CourseRank

CourseRank is the planning tool that gives students unprecedented access to information about their classes, their professors and, most importantly, their options while at Stanford. It aims at streamlining the process of choosing the right courses for each student, thus making it easier for all students to take advantage of the diverse opportunities Stanford presents.

History

This web application began as a sophomore project, developed by Benjamin Bercovitz, Filip Kaliszan, and Henry Liou for their software design class in Spring 2007. The resulting application addressed the need they saw for resources to guide class selection. They noted that, while the administration had taken the initiative to gather feedback about every course offered, this information was not yet widely available for the benefit of the student population. As a result, students based their schedules on word-of-mouth and the brief course descriptions found in the Bulletin, rather than more comprehensive assessments. In Autumn 2007, the CourseRank team was invited to join Stanford InfoLab, and they gained access to the official ratings.

Features

CourseRank's features set it apart from traditional advice forums. Students can anonymously rank courses they've taken, add comments, and rank the accuracy of each others' comments. They can also shop for classes, get personalized recommendations, and organize their classes into a quarterly schedule or devise a four year plan.

Beyond their initial goal to create a resource for students, CourseRank also functions as a feedback tool for faculty and administrators, ensuring that information is as accurate as possible. Faculty can also modify or add comments to the course description page and see how their class compares to other classes. The CourseRank team is currently working with Prof. Hector Garcia-Molina to innovate and improve on this new resource for Stanford's academic community.