What Ratemyprofessors.com Reveals About How and Why Students Evaluate Their Professors: A Glimpse Into the Student Mind-Set

This study examines RateMyProfessors.com ratings and comments as a form of electronic word-of-mouth communications. The data represent 2,371 user ratings and comments for 442 marketing professors from 51 U. S. colleges and universities. Qualitative comments were analyzed using updated thematic content analyses. The results indicate significant inclusion of qualitative comments about professors' personal characteristics and teaching attributes. Consistent with the literature on word-of-mouth, social communications theory, and equity theory, more positive and negative comments were found than neutral or mixed remarks. Contrary to popular belief and findings in the literature on conventional word of mouth, comments overall were dominated by compliments rather than complaints.