As we begin another year of education, many of us are busy
stressing out over the classes we’re here to take. Our concerns
include each professor’s grading curve, whether a certain course is
worth taking, and when to take electives.
All of these questions, and more, can be answered by using
Pick-A-Prof, a web-based service that promises to make it easy to
select your professors. Pick-A-Prof does this by providing you with
ratings that have been contributed by students who have had the
professor before, grade histories so that you can see exactly how
difficult or easy the teacher’s grading curve is, and a
schedule-building tool. The best part of all this is that
Pick-a-Prof is completely free, financed with a portion of your SGA
fees.
Pick-A-Prof’s biggest draw is the grade history data it
provides. You can see how grades from any professor or course were
distributed during past semesters. This makes it easy to see which
professor has traditionally graded the most liberally for the
course.
You can also find drop percentages for any course or professor.
This data is mostly complete. However, it does not contain
information from the Spring spring 2004 term yet, so if the course
or professor you’re looking for is new, they there may not have be
any grade history data.
Another feature of the Pick-A-Prof site that is advertised
extensively is the review feature. Actual students who have had the
professor in the past contribute reviews, and what sets
Pick-A-Prof’s reviews apart from others is that all the reviews on
Pick-A-Prof are screened by a human before they’re posted.
The best reviews are selected to appear first on the list,
making it easier for you to get an idea of how a professor operates
by only reading legitimate reviews.
Reviews on Pick-A-Prof also tend to lean more towards how the
class is structured, as because personal complaints against the
professor or course aren’t permitted in them.
Possibly the most interesting component of Pick-A-Prof is the
schedule builder. This feature lets you select the courses you want
to take during a semester, then create a schedule automatically
where none of the courses conflict. Having the ratings and grade
histories of all professors only a click away while scheduling
ensures that you are informed and choose the courses that suit you
best.
If a section of a course fills up, you can easily go back and
select an alternate one. This makes the previously tedious process
of creating a schedule almost laughably easy.
The features offered by Pick-A-Prof make it easy to select the
professor that you think will best fit with your learning style.
The reviews offered by the site make it easy to see what other
students think about U of L’s professors and the schedule builder
helps you fit the courses you want into your schedule.
You still have time to explore Pick-A-Prof and to benefit from
it for the fall semester. You can add or drop classes without any
penalty until August 27.
SGA’s endorsement and funding of Pick-A-Prof is constantly being
reconsidered. If you like using the service, please let them know
by calling 852-6695 or by telling your Senator.
Pick-A-Prof is accessible at http://www.pickaprof.com. It
requires a web browser that supports JavaScript and Flash. Web
browsers in the campus computing centers meet these
requirements.