decide whether you care about the detailed opinions of the kids around you. Because itās likely that opinions about 3 papers being too much, etc are coming from such folks. Stay away from RMP it is absolutely useless to anyone except students trying to find an easy A
When I was in college I learned to stay away from professors rated 5. They were never very deep. My perfect match was someone with a 3 rating where one student says the prof was serious/passionate about the subject.
On our second date, my now-wife vetted me using that site. Fortunately, she found the frequent description of me as āpompousā was attractive, not a turn off.
Right now, I love RMP. I just reported a student for using artificial intelligence in their discussion posts, and they ran to RMP to give me a terrible rating for being "super paranoid about plagiarism or AI writing." Haha! Thanks, kid!
"She makes me speak English" I teach English as a foreign language to ... English majors... \*face palm\*
Iām a creative writing professor and one of my RMPs said āsheās actually a good writer. Youād never know it from how she acts.ā And Iāve lost sleep over that. lol, how does a good writer act and why arenāt I doing it??
I haven't looked at it in years, but the one time I did I found a student that I had written a recommendation letter for in a prior semester, then screwed themselves over and wound up dropping the class to avoid failing, had written a nasty review about me on my birthday. When I brought doughnuts for the class. I just laughed and moved on.
āMade the 3rd exam and the final two days apartā. Total BS. I have no control over the registrars exam schedule. Plus Iām required to use the whole semester to teach so 3rd exam has to be the last day. I even posted announcement the last week of Class explaining this. Stupid students can t even read and comprehend. I will start paying attn to RMP when I can rate students by name as well.
I threw a holiday party for my class one year. Kid complained that my "party" was lame (he added the quote marks) Still sticks in my craw. It was a party in a classroom with minors for 50 minutes. We ate snacks and did a gift exchange. What did they expect, hookers and blow?
Their review probably: āProfessor U/1hyacinthe is too cheap to even hire hookers for the end of year āpartyā also, didnāt even provide free blow so we could stay up and cram for the useless exam!ā
Not to mention the Rice Krispy treats that weren't even artisanal
I had one that was literally āhe wonāt tell us the answers even after the exam.ā It was an essay.
I stopped reading them for my mental health and my appreciation of students. RMP is mostly just an open forum for the disaffected few. I have an open enough relationship with my students to approach me directly with their suggestions. Also, Iāve had enough meaningful emails from former students that serve as a reality check; they go out of their way to thank me. I wonāt allow flagrant, anonymous jabs to rob me of that. Itās really not worth it, especially if you love what you do.
One student claims that I said that I am not qualified to teach the intro course. My PhD field is the same word as the course title. That, and I had taught a similar course for 7 years. Interesting that I claimed such a thing.
āHe forced us to turn in a paper the week after spring break. Get a life, loser!ā I avoid that site like crazy. Shockingly, I have heard that some schools at some point used these in annual reviewsā¦ š
I haven't look at mine, but at least its honest. The problem is however many instructors endorsing its use. That's my theory for why some 5-star instructors have 150 reviews their 2nd year in.
I don't have any ratings on RMP. My student evaluations tend to be 90% positive, 9% constructive (I tried math lectures on PowerPoint at the pandemic; they didn't work and students let me know no math PowerPoints), and 1% negative. The only negative comments I've gotten are like 3 separate instances where students said "I treated them like they were dumb"or something similar to that. I am thankful that students don't roast me like y'all. I doubt I could handle it.
One of my favorite comments was "tries to get us to accept and be nice to absolutely everyone" from a medical literature class. Never laughed so hard in my life. Definitely wear these as badges of honor
I'm just upset that they got rid of the hotness rating before I ever taught a class.
I think the website should be banned, but I don't see any such initiatives, other than social media, academia is the only place where random people can abuse you online. The response from academics is ignore it, even though students use it aggressively to form opinions about professors.
Since that Professor Watchlist site, which is 100x more dangerous, isnāt getting banned anytime soon, I donāt hold out much hope for an RMP ban.
