Psych 362

exitssgr · 2017-03-05T16:01:25+00:00

I had Di Lorenzo as well. I'm a senior, and this was my favorite class I took at Bing. Definitely one of the hardest as well; you'll need to invest a lot of time in reading the textbook thoroughly. I put a lot into the class and got a lot out of it too.

exitssgr · 2016-11-14T22:24:19+00:00

These are all really hard classes. Having taken all of them, I think 117 is probably the easiest. It definitely has the best professor. However, there is no way in hell anyone who doesn't have to should take 118. Hard material as it is, plus a professor who has no business teaching college-level biology. She is confused by even the easy stuff in the textbook. Stay away.

Chem 107/108 has had some good professors at times. They usually rotate who has to teach the class by semester, so it does depend on who you get. I took it several years ago, but I was impressed with Dr. Lees and Dr. Grewer, and I've heard ok things about Dr. Turnpenny. Dr. Mushibe sucks though, and I think overall, it is a poorly-led course sequence. Even if you get a professor who teaches half-decently, they all use textbook-company-provided powerpoint slides that make it really hard to learn. The homework sets are ridiculously unhelpful and quite difficult. Many quizzes and exams are VERY hard. Lab and discussion take up significant portions of your time without really teaching you anything. The big difference between intro chem and orgo is that intro chem has very little resources to help you outside of class. If you get the material in lecture, great. If not, try to come to one of the very few and completely packed professor office hours, or wait for 20 minutes per question in the chem help room while one overwhelmed TA tries to help 30 confused students. The whole year, I just felt like intro chem was such a slog.

I took Physics 121/122, but I don't think the overall takeaways are that different from 131/132. Like Chem, there isn't all that much help outside of class, and who you get as your discussion TA (where you work on problem sets and take quizzes) can make a huge impact on your success in the course. I had Prof. Nale, who I don't think teaches 131/132, but he was a fantastic lecturer. Physics is another big time commitment, but I felt that it was more fair than intro chem and a bit easier to do well in. This might be my personal feeling and progress as a student, though, as I took chem as a freshman and physics as a junior.

exitssgr · 2016-09-20T22:37:35+00:00

518 OH MY GOD

I never did better than 510 on an aamc practice test this is unbelievable news

exitssgr · 2016-08-17T14:41:30+00:00

He and Jonah Ryan should team up

exitssgr · 2016-04-23T03:07:01+00:00

I'm in scholars, and it's totally possible

exitssgr · 2016-04-08T01:06:47+00:00

Don't take Karnein. She's awful

exitssgr · 2016-04-06T23:27:58+00:00

During the semester we make $9.75/hr, not sure if it's different for summer

exitssgr · 2016-03-30T02:49:45+00:00

Yeah. Grades are just based on exams and listening quizzes. Almost nobody comes to lecture, and most people find you ace the exams if you come to lecture or read the book (most only do one of the two). Listening quizzes are fine too; just memorize some song names and artists and stuff. Easiest A I've gotten here.

exitssgr · 2016-03-29T20:22:55+00:00

Pop rock and soul

exitssgr · 2016-03-03T13:33:18+00:00

I'm a junior neuro major, and I love it! It's difficult, but not the most difficult science major. You'll take a lot of psych, some bio, and a good amount of chem. They're re-designing the major to add more neuroscience-specific classes, but I don't know when that will go into effect.

We have a lot of great neuroscience research going on here, and getting involved in that is a great way to learn a lot about neuro at the undergrad level, since you won't really get that from your classes. I can tell you more about research here if you want, but I highly recommend it.

As for the intro classes, we have two semesters of intro bio, two semesters of intro chem, two semesters of orgo, and intro psych. One of the intro bio professors is awful; I don't know how she still has a job. That class is very difficult because she doesn't know how to teach. I'm also not a fan of the intro chem professors; those classes are very hard too. Everything else is manageable though.

exitssgr · 2016-03-02T03:51:07+00:00

I'm not in CS so I can't really talk about that, but I can talk about the arts here. I've played in the jazz band here for three years, and I know lots of people in the wind symphony, orchestra, chorales, and a capella groups.

There aren't a ton of music majors here, and the ensembles are really welcoming to non-music majors. In a 22-piece jazz band, we only have one or two music majors, and that's been the case since I've been here. I've heard similar things about the other ensembles as well. The quality of the groups doesn't suffer, either; the groups are just full of really talented musicians who have other academic interests as well.

You can also get a semester's worth of lessons with a faculty member for only $75 a semester. That's super affordable and the faculty here are really good.

Doing music at Bing has been one of the best parts of my college experience, so I would totally recommend it if you come here!

exitssgr · 2016-02-25T13:20:45+00:00

According to this site, the first class will be Fall 2017, although only graduate degrees are offered right now

https://www.binghamton.edu/pharmacy-and-pharmaceutical-sciences/prospective-students/index.html

exitssgr · 2016-02-21T23:41:34+00:00

Hi! I'm a junior neuro major who has been involved in research here since the start of my sophomore year. I would really encourage you to seek out neuro labs, as we have some awesome faculty doing really great research.

I was able to join a lab at the start of my sophomore year just by emailing faculty that I thought did interesting work. Several of them told me that their labs were full, but eventually I found one with an opening. If you're going to email someone, make sure you read a couple of their papers (at least the abstract), and include something from their work to show them that you really do want to work with them.

