Law Schools

Law School Evaluations: The Student Side

Advice for students on how to give meaningful law school evaluations.

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Last week I explored how faculty should review student evaluations.  This week, I offer students some insight as to how to maximize the value of evaluations.

Let’s start with what not to do:

Don’t be a hater:  If you hate everything about the class and you write about how everything in the course sucked — starting with the professor and ending with the markers on the greaseboard — then your evaluation will be dismissed entirely, unless some evil associate dean uses it as cannon fodder.  If your evaluation reads like this….

….then rest assured, you are probably working through something emotionally, not feeling too confident about your grade, and suffering from low self esteem. Also, maybe you ought to read this.

Remember, despite popular opinion, professors are human despite their sometimes-ghastly appearance. They aren’t some caricature arch-nemesis.  And keep in mind that if the person isn’t tenure track, you may have just been used as a tool by an associate dean to cost someone a job.

On the other hand, if your comment is utterly scathing, it might be read and greatly amuse the faculty.

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Don’t speak in generalities: Let’s suppose you think that the professor was not prepared in class.  You might write, “professor was not prepared.”  But that doesn’t carry much weight, especially if your class was quiet during questioning by the professor.  If you truly think the professor unprepared, explain in the evaluation how you know.  Did the professor stare at the book too long?  Was there dust on his copy of the casebook?  Did he or she get the facts of the case wrong?

Perhaps the professor was rude in class.  Did he call you stupid?

Details are important here.   Without them, it’s impossible to determine whether the professor called you stupid OR you just felt stupid and projected that judgment onto the professor.  If you heard the professor say “that’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard” or something similar, put it down in the evaluation.  Here, quotations help.

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Was the professor arrogant?  How do you know?  If he or she self-cited frequently that may be one way to tell.  If the professor acted as if every student insight was obvious, that might be another sign.  But quotations and specifics win the day here, too.

If you have specific recommendations, list them.  If Assignment 2 on the syllabus was incomprehensible, that will serve the professor better than a broad statement that the “reading sucked.”  If you explain in the evaluation what was problematic with the reading (while demonstrating that you read it), it will go a long way.

If a professor is rude in class, discuss with your classmates about collectively ensuring that everyone lists that in the evaluation.

Don’t just fill in the bubbles:  Professors recognize that the questions on the evaluation don’t give a lot of information absent comments.  Most of the time students sweep down the column (giving the same score for every category).  That doesn’t help with any useful data.   Meaningful comments provide the meat to the skeleton that are the numbers.  If the questions in the evaluations are troublesome, say so in the comments.  You can help improve the evaluation process.

Make sure that your classmates fill in their evaluations: As I mentioned last week, often the response rate for evaluations is very low.

By now you’re getting a picture of how evaluations become more meaningful.  They are meaningful when you are able to describe in greater detail (and rationally) how the course went.

What works even better sometimes, however, is approaching the professor.  If the professor is untenured, or conscientious, he or she will take to heart your concerns.  Of course, you’ll have to gauge whether you have that type of professor, or whether you have the “I’ve taught this way for six millennia and I’m not about to change” type of professor.  Don’t assume this.  I’ve approached many a professor to discuss their teaching methods.  When rebuked, it made writing a scathing, detailed evaluation all the more sweet.

Next, let’s talk about some of the common misperceptions about evaluations:

Myth #1: If the professor is tenured, evaluations don’t matter. Whether or not the evaluation of tenured professors matters is entirely up to the school’s associate dean.  In many cases, conscientious associate deans will remove bad teachers from required courses, freeing the students to avoid taking the bad teacher.  In other instances, the associate dean may counsel the bad teacher about how to improve his or her teaching.

You may run into an associate dean that I like to call Associate Dean Ostrich.  This type will bury his head in the sand and avoid issues.  He might even blame the students.  If you have one of those, go directly to the Dean.

Myth #2: They are not anonymous. I suppose if you made a death threat you’d be found out quickly, but apart from that, the school has no incentive to out you.  This is the one chance most schools give for student feedback on professors.

The bigger question is whether they should be anonymous.  I realize the irony of an anonymous blogger stating this.

Myth #3: Professors don’t care. Some professors put a lot of time and thought into their teaching.  We’ll call these people untenured. Just kidding.  Even tenured professors, realizing they have a duty to those they are teaching, often work long and hard to do their best.

The goal of evaluations isn’t to make the professor happy.  It is to improve the experience of people who follow in your footsteps.

LawProfBlawg is an anonymous professor at a top 100 law school. You can see more of his musings here and on Twitter (@lawprofblawg). Email him at lawprofblawg@gmail.com.

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