Laura MacMullin

I took this Child Development class to fulfill a psychology credit required for pre-health careers, and I’m glad I did. It introduced me to psychology in a way I hadn’t considered before coming to Middlebury. Now, I’m even thinking about minoring in Psychology! This class was insightful, and I truly felt like I learned a lot. I appreciated the structure of Professor MacMullin’s class. There was very little homework, just two reflection papers and a few short projects or papers. This made the course feel manageable and helped me focus more on my STEM classes, which I was worried about since this was an upper-level psychology course I got into with my AP Psychology credit from high school. Professor MacMullin’s exams were fair—not too difficult, but not easy either. You do need to study, especially to remember specific numbers, percentages, and detailed concepts. One thing I appreciated was how she would point out during lectures which material would be on the exams, so the questions never felt like a surprise. Still, there is a lot to memorize, so I recommend starting to study a few days before the test. These are not exams you can prepare for well in just one night. Her exams also included questions based on the required readings. Before each class, we were expected to read certain pages from a textbook or an online article that connected with the day's topic. I actually enjoyed the readings, and they helped make the lectures more meaningful. She would begin each class with discussion questions that reflected the types of questions on her exams, which made the expectations very clear. The discussions were a highlight for me, as they gave students a chance to share different perspectives on topics, some of which were controversial specific to the scope of child development. Overall, this class was well organized, thoughtful, and manageable. As long as you stay engaged and put in effort, you should be okay!

I took this Child Development class to fulfill a psychology credit required for pre-health careers, and I’m glad I did. It introduced me to psychology in a way I hadn’t considered before coming to Middlebury. Now, I’m even thinking about minoring in Psychology! This class was insightful, and I truly felt like I learned a lot. I appre …Read more

Professor MacMullin was very detailed in her teaching during lectures and answered any and all questions. She is very open with office hours. Her class is pretty slow-paced, it allows one to really grab a good concept of the material

There were textbook and short article/podcast readings before every class. You don't have to read the textbook as long as you pay attention in class b/c she only tests on lecture material + article readings. Exams require a lot of memorization since she tests you on specific details. Overall not a stressful class though and very interesting.