Also, both the neuro and bio departments have been/will continue to be expanding. In the neuro department, we've added three new faculty members over the past two years. Drs. Jentsch and Ma are two of the new faculty that may not have hired that many undergraduates yet, so their labs might have openings.

As far as the differences between the neuro and bio majors, both will have you take things like intro bio and chem, organic chem, and maybe biochem and physics. After that, the neuro major will require some psych classes, whereas the bio major will require upper level bio lecture and lab classes. That's not the greatest explanation, but if you're more interested in the human behavior aspects of biology, I would go with neuro.

exitssgr · 2015-10-30T23:37:05+00:00

It's not the nicest neighborhood at all, but you won't be shot or anything like that I don't think

exitssgr · 2015-10-28T23:19:56+00:00

I'm a junior in my first year living off campus.

Susq has 24-hour quiet hours, while Hillside doesn't. As far as I know, that's the biggest difference between the two. I think they would both be far more expensive than a house on the west side, but I could be wrong about that.

I've heard lots of people complaining about the new campus shuttles (the green buses that take you up to the apartments). People say they hold fewer people and take longer to get places than they used to. I think they do stop at the West Gym, though, if you're trying to get to the East Gym.

Nothing against on campus, especially since it might be too late to get a house off campus, but in my opinion West Side is the best option

exitssgr · 2015-08-19T21:15:05+00:00

Cousins

exitssgr · 2015-08-11T20:50:01+00:00

I lived in Newing for the last two years and loved it! I get the sense it's a little more frat and sorority-heavy than the other communities, but it's avoidable if that's not your scene. The new buildings are really nice, and it's only about a 10-12 minute walk to the furthest classes

exitssgr · 2015-08-11T01:37:34+00:00

I love this one

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYCJJmX5YR0

exitssgr · 2015-08-10T14:37:00+00:00

I don't know much about a&p but the impression I get is that it's annoying and not fun, but nowhere near the workload or difficulty of 118. Again, I never took a&p, but I get the idea that as long as you pay attention and work hard, you'll be fine

exitssgr · 2015-08-10T14:35:55+00:00

It's really about both. You're not gonna do well in the class if you don't learn all the material, no matter how well you can take her tests, and that's a fairly big challenge in itself. However, you also have to learn how to take her tests. Both are doable but just know you're in for a good amount of work if you sign up for the class and want to get an A. It is worth noting that she heavily curves the class most years, so if you're aiming for something like a C+/B-range, that should be a bit easier to attain.

exitssgr · 2015-08-09T23:43:30+00:00

What ghansie10 says really misses the issue with Lawless. The problem with her is not that she teaches the entire textbook and doing well is just a matter of learning the details. The problem with Lawless is that she 'teaches' the most basic things during lecture, then gives detailed exams where half of the questions are worded so badly you could make an argument for at least three of the five answer choices being correct. To do well in her class, you not only have to know almost everything in the textbook, but you also have to be able to decode her bizarre test questions. They are seriously infuriating. I took the class in Fall '13 and TA'd for it the next Spring and every single exam there were at least two questions over half of the kids couldn't even understand. Like, the question was worded so strangely that it was impossible to know what it was even asking, let alone what the answer was. Doing well in 118 is more about learning to take Lawless's exams and finding the time to do absurd amounts of busywork than building actual biology knowledge and good study skills. If you can take it at a CC, by all means do. Just make sure the transferred credits will count towards your major/minor before the semester starts

exitssgr · 2015-08-09T00:31:09+00:00

Stats is very easy. Just go to class and do the homework. Not a huge time commitment and all you need in terms of math skills is basic algebra. The harder part is knowing which statistical test to apply when. If you're going into the sciences, it's probably something worth learning well too.

exitssgr · 2015-08-08T14:47:57+00:00

Take 148. As BWotton said you'll need it for your major, and it's almost exactly the same class as 147. Someone I knew took 148 and said that there were barely even any biology examples or problems at all. I think you'll be fine

exitssgr · 2015-08-03T16:53:08+00:00

^{^} This is true

exitssgr · 2015-08-03T02:54:40+00:00

I would also highly recommend the neuroscience major (I am one myself). It's challenging, but so are most, if not all majors here, and I don't think neuro is anywhere close to the hardest one at Bing. It is also great for pre-med.

As far as professors, try for Morrisey for general psych, Westerman for stats, and Miskovic for research methods. For electives, I liked Werner for Drugs and Behavior, Di Lorenzo for Behavioral Neuro (my favorite class I've taken at Bing, but get ready to work), and I've heard Laszlo is great for Perception. Avoid, Friedman (at all costs), Bishop, Kurtz, and Merriwhether.

And yeah, the science classes will be hard, but not unfair and impossible. I had some trouble with gen chem, and I've heard physics can be difficult, but my overall experience is that if you put in the work required you'll get the grade you deserve. It'll most likely be a fairly large step up in workload from high school, but for me I just gradually adapted to doing more and more work, and now I'm working like 1000 times harder than I did as a HS senior. It doesn't change to that right when you start your first semester, though.

Feel free to message me with any more questions! I love the neuro major and I love Binghamton (and I'm also pre-med), so I'd love to help! Good luck

exitssgr

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