Carney Curve

Boston College course evaluations · Fall 2021 through Spring 2026, ranked class by class

How this list is ordered

Positions account for how many records stand behind each number, so one perfect review does not outrank a semester of them. Every score shown is the real average — only the ordering is adjusted.

Class record · ENGL · MCAS

ENGL 4578

Poetry: Second Workshop · 2 instructors on record · 2 sections

How the curve score is built
99Teaching100 raw · 100th percentile of BC classes
±0Easiness adjustmentworkload not reported — takes nothing off the score
99Curve scorethe teaching curve — nothing added or taken off

Boston College's ratings are bunched at the top — the median instructor averages about 88 out of 100 on the raw scale, and 44% of them clear 90 — so a raw score cannot separate anybody. Every figure here is ranked against BC classes and that rank is re-expressed out of 100, which is what turns a raw 88 — the middle of the university — into a figure that says where somebody actually stands. On this scale 77 is the median, 84 the top quarter and 91 the top tenth. Workload is then an adjustment on top of that, worth nothing at all for an ordinary one. Boston College's workload question was not reported in these records, so easiness could not be worked out. That is missing data, not a heavy class — and it takes nothing off the score.

What the course score is made of
100BC evaluations2 records · weight ×1.0 · Spring 2026
—Student reviewsno reviews — does not contribute
—RateMyProfessorsno ratings — does not contribute

The class itself, averaged across everyone who taught it — who taught it is the board below.

How is this worked out?

That is what a student picking a section is actually choosing between: the board carries each instructor's own score for this class, and the score above is the class averaged across all of them.

What the challenge rank is made of
—BC — “Intellectually Challenging”2 records — does not contribute

Not reported in these records — which is missing data, not an easy class.

How is this worked out?

Boston College's “intellectually challenging” question was not reported in these records, so there is nothing to show. That is missing data, not an easy class.

What the workload rank is made of
—BC — “Workload”2 records — does not contribute

Not reported in these records — which is missing data, not a light class.

How is this worked out?

Boston College's workload question was not reported in these records, so there is nothing to show. That is missing data, not a light class.

TBD

The board

2 instructors · ranked on this class onlyCompare the top 2

Scores are real averages. The order also accounts for how many records back each one — the count is under every score — so one perfect review does not outrank a semester of them.

RankInstructorCurveEasinessChallengeRMP overall
1Allison AdairProfessor of the Practice · English Provisional99100 raw · 1 record——805 ratings · all classes
—Suzanne MatsonProfessor · English Provisional—— raw · 1 record——564 ratings · all classes

2 of 2 rows are marked provisional: fewer than 3 records stand behind the number. That is thin evidence, not a bad instructor — the record count is in every row. The RateMyProfessors column is an instructor's overall figure across everything they teach, not a figure about this class. Neither workload nor challenge was reported in any record for this class, so both columns are dashes — that is missing data, not a zero.

How this board is built and ordered

Positions account for how many records stand behind each number, so one perfect review does not outrank a semester of them. Every score shown is the real average — only the ordering is adjusted. The comparison here is the class itself: a thin record is read against how this class was rated overall, not against the university.

Every instructor with an evaluation record for this class is on this board — it is not a top ten, and nothing is hidden behind a “show more”. Curve is the instructor's score for THIS class only, ranked against every instructor we hold and printed back out of 100, with the raw BC average underneath it; nothing on this board is an average across the other things they teach. Easiness is an adjustment on top of it, worth up to about ±6 — BC's workload item, ranked and turned over, so a lighter section gains and a heavier one loses, while an ordinary one changes nothing — and each row prints the adjustment, signed. The board is ordered on the same figure it prints, adjusted for how many records back it. Challenge is BC's “intellectually challenging” item shown as a rank against every class we hold; students answer it positively about courses that stretched them, so it is not a measure of difficulty or grading, and it is never marked better or worse.

That site has no course dimension, so its figure is shown for information and kept out of the ranking.

The line

All 13 items · means across 2 records

Nothing reported

None of the evaluation questions were reported for these records.

Game log

2 sections · newest first
InstructorTermSecInstrCourseWork
Suzanne MatsonSpring 202601———
Allison AdairSpring 202602100100—
How to read this board

Instructors are ranked on their record in this class only, never on their average across everything they teach. Scores are out of 100 — Boston College's 1–5 agreement scale, ×20, the way these numbers were printed for years. Workload is BC's own five-band figure, not a number of hours, and is shown as a rank. A dash means the question was not reported, and is never a zero.