Getting easy A’s may seem like every student’s dream. A 3-year-old Internet service capturing the attention of college students across the nation now offers that hope.

Pick-A-Prof, a Web site featuring professor evaluations, a schedule planner, course information and other tools, is already being used by more than 50 public universities. The Web site also boasts an unconventional feature — a grading history breakdown for each professor at the university.

Because public universities are required by law to release their professors’ grading histories, Pick-A-Prof just uploads the data. But with private institutions like Northwestern, learning how many Bs were handed out in Intro to Sociology becomes more complicated.

While faculty members could decide individually to release their grading histories, the information usually remains confidential at NU, said Stephen Fisher, associate provost for undergraduate education.

Fisher said he doesn’t see the value in adding to NU’s CTECs. It’s not necessary to make a professor’s grading history public, he said, because the CTEC program already provides students, faculty and administration with reliable information for assessing instruction.

“(Grading histories) reflect the short-sighted view from students that grades are the only thing that matter in a course,” Fisher said.

There are currently no plans to alter NU’s CTEC methods, Fisher said. Before changing the policy, faculty from each school would need to be consulted, he said.

If NU did decide to register for Pick-A-Prof’s basic services, it would cost the university about $7,000, a figure based on student population, said Karen Bragg, Pick-A-Prof director of university relations.

Bragg said the Austin, Texas-based company’s services are being used on a trial basis by Southern Methodist University in Dallas, a private institution. Bragg said the results have encouraged the company to expand its services to other private schools.

The University of Illinois at Chicago is one of the many public schools thinking about subscribing to Pick-A-Prof. About 2,000 UIC students are currently registered as part of the trial period and receive free, basic services, said UIC student government president Angel Alvarez.

Alvarez said he doesn’t think releasing a professor’s grading history will change any existing patterns in the courses students choose to take. Posting a professor’s grading record in the public forum only reinforces an existing network of information that students regularly share about their courses, he said.

“It’s not a secret … this information is already out there,” Alvarez said.

He said he hopes to work with Pick-A-Prof to customize some features. One feature, which would allow professors to design their own evaluation forms, will benefit the professors even more than the students, he said.

At NU, Associated Student Government Academic Vice President Tamara Kagel said ASG doesn’t see any need to join with UIC and change the university’s CTECs.

Other NU students have had mixed reactions to the service.

Ben Horwitz, a Communication junior, said he thinks students would benefit from having their professors’ grading history.

“It is something I think would be helpful, regardless of whether the university would want to do it,” Horwitz said.

But Weinberg freshman Srinivasula Muttana said the information would be useless for his chemistry and calculus classes.

“(Those classes) aren’t very professor-subjective,” he said. “The grading isn’t as important as the teaching caliber.”