Colleges with the Most Boring Professors

We’ve all been there: Sitting in a lecture hall, trying to keep our eyes from drooping, while a professor drones on like a white noise machine. While some professors have the gift of gab, others have mastered the art of turning any subject into a sleep aid.

At Solitaired, we know the struggle of staying engaged when a professor’s lecture sounds more like a lullaby than a lesson. We know, as a matter of fact, that some of you play a game of Pyramid or Klondike during class. That’s why we decided to dig into the data behind classroom boredom. We analyzed 26 million student reviews on RateMyProfessors.com, hunting for mentions of “boring,” “mundane,” and other snooze-worthy keywords to rank colleges where lectures test student willpower the most.

Whether you’re a current student, or an alum cringing at flashbacks to Econ 101, read on to see if your school made the list . . . and how to survive if it did.

Key Takeaways

• Fordham, Georgetown, and James Madison are the three most boring schools.
• BYU-Idaho, Weber State, and Utah Valley are the three least boring.
• Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New York have the highest average percentage of boring reviews.
• Arizona, Idaho, and New Mexico have the lowest average percentage of boring reviews.
• Schools in the Northeast are generally more boring than the rest of the country.

The Most Boring Colleges

Per our analysis, Fordham University—a Catholic university in New York City with around 16,000 students—is the most boring college in the country. Nearly 10% of the university’s reviews feature one of our “boring” keywords, and the school holds a whopping 0.83 percentage point advantage over second-place Georgetown University, a fellow Catholic school.

Less than two hours from Georgetown is third place James Madison University, and another nearby school also made the top 10 (Baltimore-area Towson University ranked #6).

Just two schools west of the Mississippi made the top 10: Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles (and a third Catholic school at the top of the rankings) is 7th while Northern Iowa University rounds out the top 10 at 10th.

Interestingly, while nine of the top 10 colleges compete athletically in NCAA’s Division I (University of Wisconsin-La Crosse is a Division III school), only one plays in the Football Bowl Subdivision—the NCAA’s premier level for football—James Madison, while the rest compete a rung down the ladder in the Football Championship Subdivision.

The Least Boring Colleges

The flipside of the rankings—the least boring schools—is also dotted with religious affiliations; however, they’re a bit different than the Catholic makeup from the most boring list.

At the top is Brigham Young University-Idaho, which is a Mormon-affiliated college, while the flagship Mormon school, Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, is 7th. Additionally, Weber State University and Utah Valley University, both located in Mormon-heavy Utah, rank 2nd and 3rd, respectively.

In total, Utah and Idaho combine to make up 5 of the top 10 least boring schools. Texas also boasts a pair of universities to crack the top of the least boring list: The University of Houston ranks 4th, while University of Texas-Rio Grande Valley is 6th.

Additionally, and conversely with the most boring top 10, just two of the least boring are east of the Mississippi: Indiana University-Indianapolis and Florida Gulf Coast University.

The States with the Most Boring Colleges

When combining reviews by state, there’s an interesting trend.

The northeast cluster of Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New York have the highest average percentage of boring reviews. Schools in those states feature reviews with boring keywords near or above a 6% clip. Neighboring New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania round out the top six states with the most boring reviews, while nearby New Hampshire is 7th.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, western states Arizona, Idaho, and New Mexico have the lowest average percentage of boring reviews. Schools in those three states average fewer than 4% of reviews with boring keywords. To find the state with the least boring reviews east of the Mississippi, we have to go to Florida, but the Sunshine State ranks just 12th overall—11 states west of the Mississippi top Florida with lower boring review percentages.

So, at least grouping the data by state sparks a clear trend: Western states generally feature fewer boring professors than schools in the northeastern part of the country.

Boring Colleges: Ranked by Conference

Finally, we also sectored schools by several select athletic conferences. Here’s the high-level takeaways:

• Virginia and Miami rank as the two most boring schools in the ACC while Stanford is the least.
• South Carolina and Vanderbilt are the two most boring schools in the SEC while Mississippi is the least
• The Big Ten’s two most boring schools are Wisconsin and Penn State while Northwestern is the least.
• In the Ivy League, Cornell and Brown are the two most boring colleges while Princeton ranks as the least.
• The AAC is led in boring reviews by Tulane and Temple while Wichita State is the least.

Conclusion

Let’s face it—some lectures feel like watching paint dry, just with more equations. You walk into the classroom with good intentions, ready to absorb knowledge, but within 15 minutes you realize that you’re trapped in a monotone monologue that seems to defy the laws of time and physics.

At Solitaired, we believe in keeping your mind sharp, even when a professor might be putting you to sleep. Whether you need a mental refresher between classes or a quick break from uninspiring coursework, we’ve got classic games like Mahjong, Spider Solitaire, and Yahtzee to keep you engaged. No note taking required.

Methodology

In December 2024, we analyzed 26 million student reviews on RateMyProfessors.com. We sifted through these reviews looking for specific keywords related to boredom: bored, boring, bore, monotonous, monotony, stagnant, tedious, repetitive, dull, mundane, uninspiring, uninspired, no excitement, not exciting, disengaging, disengaged, and uninteresting. Reviews that had one or more of those keywords in them were categorized as "boring" reviews.

To account for differences in total reviews between schools, we calculated the percentage of boring reviews by dividing the number of boring reviews by the total reviews for each school. For the most and least boring rankings, only schools with 25,000 or more total reviews were counted. Schools with 1,000 or more reviews were included in the state averages. For ranking schools within athletic conferences, no minimum was set.