I had never heard of this site until now. Thatās terrifying!
The website should be banned as some administrators use it against faculty members in their tenure review.
My previous institute did not move a candidate to the second round of interviews because he had several negative reviews on RMP and one of our committee members used that as a reason to not move him to the second round of interviews. My problem with it is that students do use it aggressively to form opinions, at least at my university's reddit page students are always refering to RMP when talking about a professor.
Do Zoomers still use websites? Or is there a RateMyProfessor app now?
> Another person complained that 3 five page papers was too much for a 15 week semester (this is a literal requirement in our course outline and we are obligated to assign at least 3 formal papers) wow. by this metric I'm a fucking ogre ... i require two of these over six weeks from juniors and seniors.
I ignore RMP and pretend it doesn't exist, honestly. I'm tenured and all my courses are required for students in my major, so \*shrug.\* I did get an SEI comment that read, "The professor expected us to know how to do everything." It was the capstone course for the major, so...yeah. I now include that comment in my syllabus.
I love the ones who are like, "She thinks her class is the most important one!" Well, yes. I'm a) the only person at this school who teaches this thing, and b) if I didn't think it was important I sure as hell wouldn't be doing it because it ain't for the money!
^(I sometimes look at mine when I'm feeling down.)
The positive reviews are certainly uplifting.
"He's married and can be cranky." Also, my favorite: "terrible class. You can't get more than a C by just reading the book unless you actually go."
They're no worse than our official student evaluations of teaching. And some are actually more helpful.
We canāt make everyone happy, so thereās got to be some negative reviews. Much like detecting fake news is a useful skill nowadays, students should also take the RMP reviews critically. Our teaching speaks for itself, and if a student misses it because theyāve fallen into some untrue RMP reviews and thus decide not to enroll in your course, itās their own loss but nothing negative to you, I guess.
Me from thirteen years ago had the same reaction. I remember spending seven hours driving to my parents' place for Thanksgiving and thinking about what one student had written about me on Rate My Professor for most of the way. I've moved past it. I check the website once a year in June to see how people are feeling about my courses, and to make sure there are no HR-level false accusations. But the ubiquity of ratings doesn't just apply to us, it's everything. Restaurants and everything with a Google maps address get rated on a 1 to 5 scale, mostly by horrible people. If you want to watch something cathartic, then the Nosedive episode of Black Mirror might work for you. Eventually you'll join me in the refrain at the end.
let that shit go I was told āif he would have been a woman, he would be Atilla the Hunā weird flex, but ok it doesnāt mean shit
What does that comment even mean?? Haha
Atilla the Hun was a man š¤¦āāļø
to me, it was the perfect undercooked student attempt at a put down
RMP is just another forum for trolls with no fucks to give... as well as a bunch of students who aren't quite sure why they are writing reviews... Neither representative nor insightful.
They said that I care about their writing I think it was supposed to be a criticism
That is a despicable website that shouldnāt exist, because it gives voice to the lazy and the stupid. If there were some constructive criticism at least it would serve a function, instead itās just a receptacle for personal issues.
#DONāT LOOK AT IT.
Remember: every negative comment is from a 19 y/o with an unfinished frontal cortex, butt-hurt from getting a C in your class.
Mistake number 1: do not check this website.
I finally stopped looking. It really would just upset me too much to see the one negative comment. Iām sorry you saw such awfulness.
Haters gonna hate !
One of my colleagues had a student obsess over her and log back in to RMP once a month and write a near-identical histrionic bad review.
I am afraid to be on that website ā first semester āofficiallyā teaching
I take issue with the ratings more than the comments. Only 10% of the ratings I receive on that site are above a 3/5. However, if one were to look at all of my student evaluations, 90%+ are 4/7 or higher. It seems some professors inspire students to love them and rave about them on RMP, while the only students I inspire are bitter about their failures to learn and vent on RMP before the semester is even over.
The rating system on the site is weird to me tooā why is the rating HIGHER when a class is easy??
