Soon, college students could not only be rating their professors, but their dorms and dining areas as well.

This month, mtvU purchased RateMyProfessors.com, the popular Web site used by more than 10 million college students each year and about 150,000 new visitors every day.

Since its creation, students have rated about 3,200 University Park professors through the Web site.

The site enables college students to grade their instructors and professors.

It also allows users to read others' ratings in categories such as easiness, clarity, helpfulness and even "hotness."

While the companies are already working together, it will take at least another month before the two merge completely.

MtvU hopes to expand RateMyProfessors.com to include ratings on other aspects of campus life.

"We are looking at a number of possibilities and I think what we want to do is have other ratings that could be useful to college students such as best dorm and best places to eat on campus," Stephen Friedman, general manager of mtvU, said.

MtvU doesn't plan on completely changing RateMyProfessors.com, though.

"We want to make it more accessible and promote it in a much bigger way through mtvU.com and our relationship with 500 college newspaper sites," Friedman said.

Patrick Nagle, CEO of RateMyProfessors.com, will continue working with mtvU after the acquisition takes place.

"We are joining the mtvU family so we are going to work hand-in-hand with them, ultimately making RateMyProfessors.com bigger and better," Nagle said.

The success of RateMyProfessors.com comes mainly from the power of its simplicity. Students want to find the best professors for their classes, Friedman said.

"They're a dominant brand in college ratings and I think there are other opportunities to expand the site and we're exploring those now," Friedman said.

Some Penn State students said they use the site to look up and rate their professors.

"Usually after the first couple of lectures, I look it up and see what people think," Darryl Wende (junior-biology) said.

Zach Long (senior-nuclear
engineering) said he only rates professors that he doesn't like.

"If I had a teacher I didn't like [I would rate him], but if I had a teacher I liked I wouldn't bother with it," he said.

MtvU decided to purchase the site because the company had heard a lot about the Web site through students.

Furthermore, it made sense to add a site 100 percent generated by college students to mtvU's host of programming specifically aimed at connecting with the age group, Friedman said. "Sometimes, people get nervous when an acquisition occurs, but the Web site is still going to be RateMyProfessors.com and will only change for the better," Nagle said.