Grinnell vs Bates vs Lafayette

candyman92486
Mon, 02 Apr 2007 15:59:57 +0000

verycurious,

I see that you are an international student. It’s unfortunate that you can’t visit the college, because I honestly believe if you were observe ANY of our Psychology or Art History courses and meet with the professors, you’d get a great sense of how strong these two departments are at Lafayette!

I have taken a good number of Psychology courses, and every professor has been approachable, enthusiastic, and engaging in the classroom. The Psychology building, Oechsle Hall, is a state-of-the-art teaching and research facility. I had Dr. Shaw for Introduction to Psychological Science (PSYC 110), and he made a somewhat larger lecture-style class feel like a small seminar-style discussion. He is an extremely intelligent man who relates to his students, and his classes always fill up quickly! I took Psychopharmacology (PSYC 225) with Dr. Hill last semester, and I could tell she had such a genuine interest in the subject. I am currently taking a course on Applied Behavior Analysis (PSYC 236) with Dr. Allan. This man is so passionate about his beliefs, and his enthusiasm is contagious! I hope to conduct research with him in the near future on the behavior of pigeons.

The same goes for the Art History department. Yes, it is a smaller department, but the professors are probably the best at Lafayette! I had Dr. Ahl for Introduction to Art History I,II (ART 101,102). She is a world-renowned scholar of Italian art (just Google her name). She has been teaching at the college for quite some time, but she continues to teach because she loves what she does. I have also taken two courses with Dr. Mattison, one on Modern Art (ART 234) and one on 19th Century European Art (ART 233). He is the goofiest man alive and is just so energetic in the classroom. He travels the world to see ALL of the pieces he shows us on the projector, so he knows what he is talking about (and has written the books to prove it).

Our website does NOT do these departments justice, so you’d be wasting your time searching for information online. The college guidebooks definitely can’t tell you everything, like how Dr. Ahl literally broke down and cried after she entered an on-campus exhibition we had last spring with about thirty original Rembrandt etchings.

I really feel for you, verycurious. It must be so difficult to base a decision solely on written information! However, I’m here to help in any way possible. If you think of any other questions, just drop me a line.

All the best,


Justin