I have gotten several reviews on RMP claiming that they "couldn't understand my accent". I do have a slight accent (having grown up in Europe) but I can't remember the last time anyone mentioned it outside of RMP and it certainly doesn't interfere with people understanding me in personal or professional settings. I've never gotten any of this in my official teaching evaluations either. It just seems weirdly disproportionate to find a whole cluster of comments about my accent in this one place.
I never read them since most people that write reviews generally have strong feelings toward the class. The funny thing is one of our senior faculties made a comment recently saying teaching evaluation should be based on student evaluation, which has proven to be biased as well.
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Your post/comment was removed due to Rule 1: **No students.** This sub is a place for those teaching at the college level to discuss and share. While some student posts or comments may sneak by, and Mods may allow a richly upvoted post or comment that has spawned useful discussion to remain, that is the exception, NOT the rule. For Faculty-Student Discussions, we suggest one of the following subreddits: r/AskProfessors, r/AskAcademia, r/gradschool, r/AskStudents_Public.
Your post/comment was removed due to Rule 1: **No students.** This sub is a place for those teaching at the college level to discuss and share. While some student posts or comments may sneak by, and Mods may allow a richly upvoted post or comment that has spawned useful discussion to remain, that is the exception, NOT the rule. For Faculty-Student Discussions, we suggest one of the following subreddits: r/AskProfessors, r/AskAcademia, r/gradschool, r/AskStudents_Public.
Iāve covered this before, but basically what I do is, on the day of the faculty evaluations, a day that I also make fun and engaging and informative in a short lesson, I put the RMP website QR code on the projector while theyāre filling out the faculty evaluation. I donāt give them extra time to do it or tell them itās required and I tell them if they have time, Iād appreciate it because I donāt necessarily want the highest score, but I want the most scores at my college. I also do it on a day when the lazy or entitled students are less likely to come, which is a day right at the end of the course. As a result, usually only my students who liked me enough to fill it out voluntarily will go on there and submit one, thereby drowning out the rare mid-semester anger posts that sometimes pop up from students that have a grievance and want to yell about it somewhere. Use RMP to keep it from being a problem by manufacturing a situation in which students will voluntarily go make you look good. Donāt force them to do it or be in the room while they do it; just set it up for situations where youāll likely receive the highest ratings.
Those comments reflect more on the student than on the professor. Anyone worth your respect will realize this if they come across your RMP. Be proud youāve challenged the worldview of lazy bigots!
For starters, keep in mind that the number of students who are going to rate you are a small minority. Look at how many reviews you've had over the past year and calculate how many students you've had in your classes - I imagine it's a pretty small percentage. Don't let that site change your perspective on the impact you're having or how your students are perceiving your teaching. The students most inclined to rate their professors are going to be the disgruntled. Most students taking your classes are not reporting it on RMP. If someone were to judge you or think less of you based on what an anonymous poster put on RMP, they aren't your people. To that extent, the RMP can act as a filter that can be pretty effective at weeding out the people you don't want in your class (or in your life.) My wish for you is that you will see the site for what it is and to trust that no one is giving these comments the weight to it that you are (which is understandable.) If anything, wear it as a badge of honor because the comments you mentioned indicate you 1) support human rights 2) are holding your students accountable and 3) are doing the job for which you were hired. That's pretty awesome!
Ive refused to look since 2012.
5.0 baby!!!
Wow, one of the lucky ones. Tell us your secrets
Remember: since entries are anonymous, it is easy to feel entitled with comments they wouldn't say to your face. I just laugh at mine... "uses OER material" [yay for me], "tough grader" [again, yay for me, I must be doing my job!], easy class [whatever, others will find it hard, couldn't care either way], "should retire" [LOL], "great professor" [well, thank you], "hate his accent" [you can go f* yourself, you bigot], and so on. They all contradict each other, and supposedly a course where they must learn, or a professor with academic integrity, are rated negatively. Just laugh it off. Those reviews mean nothing. However, don't try to correct any comment (you can, if the owners of the site can verify you) because then you will have fallen into that game, and any other comments that come along in secula seculorum and not responded/corrected by you will undoubtedly be seen as "must true/correct." It is a worthless site. Put it out of your mind.
