Students log on to Web sites like RateMyProfessors.com each semester to evaluate potential instructors as they build schedules, and nearly half are looking for the easiest professor available, a new study says.The survey, conducted by Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions, questioned 1,229 college students and recent college graduates. Results show 46 percent of students are influenced by rating sites to choose professors based on “easy grading reputation.”Students are attracted to professor rating sites because they want to attain the maximum educational experience, said Jeff Olson, Kaplan’s vice president of research.”Why is anybody an educated consumer anytime they’re making a choice?” Olson said. “They want to have a better experience.”Monique Spears, biology sophomore, said she uses Rate My Professors every semester to plan her schedule. She said she uses the site to weed out professors who are notoriously hard graders and unwilling to give help outside class.”If I get a professor willing to help me, not necessarily be lenient or easy, I think my grades are a lot better than what they could have been,” Spears said.According to Kaplan’s study, students scored rating sites at 5.8 in reliability on a scale of zero to 10 — zero being totally unreliable and 10 being very reliable.Spears said she has found Rate My Professors to be accurate, though she does keep in mind some responses can be biased against instructors.Trey Halliburton, computer engineering freshman, said he uses professor-rating Web sites occasionally but is more concerned with instructor quality than easy grading reputation.Halliburton said he looks for information about how well instructors can communicate with and express opinions to students but ignores comments about how easy a professor’s class is.”It’s hard to find a lot of information about content [of a course],” he said. “It’s a lot about how easy it is. If that’s all I can find, I don’t use that in my decision.”Jamie Walch, biological sciences senior, said she has never used rating sites. Reviews from students are not reliable enough because every student’s learning style is different, Walch said.”Everybody is different, and all teachers test differently,” she said.History professor Rob Outland, who holds a 4.8 out of 5 rating on Rate My Professors, said he has never visited the site but has been told about his high rating.Outland said he has no problem with students reviewing him online because students have always discussed their professors with each other.”It’s just an electronic version of what students have always done,” Outland said.Stacia Haynie, vice provost of Academic Affairs, also said these sites are an online incarnation of what has always occurred, but students should be wary of using them in a way that could damage their education quality.”Students should be focused on trying to get the best bang for their buck, which means getting the most rigorous education for the amount of money they’re paying,” Haynie said. “If they’re trying to find some avenue to avoid rigor, then ultimately their own academic experience is going to suffer.”Olson said the study also examined the possibility that using ratings sites to choose an easier instructor is contributing to a grade inflation phenomenon. The average U.S. college GPA increased from 2.93 in 1991 to 3.11 in 2006, according to a Kaplan news release.Haynie said academic departments evaluate course inflation every semester and are encouraged to make judgments on how to keep course rigor up to challenge students.”If course grade distribution doesn’t suggest a particular level of rigor, the department is asked to increase rigor or challenge for students,” Haynie said.Haynie said grade inflation would be difficult to identify at the University because admissions standards were recently raised, which would explain some increase in grades.—–Contact Ryan Buxton at [email protected]