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August 29, 2012
Ratemyprofessors.Com Announces 2011-2012 Highest-Rated
Professors and Colleges
Iona College’s Andy Gold
Named Top Professor
Stanford University,
University of Memphis and
St. Johns River State
College Lead the Site’s
Annual University Rankings
Tweet It: Students rank
@Stanford top school on
@ratemyprofessor
#RMPTopLists
New York, NY – August 29,
2012 –
RateMyProfessors.com, the
largest online destination for
college professor ratings,
today released its annual lists
ranking the nation’s top
professors and universities,
based entirely on students’
input. Iona College’s Andy
Gold, a business professor,
leads the list of top university
professors, followed by
William Renfroe, a biological
sciences professor at
Pensacola State College and
Kevin Raiford, a business
professor at the College of
Southern Nevada.
Topping the nation’s list of
universities are Stanford
University, University of
Memphis, and St. Johns River
State College. Whereas the
2010-2011 top universities list
was dominated by many of
the nation’s biggest state
schools, smaller universities
and private schools have a
more prominent presence in
this year’s rankings with
schools like Union
University, Missouri Baptist
University and Marist College
making their mark in the top
25 (the full lists for all
categories are included below
and can be viewed at
toplists.ratermyprofessors.co
m). The rankings for best
schools were determined by
analyzing both professor
ratings and campus ratings.
Different from typical college
rankings, this list is generated
entirely from the input of the
students themselves –
providing an authentic
overview of daily life at each
respective school.
As many students continue to
pursue moderately-priced
alternatives to traditional
four-year universities,
RateMyProfessors.com once
again published a list of
highest-rated junior colleges.
San Diego City College
clinched the top spot, with
Hostos Community College
and Oakton Community
College following close
behind. This year’s top junior
college professor is Sam
Blank, a communications
professor from the Borough
of Manhattan Community
College and last year’s top
junior college professor,
Margie Lewkowicz of
Georgia Perimeter College,
finished fifth this year. Miami
Dade College was home to
five of the top 25 professors
on this list, more than any
other junior college.
“There’s no higher honor for
teachers and schools than to
be praised by the students
who are being impacted by
their influence every day,”
said Carlo DiMarco, Senior
Vice President, Strategic
Partnerships and
Development, mtvU. “We
extend our sincere
congratulations to all of the
professors, universities and
junior colleges on our top
lists.”

Students posting on
RateMyProfessors.com
praised this year’s highestranked
university professor,
Andy Gold of Iona College in
New Rochelle, New York,
stating, “Gold has a really
good way of teaching material
that other teachers could
make boring. He will change
your perspective on a lot of
business and world issues.”
Other students remarked on
his ability to engage, writing,
“[Gold is] the best teacher
I’ve ever had at Iona … [he]
really made me look at things
from a different perspective
and changed the way I view
my education.” Students share
similar sentiment about
highest-ranked junior college
professor Sam Blank, of
Borough of Manhattan
Community College. One
student wrote, “[Blank is] one
of the very best teachers I
have ever had. [He is] most
knowledgeable with a great
sense of humor … willing to
go out of his way to help with
all issues. Now that I took his
class – I will miss him
terribly!”
Meanwhile, psychology
professor David Daniel at
James Madison University
snagged the top spot on the
annual RateMyProfessor.com
“Hottest Professors” list.
Besides being described as
August 29, 2012
“super hot,” students rated
Daniel as “one of the best
professors at JMU … he is
really funny and helpful and
he actually makes you want to
come to class.” After nabbing
the final spot on the 2009-
2010 “hottest” list, history
professor Hugo Schwyzer of
Pasadena City College is back
and hotter than ever in 2011-
2012, ranking second. One
RateMyProfessors.com
reviewer referred to him as
“Hotty McHot,” while
another wrote while he’s
attractive, “you’ll be more
interested in what he says
than his handsomeness.”
Thomas Beard, an Economics
professor at Auburn
University, has been a
mainstay on the hot list for
years. He was the only
professor to make the list for
the third consecutive year,
moving up five spots to No. 4
this year.
For the first time,
RateMyProfessors.com will
debut its “Fun Lists” as part
of its annual rankings.
Starting today with Best
Professor Smiths, the site will
roll out a quirky countdown
of lists over the next few
weeks, including Most
Followed Professors on
Twitter, Top 5 Presidential
Professor Names and Top 5
Hottest Math Professors.