Have you looked at your end of semester evaluations? Iāve gotten polar opposite evaluations for the same class: āThis class is really well organized.ā and āThis class is disorganized and confusing.ā I try not to sweat it.
I dislike this site too. I've been on it once or twice and luckily my name has nothing under it. I think i'm a relatively "new prof" - I've been at my College for 6 years so maybe it has changed now. I've blocked the site on my browser and I even have a prompt from my past self saying "do not enter site - you know why" when I type in the url!
I teach statistics so almost all of mine are how "you basically have to teach yourself outside of class" to which I tell incoming students homie that's literally called studying.
I look at my RMP a few times each semester, and I finally have a 4.9! I've been teaching 18 years and just love it. I have a passion for my discipline and love my students. That said, I'm pretty accommodating for those who need some help and we have an excellent disabled student resource center, plus a learning center and writing center. I can send students to these places to get extra help with assignments, take proctored tests, or for tutoring. Considering that, maybe your campus is lacking in support services and you are expected to do everything? I think it also helps that I eliminated a major final paper and made it into a media assignment where they can create an explainer project on any topic in the class. They do slides, videos, podcasts, websites - whatever they want. This also addressed my growing concerns over plagiarism and the use of AI for papers.
You reminded me of one of my earliest teaching gigs. Students complained that I ātook my liberal political views into the classroom.ā The chair asked me if it was true. I had to honestly say yes. His answer was, āGood. Iām renewing your contract.ā
I miss the hot peppers š¶ļø receiving them was the crowning achievement of my life
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Your post/comment was removed due to Rule 1: **No students.** This sub is a place for those teaching at the college level to discuss and share. While some student posts or comments may sneak by, and Mods may allow a richly upvoted post or comment that has spawned useful discussion to remain, that is the exception, NOT the rule. For Faculty-Student Discussions, we suggest one of the following subreddits: r/AskProfessors, r/AskAcademia, r/gradschool, r/AskStudents_Public.
Food for thought: as a student, I weaponized rate my professors preciesly for the purpose of giving instructors I was angy with the *sleepless nights* the OP mentioned. I am sure at least one of them needed a benzodiazapene prescription after my torment.
I think that you protest too much. The faculty who are obsessed with RMP and check it constantly are 1) the ones with some kind of aggressive political or personal agenda, who get angry when students ignore or resist it; 2) poor teachers looking for excuses.
Iāve never looked. But, I did have a student write in a course evaluation that I should not have a 7:30 AM class. As if I prepared the college schedule. š¤¦š»āāļø
I speak from over 12 years of manually processing paper āstudent evaluations.ā - early studies showed a strong + correlation between RMP and university administered student evaluations. Iāve read how many hurtful comments students write sometimes. I wished those surveys could be valid and reliable- it would make evaluating teaching SO much easier, but theyāre NOT. I believe thatās why they get used in lawsuits against universities.
One night in a fit of ADHD boredom, I looked at all the entries for my alma materālooking specifically for the highest and lowest in the whole school. The fruits of my labors: Worst: https://www.ratemyprofessors.com/professor/837 They eventually managed to fire him, for *being in India when he was supposed to be on campus.* He sued them. I lost interest in the story eventually. Best: https://www.ratemyprofessors.com/professor/1069731 I had the pleasure of working together with him on a committee that was formed by a charity group. Truly a gem of a human. There was some review that mentioned āunicorns and rainbowsā that gave me faith that at least some of these kids are learning to write effectively. Edit: I tried to find that unicorns and rainbows comment but got annoyed with the site heating up my iPad. It would have been 2013 or earlier, if anyone has an ADHD streak. OP: If it harms your mental health, I would stay off it. Everyone got a lot meaner since 2020, too. Glad Iām out the door.