Matthew Wallenfang

Professor Wallenfang is leaving Barnard, but for the record, he is one of the best professors I have had in all of my time at the college. Professor Wallenfang's courses are always interesting, exciting and relevant. He is so friendly, and approachable and has such great enthusiasm for teaching his students. Professor Wallenfang's BIOL 1502 course is a difficult intro bio, but so worthwhile. He manages to always (consistently through the years) keep the content challenging and captivating at the same time. His incorporation of articles that are related to new developments make the textbook material come to life. Three years later, looking back at my notes in studying for the MCAT, I feel so lucky to have taken such a thorough course that really set me on the right track for bio success. I have come to know this professor very well and just want to say that learning from him is a true privilege! Barnard will not be the same without him.

The bad reviews of Wallenfang on here are really surprising to me. Maybe he's improved a lot in recent years? All I can say is that as of fall 2009, he an excellent teacher. Most of the reviews that criticize him seem to be written by people who aren't interested in biology or haven't taken many bio classes before. DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS IF YOU ARE NOT PREMED OR A BIO MAJOR. That being said, if you are premed or a bio major, TAKE THIS CLASS. Wallenfang is insanely, insanely smart. He talks through cellular signalling pathways like they're nothing, he can answer 90% of the questions he's asked, and most importantly, when he doesn't know the answer, he will say so right away. That is the mark of a truly bright person. He's very helpful, nice, and reasonable, and can even be funny at times (although there isn't much time for humor in such a dense class). Like a previous reviewer mentioned, Wallenfang does not mess with your head. Questions on the exams will not come out of left field. They will be what you expect. It's not impossible to do well, and it's a lot easier to do well if you pay attention in class and look over your notes often. Of course you have to do the immense amounts of reading as well, but that's the nature of an upper level bio class. I would suggest printing out the slides before class really large, one to a page, and taking notes on those instead of the 4-to-a…

Great Professor! He is very knowledgeable and always available to help students. I highly recommend taking the bio class with him.

Professor Wallenfang is by far one of the best professors I've ever had at Barnard. I've been planning to write a review for him forever and now that my classmates are asking me about his Cell Biology course and I've spent countless times raving about it, I can say with great confidence that you DEFINITELY should take this class with him (if not another course) because 1) He is extremely organized: Sure some (very few) of his outlines and lectures take more than one class period, but this is trivial compared to the structure of the entire course, and he works really hard to adjust his teaching to help students understand the information. He posts his slides on courseworks and what I like to do is dl the outline before hand, format the figures, read the outline, and then take notes on my computer. Organizing is fun. PLUS the pictures are hella colorful. 2) There are no tricks to his tests: ngl, this class is difficult and if you don't keep your crap together, then you won't do well. Don't underestimate this tests, but they are not impossible to do well on. It's all about how well you know the information and how well you can apply it to certain situations (you'll see). Another thing I like about this class is that it really makes you THINK. No rote memorization and verbal vomit. My friend and I reminisce about this class and talk about the pathways we remember and random protei…

After having a horrible AP Bio. teacher in high school, I didn't think it could get any worse, I was wrong. If I had not taken AP before, i would have NO idea what is going on. He loves to complain about how the textbook has some mistakes, talk about calling the kettle black. One of his favorite things to do, is to go into tedious details about certain subjects, and then say "but you won't need to know that for this class", inferring "I need to continually remind you that I know everything about microbiology...". Last class we switched between the lecture notes for three classes because he has no focus.

So... Wallenfang definitely knows his stuff and wants to teach it. In fact, he wants to teach all of it. He is really enthusiastic (which is great, actually), BUT the reading load borders on ridiculous.... it's really, really heavy. If you care about your grade at all, you will either not take it at all or should take it with as low a credit load as possible. That being said, you will learn a TON. The class is entirely bio and neuro majors and approximately half the class is in the lab (which he referenced specially to them during lecture several times, leaving us non-lab people out!). He does have an impressive background - hopkins, upenn, etc, and he is genuinely easy to talk to - on the first day he asked us all what we did during the summer (FYI - just about everyone did research - from Columbia to Mayo to ER-volunteer /pre-med-y stuff). He also tries to relate what we learn in class to real-life diseases ("clinical correlations" that students present). He will answer just about any question and really likes people to talk and ask questions in class. Arguably, he picks favorites, but it's hard not to feel that way in a cut throat bio class.

I actually really enjoyed this course. Hertz's class I felt was much more intense than this class. Wallenfang let me actually enjoy the subject material. The reading load is a lot lighter this semester but it is still quite dense. I found I had to really go through the textbook in order to understand some of the lecture points. I really enjoyed how Wallenfang focused on mostly lecture. I made the mistake the first exam on focusing a lot on the textbook, which really isn't necessary. So overall, I would definitely recommend this class. It isn't too intense, and Wallenfang is pretty enthusiastic and wants his students to learn.

Two midterms and a final, plus a presentation on a disease at some point during the semester (you pick the date). The midterms are hard, and each covers maybe 150-200 pages of the textbook. Final is cumulative but focuses on the last third of the semester material. If you can read the textbook sections before each class, you'll have a much easier time studying for the exams, but if not, it's not impossible to cram for a few days before -- I'd suggest giving yourself three or four solid days to study. I'd say it is harder than Intro Bio, but not as hard as Orgo.

This class is not easy for a non-Bio person like me. Maybe it's different if you've taken AP Bio but with only freshman biology I couldn't understand the material being taught without doing the reading, even if Wallenfang says you don't need it. It takes a LOT of time to keep up with the reading, but if you read before each class suddenly lectures are much easier to understand. My recommendation is to always ask questions. Wallenfang is always up to answering your questions and though he get swamped before midterms, understandably so, if you stop by his office hours or just go up to him after class he's always willing to talk with you. The hardest part of class are the midterms which are really hard. Part of being able to do well has to do with how good of a multiple choice test takes you are, but you definitely need to know your stuff. Read the questions REALLY carefully and no matter what your normal studying habits are make sure you get enough sleep before the midterms because he asks very tricky questions that require you to apply everything you've learned. There's really no way to predict what his questions will be like, even with the online quizzes and the old test questions before every class. I definitely recommend going to class though, and reading the ny times articles he assigns, because there are always questions on the midterm based on those and if you just read t…

Highly recommend this course! You'll learn a lot, he's accessible, approachable, knowledgeable, and enthusiastic... take the lab too if you can!