Psychology · Columbia University
Amazing professor could not recommend highly enough. Lectures are super interesting and Prof Mccaskill is such a sweet person
TAKE THIS CLASS!!!! Professor McCaskill is AMAZING, extremely knowledgeable, very engaging, and understanding. One of the most unique aspects of this class is the storytelling lens in which Professor McCaskill teaches the course. De-identifying her patients, McCaskill is able to connect the content learned in lecture to real life stories about patients with different mental disorders. This is hands-down the best class I've taken at Barnard and Columbia and I highly recommend taking ANY of Professor McCaskill's courses. She is very kind, welcomes and encourages questions, and is a great resource in and out of the classroom. If you are interested in becoming a therapist, I HIGHLY encourage you to take this course.
She is incredibly kind but her time management skills are abysmal. She ALWAYS started class at least five minutes late, and it took her foreeeeever to grade exams 1 and 2 (which she insisted on calling “quizzes” rather than the 30% exams they were “so that you don’t stress! It’s just a check-in!”) It was a relatively easy class being that it was a 3000 level course, but being told not to stress over something that was worth a third of the grade was maddening to me. The slides were good and the lectures were pretty good, but I was disappointed in the class overall. She is one of the nicest people, truly, but…I just wanted more from the class.
the course is dedicated to discussing different mental disorders and the DSM criteria for them (along with some treatments/theories behind these disorders). a lot of class time is spent on mccaskill talking about stories with her clients that have the mental disorders being discussed in classs which were pretty interesting to hear. i had mccaskill for intro to psych as well so i was already prepared for her lecturing style but she does tend to read off the slides almost verbatim so it can be difficult to not zone out a lot of the times. mccaskill is a really compassionate prof though she always makes an effort in class to emphasize how she values us as students and gives mental health days sometimes esp after the exam and will sometimes switch over to zoom or record the lectures.
Absolutely wonderful, enriching seminar that is highly coveted and therefore attracts classmates who are invested and engaged. Truly felt therapeutic each Thursday morning to sit in such an open space and debate/discuss ethics with the group and with McCaskill guiding the discussion and offering invaluable firsthand insight - she's a bit of an expert in ethics. I have written in other reviews and will say again here: Professor McCaskill is absolutely wonderful. Her approach to teaching psychology and neuroscience is heavily informed by her therapy practice and it shows. Everything is taught through the lens of empathy and pragmatism. She's fantastic. You must take her if you want to become a counselor/therapist/psychiatrist.
I took Intro Psych with McCaskill too and I just love her! She is truly the sweetest woman alive, cares about her students, always answers questions, and is so helpful with questions both about class material and career options. I will say that her lectures can get super tangential, in this class in particular she does reference stories/cases with her own patients and past students a lot, so if that is not something you find interesting that may bore you. The course itself does a good job of exploring drug use from a very humane angle, she really tries to destigmatize everything in a great way. It's a very interesting course and not extremely difficult.
i am a lazy person, but prof. mccaskill's absolutely incredible course & person compels me to write my first and prob only culpa review. one of the most genuine, intelligent, caring professors i have come across at barnumbia. an absolute gem. material is inherently interesting, but professor mccaskill weaves in her experience as a practicing clinician to put a lot of the concepts into context and application. her powerpoints are extremely thorough, and she always emailed us extensively detailed study guides with what was on or not on the exam and minimized stress during exam prep. + she is genuinely interested in all her students and freq. encourages people to reach out to her not just for academic concerns but for anything career/life related. plus she gave out smiley-face stress balls to everyone on the last day of class. imo an easy A/A+ if you put in some effort. second half of the course is pretty difficult because of the more complex neuroscience concepts but if you go to lecture + office hours if ur really struggling you should be ok. overall a bomb-ass lady & i highly recommend this course!!!!!
Professor McCaskill is a gem of a teacher. She is by far one of the top three teachers I have had in three and half years of college. She actually knows the material she is teaching and can therefore answer your questions...and when she is stumped she doesnt make something up but actually looks up the answer and gets back to you. Very rare for a Columbia Prof. She is more than willing to stay VERY late in order to meet with you and help you out. She hold amazing review sessions for BN. Very worth going to because if you do go she knows youre devoted and will give you hints as to what is on the test and what is not. She is the type of Professor who will sit with you for hours to help you with anything, whether it be school work or grad schools apps. She is even willing to help you out with work from other classes. She is just a great teacher...though much better in small setting classes. I highly recommend taking her for a seminar rather than a lecture becuase the lecture could get a little tedious. But in a small group setting she is amazing.
This class was like not taking a class but having a gpa cushion. I definitely reccomend to any one that needs credits but doesnt want the stress of a real class.
Prof. McCaskill is truly lovely. She's extremely kind and approachable, and willing to help students. She offered everyone in the lecture the opportunity to come talk to her about their career aspirations. I took her up on this and she was very helpful. I took this class in the summer, which I recommend. I didn't find the class to be fascinating, but it was informative and not too difficult. I would caution those with a history of mental illness however to be prepared if planning on taking this class. I was warned that it could be triggering, and it certainly was for me.