‘Hot’ professor of the week: Professor Dave Winterich
A professor who may or may not have written all of his own ratings on ‘Rate My Professor’
This week, we take another look at a Penn State professor who was granted the chili pepper from RateMyProfessors.com.
Professor Winterich is a Marketing instructor and has been at Penn State for about five years now. He teaches Marketing 301, an introductory class where he said most students would know him from and also where most of his negative ratings probably come from. He also teaches Marketing 330: Consumer Behavior and 445: Global Marketing.
Here’s the inside scoop on Professor Winterich.
Disclaimer: He said he didn’t want to use his official Penn State picture because he looks too hungover in it. But, weren’t we all? About this one he said, “Had to crop my daughter out… Take it or leave it.”
First of all, his response after being contacted by The Tab about his “hotness” rating is quite intriguing.
It read: “It should be noted that I am not by any stretch of the imagination (drumroll please…) hot. I’m in marketing. Good marketers understand what is being said about their brand and where it is being said. Great marketers know how to influence what is being said. I’ll leave it up to you to decide which type of marketer I am…”
Mysterious. We like that. But don’t get your hopes up too soon because we found out he is indeed married with children. All the good ones are taken, am I right?
Anyway, let’s move on.
Do you read your ratings on ‘Rate My Professors’? What did you mean by saying you’re a good marketer – did you write your own ratings?
Yes and no. I understand where my consumers are talking. Good or bad, I can’t stop it. But, I do understand where it’s happening. I understand some students like me enough to rate me positively. But, I won’t get into my tricks, or how I influence my students to do that. Students who like me are motivated to rate me well on ‘Rate My Professors’.
Did you know about your ‘chili pepper’ rating prior to talking to us?
Yes. There’s other places students talk – like other social media places. I see all of it. Obviously I don’t 24-hour monitor these things, but I like to know what students are saying so I can be better at doing my job. Maybe if I was a psychology professor it wouldn’t matter, but marketing is about word of mouth so I have to understand that stuff.
How do you feel knowing your students have rated you as ‘hot’?
Haha, I could care less. It just reminds my wife from time to time how lucky she is. ‘Rate My Professors’ has no real bearing – it’s more for fun. When you’re rating positively it’s great, but if you take the negatives too seriously it may hurt your feelings. I don’t let that stuff affect me.
Do you think the chili pepper is a good feature on the site?
It’s a website for students – you can communicate however the hell you want. Although it may be dangerous when students are selecting classes because of ‘Rate My Professors.’ But at the end of the day, who cares.
Do you think students take classes based on the hotness of professors?
I mean I can’t speak for all students. But I think the chili pepper has no bearing on whether a student takes a class. At least I hope it doesn’t. The only thing chili pepper does is put a positive light on something. It’s there for a reason. It doesn’t do much harm.
We have to ask – since you’re rating as ‘hot,’ have students ever tried hitting on you?
*After laughing for a while* No. I’m old- I’m an old man. And it’s pretty professional in my classroom. I 100% can honestly say it’s not a problem.