Busy students looking for that last course next semester know that the Student Course Guide can provide a useful, if anecdotal, review of a class and its professor.But it may be surprising to learn that similar sites are a growing business nationwide, and that they may be changing how professors teach undergraduates.PickAProf.com was founded in 2000 by two former University of Texas at Austin students who were trying to help friends choose their courses, said Karen Bragg, also a graduate of UT and now the company's director of university relations."Within a couple of semesters we had 80 percent of the campus using the site," Bragg said, and since then it has expanded to 54 campuses nationwide, primarily public universities.The company makes use of free access to public school documents to post professors' grading tendencies on the site, Bragg said.For example, students registered with the site can learn that Ruth Rosen, a professor at the University of California at Davis, has awarded about 31 percent of her students in History 072B grades in the A range, 61 percent in the B range and 8 percent a C or below.Similar grading data is not available for schools such as Princeton because they are private, Bragg said, but the company has brought its professor-rating service to some private schools.Bragg said many professors are upset over the site until they find out about features intended for them, such as an option for professors to review their own courses and to post surveys for their students.However, a Chronicle of Higher Education article reported that some faculty members felt the sites simply allowed students to search for the professors giving the highest grades.The USG's Student Course Guide does not post grade information because it is not made public, said Thais Melo '04, who provides technical support for the site.Instead, the course guide relies on student reviews and the course review sheets handed out at the end of the semester.A "Cool Course" as defined by the guide is any class without prerequisites that received an overall rating of 4.8 out of 5 or higher, Melo said.The SCG's reviews are edited for appropriateness and usefulness, but only to an extent, Melo said.
