When I sat down to write this column, I wasn’t sure how to determine who my “best professor” was. Between my two majors, minor and GECs, I have had so many different professors that it is kind of like deciding which is the better team, the Boston Red Sox or Boston Celtics.

Maybe the best professors are simply the best at holding students’ attention. There was Justin Elardo, the economics professor whose lectures could pass for quality stand-up but manage to retain their educational value. Or Matt Cariello, the English professor whose classes play out like really good round table discussions – one of the only times I’ve seen every student actually want to participate.

Then again, what about professors who have helped me personally? There was anthropology professor Deborah Guatelli-Steinberg, who was available to help me on a paper even after I had already taken her class. And Mike McCluskey, the journalism professor who read my columns and suggested writers around the country I might enjoy.

Availability outside the classroom is another major quality of any great professor. I have had professors who listed office hours on the syllabus and kept the door shut at other times, but I have also had professors whose office hours were practically all week.

A quick, very scientific search of RateMyProfessors.com shows Ohio State boasts a great many professors who have received a perfect rating, and interestingly enough, most of these have a higher than average difficulty rating as well. Of course, some also have difficulty ratings of two out of five, but then again, even more have a five out of five. The lowest I saw was a two-point-two.

This is interesting because two of my friends told me the best professors are not ambiguous, and do not make their subject matter ambiguous. The ability to clearly communicate the material is central to the students’ understanding of it, and I think this is what they mean by not being ambiguous.

In the world of sports, greatness is mostly subjective. Often, truly great athletes have many detractors who will attack the individual’s character such as that of Kobe Bryant; grace under pressure such as that of Alex Rodriguez or work ethic such as that of Randy Moss. Most of the athletes universally liked are nice guys but mediocre players, such as Grant Hill. This might hold for professors as well, because none of my friends’ or my favorite professors received perfect scores on RateMyProfessor.com.

So maybe talking about a “best professor” doesn’t do much good because there is no universal answer. Still, one can’t go wrong with a teacher who is available to students, enthusiastic about the material and unafraid to throw a little humor in now and then.

Jason Palmer is the opinion editor of The Lantern. He can be reached at [email protected].