RateMyProfessors.com is
built for college students, by
college students. It is the
highest-trafficked U.S.
college professor rating site
(comScore), reaching its
highest-trafficked months
ever in April 2012 (7.5
million unique visitors) and
May 2012 (7.4 million unique
visitors). Owned and operated
by MTV’s college network,
mtvU, the site consists
entirely of student-generated
ratings of current or former
professors, featuring more
than 7,500 schools, 1.7
million professors and 14
million
ratings. RateMyProfessors.co
m reaches 6 million college
students on average each
month.
The 2011-2012
RateMyProfessors.com
Rankings Include:
Top 25 University
Professors
1. Andy Gold, Business, Iona
College
2. William Renfroe,
Biological Sciences,
Pensacola State College
3. Kevin Raiford, Business,
College of Southern Nevada
4. Paige Baltzan, Business,
University of Denver
5. Bridget Middleton,
Mathematics, Santa Fe
College

6. Caroline Seefchak, English,
Edison State College
7. Andrea Cordaway,
Mathematics, University of
Texas at San Antonio
8. Irene Vlachos-Weber,
Psychology, Indiana
University Bloomington
9. Ray Otto, Biology, George
Mason University
10. Jim Thomas, Philosophy,
University of Maryland –
Baltimore County
11. Theodore Graham,
Mathematics, Florida State
College at Jacksonville
12. Greg Dixon, Political
Science, University of West
Georgia
13. Randall Benfield,
Business, California State
University – Sacramento
14. Gary S. Gaffney, Law,
Florida Atlantic University
15. Thomas Douglas,
Anthropology, California
State University Long Beach
16. Dan Mitchell, Chemistry,
Bellevue College
17. Chad Ostler, History,
Utah Valley University
18. Scot Plunkett, Family &
Consumer Science, California
State University – Northridge
19. Mina Tsay,
Communication, Boston
University
20. Linda Hickman, Business
Administration, California
State University – San
Marcos
21. Gary Brice, Mathematics,
August 29, 2012
Lamar University
22. Omar Al Nasser, Finance,
University of Houston –
Victoria
23. Katir Patel, Microbiology,
University of Massachusetts
24. Chris Dula, Psychology,
East Tennessee State
University
25. Joab Corey, Economics,
Florida State University
Top 25 Universities
1. Stanford University
2. University of Memphis
3. St. Johns River State
College
4. Union University
5. Florida Agricultural and
Mechanical University
6. Missouri Baptist University
7. Marist College
8. Roosevelt University
9. Claremont McKenna
College
10. Saint Anselm College
11. Minnesota State
University
12. SUNY Cortland
13. Mitchell College
14. University of North
Dakota
15. Palmer Chiropractic
University
16. Embry-Riddle
Aeronautical University
17. University of New Haven
18. Young Harris College
19. Suffolk University
20. Ohio Northern University
21. Florida State College at
Jacksonville
22. Radford University
23. SUNY Cobleskill
24. University of Portland
25. Christian Brothers
University
Top 25 Junior Colleges
1. San Diego City College
2. Hostos Community College
3. Oakton Community
College
4. Tri-County Technical
College
5. San Jacinto College –
South
6. Lone Star College (All
Campuses)
7. Normandale Community
College
8. Cypress College
9. Owens Community College
– Toledo
10. Harford Community
College
11. Prince George’s
Community College
12. Irvine Valley College
13. Jefferson State
Community College
14. Ventura College
15. Madison Area Technical
College
16. Wallace Community
College
17. Santa Ana College
18. Thomas Nelson
Community College
19. College of DuPage
20. Rogue Community
College
21. Cuesta College
22. Bunker Hill Community

College
23. Northampton Community
College
24. Moraine Valley
Community College
25. Brevard Community
College – Palm Bay Campus
Top 25 Professors at Junior
Colleges
1. Sam Blank,
Communication, Borough of
Manhattan Community
College
2. Tony Smith,
Communication, St.
