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College Classes - How to find Quality Instruction

With the average college class costing anywhere between $185 at community colleges to $900 at some universities, you've got to be sure you get your money's worth. You are purchasing a service, so get the best quality you can.

We do several things to ensure that our kids find instructors who have a passion for what they are teaching and have the ability to communicate well with their students.

1) Ask around Our kids ask other students who the best instructors are.

2) Ask the Dean Years ago our eldest son had an English instructor who regularly had over 60 percent of the students in her class drop it. Steve talked to the department chair and was told that, "English 101 is a very difficult class." He was shocked at the response. The department chair was not concerned about an employee who regularly lost the majority of her students. We went to the Dean of Instruction and registered a complaint and asked for a list of teachers who retained the most students. We didn't want an easy teacher, we wanted one who cared about students enough to help them succeed. That list helped our son find a great instructor.

3) Use the Web Go to www.RateMyProfessors.com. This is a free Web site where students can rate their professors teaching ability . . . and looks. There are more than 700,000 professors from 6000 schools represented on this site. We've found this to be a pretty accurate portrayal of a teacher's ability to build rapport and communicated with students.

For younger students, check out www.RateMyTeachers.com for K-12. This is the same type of Web site as RateMyProfessor.

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