We all know that professors can make or break a class AND your grade. Did you know there’s a couple of ways to find out which classes give extra credit, which classes are the hardest, and which professors are the most highly rated? Today, I’ll explain to you how you can figure all of these things out, just read below!
So you’ve made it through high school and are now embarking on a new journey. Your college journey. Perhaps you have already made it to college and are a semester in, a year in, or even multiple years in. No matter what stage of your college journey you are in, it is always crucial to pick the best professors available at your university.
I was in this same spot four years ago with no idea what to do because all of my teachers had always been chosen for me in my public schooling career. I felt lost and really didn’t know what resources to look to to figure out whether Joe Smoe or Jane Doe was the better choice for my general chemistry class and whether this will make a difference in my grades.
Let me tell you now as an incoming medical student who has finished a degree in biochemistry and molecular biology and the whole pre-med prerequisite course load. Professor choice is CRUCIAL. It can make or break your grades and it can either help you have the best semester possible, or the most nightmarish semester ever. With all the extracurriculars and hours you need to build up over the three years leading up to your medical school application, it is in your best interest to have a professor that will help you learn the material best and not have to stress about grades so you can go out and do those extracurriculars.
- Seek out upperclassmen or students a year above you (A mentor too)
Make friends with some folks that are older than you and have been at the school for a while. It can be anyone regardless of whether these students are high performing. They almost always have opinions on various professors, good and bad. If you talk to enough people, you eventually can get a consensus on which professors are universally disliked and which ones people ooo and aww over because they’re so great. Essentially, you’re not only getting an idea of who to take, you are more importantly getting a list of professors NOT to take. This will be key down the road.
Aside from getting to hear people’s opinions on the professors, you’ll meet other students just like you and now have an opportunity to make friends, form connections, and perhaps even open a conversation toward getting clinical experiences or volunteering opportunities. Friends make this long and difficult journey that much easier, so never shy away from these opportunities!
- Use Ratemyprofessor.com
One of, if not the most important resource I used in college was ratemyprofessor. My main strategy after finding out which professors were highly regarded among my peers was using this website. In it, you can find reviews for each professor at your college by real students who took their classes. Many times, they’ll put the grade they made, which class they took and rate the professor’s difficulty and whether they’d take the class again.
It was very useful to find out what students thought of a prospective professor ahead of time and see whether people thought they were hard. I paid very close attention to the letter grades folks were earning. If the majority were A’s, I knew I was in a good spot. If the majority of them were B’s and C’s, I knew it was going to be challenging. Now, one thing to consider is whether the class is extraordinarily difficult such as organic chemistry. Organic chemistry is a known “weed-out” course in the pre-med prerequisites, so expect some B’s, but look for the professor giving the most A’s
A hidden aspect and benefit of using these reviews is the small bits of information some students revealed about the class. Sometimes they’d mention that a professor gives pop quizzes. Others would mention that the professor gives lots of busy work or homework that made their lives miserable. They may even reveal that the professor was terribly difficult to work with and was scarcely available to help answer questions. One of the big ones was when a student would say the test and quiz questions came mainly from X source such as the textbook or the slides from lecture. I used this as a starting guide to my study strategy! These were all little strategies I used to get ahead before even stepping foot in the class.
- Get the syllabus for the course ahead of registration
If you happen to still be unsure about a given professor or are wanting to look at how the professor weighs each grade (exams, quizzes, assignments, labs etc.), try to get a hold of the syllabus ahead of registering for the class. You can do this by asking a friend who had the class recently (make sure it wasn’t too far in the past like 3+ years as the syllabus may have changed) or by emailing the professor. It’s easy to email the professor and not something to be afraid of. They’re here to help, especially if they aren’t tenured yet! It can be very brief and essentially say “Hi I’m really excited to take this class and am considering taking it with you. I am wanting to learn more about the class’s structure and schedule and was wanting to see if you could send me the syllabus?”. This is a very short and rough version of what you’d actually send, but you get the point. DO NOT make the email about the grading system. Even though this is mostly all I cared about getting from the syllabus, professors DO NOT like students who only see the class as a grade. Form this email as an I’m excited and just want to see what the policies and schedule are like instead. One last thing here is that you can also request to meet this professor in person if that is something you desire. Just tack on a sentence at the end saying something along the lines of “I have a few questions regarding the class and some topics that may be covered and would really enjoy getting to sit down with you at some point. If you are interested or able to, here the some dates and times I’m available over the next week”.
- Pick a professor with extra credit, dropped test options, and/or final exemption ability
Now this is probably the most important section to figure out for any class. I always tell people and had to learn over the four years that earning an A in a class is a two part process. You have to figure out what will be on the exams and you have to figure out where these topics come from and you have to take advantage of every single offering of extra credit or exemption. Some classes come with a built in test drop. For example, the class will have 5 exams including the final exam and they will drop the lowest grade. In this case, I always pushed to make the highest scores possible on my first 4 exams so I could exempt the final which was cumulative. It’s much easier to ace a test over one or two chapters than on one over the entire semester.
Some professors will give small extra credit quizzes or assignments that they build into the curriculum. Make sure you do every single one even if its just 1-2 points. It will matter when you get to the end of the year and nobody wants to see they ended at an 89.49 or something similar. Believe me, this is not a “that won’t happen to me situation”. It WILL happen and you do not want to regret not taking every opportunity. Lastly, some classes will have an option to exempt the final. This was always nice and usually required that you had an A average on the year or something similar. Each class is different so just read up on the policy! This was huge and made my life easier at the end of the semester so I could focus on my harder or more challenging finals. The bottom line: get that syllabus ahead of time and pick a professor who offers the most extra opportunity to make your A!
- Ask a junior or senior for a list of their favorite professors for each subject
Now, there is a good chance you may not run into a senior while in your classes, but you may run into them at the library or in the various clubs you’re in. When you do, and you happen to make friends with them or the topic comes up, ask them what professors they enjoyed. More specifically, ask them if they could make a list of their favorite professors and whic classes they teach. This will help for your plan down the road as you map out which classes you need and can put a tentative professor plan in place. I find that seniors are especially helpful as they’ve now “completed the rat race” in some sense and feel like they no longer need to compete for spots or programs.
Hopefully these tips will help you figure out a class schedule and the professors that will give you the best chance at keeping all A’s and the most time possible to direct into your extracurriculars! Most of all, this is a beginning to how you can be the most competitive for medical school or any graduate program.
Now that you have figured out how to get the best professors, let’s learn how to best study for your premed classes!