Petersburg College (All
Campuses)
3. John W. Todd,
Communication, Miami Dade
College (All Campuses)
4. Raj Bose, Business,
University of Phoenix Hawaii
Campus
5. Margie Lewkowicz,
Mathematics, Georgia
Perimeter College – Decatur
6. Ronald Walker,
Communication, Miami Dade
College (All Campuses)
7. Luis Beltran, Mathematics,
Miami Dade College (All
Campuses)
8. Melinda Shoemaker,
Psychology, Broward College
(All Campuses)
9. Lynne Vazquez-Rizzo,
Mathematics, Ocean County
College
10. Ryan Adams-Barton,
Social Science, Miami Dade
College (All Campuses)
August 29, 2012
11. Charles Sidun, Biology,
Community College of
Allegheny County
12. Susan Wessner,
Mathematics, Tallahassee
Community College
13. Ted Wiecek,
Mathematics, Truman College
14. Mehrdad Mahmoudi
Zarandi, Mathematics, Ivy
Tech Community College –
Bloomington
15. Kristen Cole, Psychology,
San Diego City College
16. Kyle Barbieri, Political
Science, Georgia Perimeter
College – Decatur
17. Ellen Feig, English,
Bergen Community College
18. David Demko, Sociology,
Miami Dade College (All
Campuses)
19. Tracey Magrann, Biology,
Saddleback College
20. Douglas Phinney, History,
Broward College (All
Campuses)
21. Phil Maywalt, Computer
Science, Broome Community
College
22. Robert Martens, Biology,
Brookdale Community
College
23. Norman Belleza, Biology,
Tidewater Community
College
24. Stephen Miciak, College
Success, Hillsborough
Community College – Tampa
25. Mark Shannon,
Communications, Los
Angeles Harbor College
Top 10 Hottest Professors
1. David Daniel, Psychology,
James Madison University
2. Hugo Schwyzer, History,
Pasadena City College
3. Ruth Dellinger,
Mathematics, Florida State
College at Jacksonville
4. Thomas Beard, Economics,
Auburn University
5. Shaun Vecera, Psychology,
University of Iowa
6. Adrienne Alaie, Biology,
Hunter College
7. Barbara Kalvelage,
Biology, University of
Southern Indiana
8. Amir Sabzevary,
Philosophy, Laney College
9. Derek Milne,
Anthropology, Pasadena City
College
10. Isabelle Sacramentogrilo,
Geology, San Diego State
University
RateMyProfessors.com Top
Lists Ranking Methodology
RateMyProfessors.com is the
Internet's largest destination
for collegiate professor
ratings with more than 7,500
schools, 1,700,000 professors
and 14,000,000 ratings. The
site uses a five-point Likert
scale as well as a binary
scoring system for students to
rate professors. Below is a
summary of the overall
methodology used to compile
the 2011-2012 rankings:

Each individual professor
rating is first standardized and
subsequently the standardized
scores for the years 2009,
2010 and 2011 are weighted,
putting more weight on recent
years and fewer weight on
ratings from the past (15
percent for 2009, 25 percent
for 2010, and 60 percent for
2011). Using the weighted
score, professors are ranked
from high to low. Only
professors with 30 ratings or
more are included to provide
statistical significance.
In an attempt to break ties,
professors with a greater
number of ratings were
ranked higher; the rationale is
that a larger amount of
information typically results
in an estimate closer to the
true parameter. Nevertheless,
ties (i.e. professors with the
same score and the same
number of ratings) still occur.
In that case, if two professors
are tied for the same place -
say 5th - then the next
available rank is 7th.
It should also be noted that
school size does not affect the
outcome of the lists nor does
it give professors from larger
schools an advantage over
their corollaries from smaller
schools. RateMyProfessors
performed a regression
analysis on school size vs.
August 29, 2012
number of ratings and found
no noteworthy correlation.
More information on how this
methodology was applied to
each category is available
here:
http://www.ratemyprofessors.
com/methodology.jsp. Data
analysis was conducted with
the help of Professor
Wolfgang Jank, Associate
Professor in the Department
of Decisions, Operations &
Information Technologies at
the University of Maryland’s
Robert H. Smith School of
Business.
About mtvU
Broadcast to more than 750
college campuses as well as
via top cable distributors in
700 college communities
nationwide, mtvU reaches
nearly 9 million U.S. college
students – making it the
largest, most comprehensive
television network just for
college students. Twentyfour
hours a day, seven days a
week, mtvU can be seen in
the dining areas, fitness
centers, student lounges and
dorm rooms of campuses
throughout the U.S., as well
as on cable systems from
Charter Communications,
Verizon FiOS TV,
Suddenlink Communications,
AT&T u-Verse and nearly 70
others. mtvU is dedicated to
every aspect of college life,
reaching students everywhere
they are: on-air, online and on
the campus. mtvU airs music
videos from emerging artists
that can’t be seen anywhere
else, news, student life
features and initiatives that
give college students the tools
to advance positive social
change. mtvU is always on
campus, with hundreds of
events per year, including
exclusive concerts,
giveaways, shooting mtvU
series and more. For more
information about mtvU, and
a complete programming
schedule, visit
http://www.mtvU.com
.
Contact
Jake Urbanski
jake.urbanski@mtvstaff.com \
212.846.6888
Related
RateMyProfessors.com Top
Lists