It’s been about a month since NIU students received fall grades and by now, reality has sunk in that four years actually may turn into five or six.

As some students go on a hunt for that certain professor dishing out the poor grades, others look for revenge online and turn the tables.

The Web site RateMyProfessors.com, an online report card, allows students to rate professors in various areas such as easiness, helpfulness and clarity.

Some students at NIU log on to the Web site when planning schedules to check comments on professors.

“I’ve used it mainly to see what I’m getting myself into each semester,” said Mary Vanderbilt, a freshman undecided major. “It’s hard because you never know if students are being truthful or if they just had a bad experience with that particular professor.”

Some teachers have a different reaction.

“I’m split on how I feel about [the site]. Being a student myself, I think that students are honest when they use [the Web site],” said Cosme Becerra, a Spanish graduate student. “I’ve avoided some professors because of it and at the same time gone out of my way to take classes with others.”

Becerra, who teaches several sections of Spanish, said although some comments found on the Web site can be harsh, it’s good to know what people are saying.

“I look at my ratings from time to time because I like to know what the word on the street is about me,” he said. “I have other professors who have told me they don’t care what students say about them and they avoid these types of Web sites.”

However, some teachers and professors are able to use these harsh comments to better themselves as educators.

“I think that the students are earnest in their ratings and they mean to provide meaningful feedback. However, they tend to be very personally oriented, so it’s difficult to change practices to suit one student,” said English instructor Jack Haines. “I do look for commonalities and see if there’s anything in general to change or adjust.”

Although some professors admit to using the site out of curiosity, others agree that nothing compares to the evaluation surveys students fill out at the end of each semester.

“I don’t take the information from these Web sites seriously compared to the evaluations completed by students in the class at the end of the semester,” said sociology professor Fred Markowitz. “The most important thing to realize about the Web sites is that they are not a representative sample of the opinions of students. The opinions expressed at those sites are only a small portion of who are inclined to spend time going to these sites.”

“The bottom line is this: I like the fact that students are able to rate their professors using Web sites because I, for one, look at all the postings,” Becerra said. “I’m not going to allow one negative comment to outweigh the positive ones.”