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 · HIST · MCAS

HIST 1731

Creative Women: Society and Culture During the Renaissance · 1 instructor on record · 1 section

How the curve score is built
79Teaching89 raw · 59th percentile of BC classes
−2Easiness adjustmenteasiness 69 · 60 raw workload · lighter than 22% of BC classes
77Curve scorethe teaching curve −2 for the workload · at most ±6 either way

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. Lighter work than 22% of BC classes.

What the course score is made of
89BC evaluations1 record · weight ×1.0 · Fall 2025
—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
62ndMore challenging than 62% of BC classesranked against every one we hold
92BC — “Intellectually Challenging”1 record · raw score out of 100

Boston College's own “intellectually challenging” question. It is not a measure of difficulty, grading or workload.

How is this worked out?

Boston College's own “intellectually challenging” question for this class only — students answer it positively about courses that stretched them, so it measures intellectual challenge and NOT grading, workload or quality. Almost every BC class scores high on it, which is why it is shown as a rank rather than a score.

What the workload rank is made of
78thMore work than 78% of BC classesranked against every one we hold
60BC — “Workload”1 record · raw score out of 100

One of Boston College's five workload bands, not a number of hours. Higher means more work, not worse.

How is this worked out?

Boston College reports workload for this class only as one of five bands, not as a number of hours, and it does not publish what the bands mean — so this site will not translate it into hours. Higher means more work, which is not the same as worse.

This is an Enduring Question course and is open to FRESHMEN only. You must take both ARTH1715 and HIST1731. How do women shape culture and society? In 1971, Linda Nochlin posed the trailblazing question, "Why are there no great women artists?" A few years later, in 1976, medievalist Joan Kelly similarly inquired, "Did women have a Renaissance?" Prior to that time, women scarcely appeared in the pages of history and art history books. Since then, scholars have unearthed abundant evidence of women's productivity beyond the domestic sphere. These paired courses examine how women made significant contributions in political, intellectual, creative, and artisanal work during the long Renaissance (1400-1650), as well as explore connections with creative women in our own time.

The only instructor on record

1 section · nobody else has taught itFull record
InstructorCurveEasinessChallengeRMP overall
Sarah RossHistory Provisional8394 raw · 1 record68−2 to the score62nd6611 ratings · all classes

There is no ranking to read here: Sarah Ross is the only instructor with evaluation records for HIST 1731, so the number is a record, not a position. It rests on 1 record, which is thin — read it as provisional. The RateMyProfessors figure is their overall score across everything they teach, not their score in this class.

Also taught by Sarah Ross

6 other classes
ClassInstructorsCourse score
HIST 1001Europe in the World 12077 records72
HIST 1041World of Early Modern Europe23 records82
HIST 4234Machiavelli Unmasked13 records96
HIST 2210The Secrets of Venice, from Global Player to Tourist Trap12 records85
HIST 4122Odysseys in the Western and Islamic Traditions22 records100
HIST 4230The Age of the Renaissance12 records88

Other HIST classes

All of them
ClassInstructorsCourse score
HIST 1001Europe in the World 12077 records72
HIST 1002Europe in the World II1541 records75
HIST 1113The African Diaspora and the World I1239 records76
HIST 1012Atlantic Worlds II: Race, Religion, and the Struggle for Democracy1134 records75
HIST 1093Modern History I930 records79
HIST 1094Modern History II824 records81

The line

All 13 items · means across 1 record
Instructor4
Course3
Feedback3
Workload & Challengenot ratings

Bars are ranks, not raw scores. Nothing here is graded good or bad.

What each item asks
Explains Clearly
The instructor was effective at creating an understanding of difficult subject matter.
Available
The instructor was available for help outside of class.
Motivating
The instructor motivated me to do my best work.
Sparks Interest
The course stimulated my interest in the subject matter.
Organized
The course was well organized.
Clear Goals
The learning objectives for the course were clear.
Useful Later
What I learned is applicable beyond this course.
Assignments
Assignments and exams contributed to my learning.
Fast Feedback
I received feedback on my work in a timely manner.
Useful Feedback
The feedback I received on my work was meaningful.
Workload
How much work the course took outside class, on Boston College's five-band scale — the band boundaries are not published, so this is not a number of hours.
Challenge
The course was intellectually challenging.
Attendance
Attending class was necessary to do well in this course.
Why these numbers are curved

Both the number and the bar are the rank against every comparable record we hold, printed back out of 100. BC's questions all have a median around 4.5, so on the raw scale every cell here would read in the high eighties and every bar would be nearly full — thirteen numbers that tell you nothing. Each cell prints its raw BC figure and its percentile underneath, so nothing is hidden by the transform. Every bar is one ink colour — nothing here is graded green or red. The hatched bars are not ratings at all: a higher number on either describes a different course, not a better one.

Game log

1 section · newest first
InstructorTermSecInstrCourseWork
Sarah RossFall 202501948960
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.