Forbes ranks Pacific profs as 14th best nationwide

Pacific was ranked among the top 25 schools for best professors by Forbes magazine.

Out of 650 schools represented, Pacific placed 14 by statistics compiled for the national magazine’s 2011 rankings by RateMyProfessors.com

The website gathered voluntary reviews from students, who were prompted to rate professors based on three main categories: Easiness, helpfulness and clarity.

According to a CBS report, “The researchers put far less weighting on the easiness category. The center didn’t want professors who taught easy classes to be rewarded.”

Forbes also used the schools’ own statistics in determining the rankings, looking at factors such as freshmen retention rate, graduation rate, student debt levels and graduates’ salaries.

The top spots were dominated by liberal arts schools from all across the country, likely a result of smaller class sizes and hence more personal interaction with professors. Princeton was the top-ranked Ivy League school at the 57th spot.

RateMyProfessors.com is reminiscent of Wikipedia in that users, registered or not, can add and edit schools and professors.

Not all parts of the RateMyProfessors.com questionnaire were utilized when compiling the rankings. Other options include prior interest in a class topic, textbook use and appearance. The latter puts a chili pepper on the review if students indicate the professor is “hot.”