With course registration upon us, staffers Charlotte Slovin, Charlie Bonkowsky, and Elizabeth Walker take a look at all the options…

The night before course registration for the Spring 2022 semester begins, not one, not two, but three new sites claiming to be CULPA have appeared on the internet.

The original site, culpa.info, has been down for months with no return in sight. 

Rivalries between Columbia-specific professor/course review sites are not a new topic, but CULPA has always been the prevailing go-to site for most students. Competing sites like the SEAS Oracle have not been used since the 2000s. However, since the original CULPA went seemingly defunct, multiple student-run culpa equivalents have also popped up. These sites are mainly archived versions of culpa.info before the site went down earlier this year. That said, some offer slightly different services or present their data in slightly different ways. So which site is best to use this registration season?

The site culpa.io is an open-source site featuring reviews and reviewing abilities for much more than just professors and courses. This site offers space to review CUIT services, dining halls, dorms, public safety, and much more. It should be noted that this site only has reviews dating back to July 27, 2021.

Another site, culpa.app, allegedly run by a former culpa.info admin from years past and claiming to be the authentic CULPA site, has also appeared recently. This site has also officially been promoted by SGA in their most recent newsletter to the Barnard student body. When compared to the archived CULPA site culpaarchive.com, culpa.app provides longer reviews than the archive site. This brings into question why culpaarchive.com has shorter reviews and, if a saved version of the old site, how culpa.app has extended reviews. The culpaarchive.com site has all reviews up to August 8, 2021.

Ann Douglas also has these differences, e.g.:

There are other sites including culpameter.com that provide graphics and shorter blurbs along with professor reviews. However, this site is missing a substantial number of older reviews.

So, is there a real CULPA anymore? Who do we turn to? At this point, it’s up to you to decide what site and format work best for your search. All that said, there is a slight chance that staging.culpa.info (although currently not functional) might be a true reboot of the original culpa.info, as their graphics and functions are a direct match to those anticipated by past CULPA admin announcements.

No matter what site you choose, between all these sites and other tips to successfully research courses and professors before course registration this week, you are sure to find detailed reports from past students on their personal experiences and advice. 

Best of luck with course registration!

Professor and course reviews via culpa.app and culpaarchive.com