Scores average answered numerical ratings. Older evaluation records may summarize whole sections and have no written comment. Written reviews are counted separately. How scores work
man, this was a significant part of my suffering freshman year. absolutely inefficient and unreasonable to be in a lab for hours with additional lab work for only 1 credit. the chemistry department made me burn out and it felt like hell. truly would never recommend. i pray for you all.
2021 grad here. Took the labs from 19 to 20. The fact that this page has been regularly updated with similar responses over the last 6 years till now... Chat, does anyone know what makes her still in this lab's throne, and how?
Something needs to change about the BC Chem Lab department. I get chem being a "weed out" class for pre-meds, but the labs are absolutely absurd; points taken off with no explanation on labs and presentations. Get told I write too much, and then write less, and then get told that I don't write enough. Part of the reason I am transferring elsewhere
I took this class with Spinnenweber as a TA for Ulishney, and he consistently gave 8/10 with no comments. I asked him for comments, and he said the exam lacked evidence, but when I pointed to a direct quote I had memorized, he said, “It must have just been a general feeling he had when reading it.” Bruh... PRAY HE'S NOT A TA AGAIN
If you ever think you've written enough, think again. If you ever think you might receive an actual decent grade, think again. IF YOUR NOT CURRENTLY IN THE CLASS AND THINKING OF TAKING IT, think again. Worst class I've ever been in. Made me transfer to CSOM.
Lynne isn't the issue with GenChem 1 lab. The policy of this college is the real issue; she's just doing her job, man. That being said, 1/40 people getting an A should not be allowed. It's ridiculous and not reflective of the 8+ hours a week of work put into a 1-credit course. Unfortunately, mandatory for many students, the policy should be changed
Huh I thought Encore was the only casino in Boston until I went through Lynne's chem labs. Her chem labs are like a Roulette wheel: no matter how hard you try, you will still lose points for random reasons in unexpected areas, and it's futile to ask anything. We invest so much money here and what do we "win" in return? Below are all the prizes.
Lab experience depends HEAVILY on your TA. The class isn't very hard just extremely annoying with a lot of work for a 1-credit course. Expect up to 7 hours a week of work outside class. I lucked out with my TA and didnt have a difficult time, but Ive heard horror stories about many TA's.Grading is ridicously harsh and most people end up with a B/B+
Seriously, the amount of health and STEM dreams in young adults she has tampered with might be more than the amount of meals I've had since birth. As an educator, this is crime. Lynne, you deserve to be a sinner of the history of BC.
Class is so incredibly poorly outlined. Lost so many points for things that neither the TA nor I could even understand. Dreaded every minute of this class and so did everyone else. Only 1 credit but be prepared to spend 7-8 hours outside of class on this fake excuse of a lab
She's lowkey intimidating and scary and when she walks around lab and comes to your fume hood your heart stops. I personally don't understand what is so awful about her though, but she did not teach my lab it was a TA.
I cried during both Chem and Orgo lab for two years straight. Actually the worst environment I have ever been in. Grades so harshly. Just terrible, toxic environment that is cultivated. Worst 3-4 hours every week. Dreaded horribly by every person I know. I get shivers just remebering. Average is a B and so easy to do worse. The TAs hate their job
The safety goggles, slightly steamed,
Reflect a class, utterly reamed.
We yearn for clarity, a guiding light,
But Lynne O'Connell's teaching isn't quite...
Well, let's just say, we learn online,
And pray our grade, will someday shine.
For general chem, a trial it seems,
Lost in Lynne O'Connell's foggy dreams.
Lynne ur not the best teacher.
Do you hear the people sing?
Singing a song of angry men?
It is the music of a people
Who will not be slaves again!
When the beating of your heart
Echoes the beating of the drums
There is a life about to start
When tomorrow comes!
This class must be revised. The labs have absolutely no relation to the material taught in class and feel excessively long and pointless. Grading is x/5 on labs and full points are taken for trivial or subjective reasons. For a school that I chose for interesting and meaningful classes, this stands out as a strong outlier to that generalization.
She grades based on a ridiculous idea that only a few students can receive an A. I had people in my lab arbitrarily get lower grades so that the chemistry department can appear to have prestige. It's like they don't realize people in premed attending a rigorous institution are going to perform better than a normal distribution.
BC chem lab is the most poorly run organization in world history. My parents pay 100k a year for Lynn O'Connell to make me contemplate suicide every monday night. She makes me embarrassed to be a BC student and has made me an alcoholic with no will to live. Thank you Lynn O'Connell
Miserable human that gives attitude with every question asked. Lab was an honest waste of time. God forbid you ask questions to your TA you will get points deuced from your grade. Everything dumped down the sink
How can you take BC seriously when this joke of a person is running the program? Sure it's a weed out class, but there's a fine line here that she is nowhere near to.
Lynne is feared by all and respected by none. Labs are a catastrophic waste of time, confusing, and irrelevant. If you ask questions, you get points off. You will dread lab every second of the week. Only one credit but more work than half of my other classes. Still wondering why BC hasn't done something to fix this embarrassment of a program.
Professor O'Connell will crush your soul,
Her grading's savage, her heart's a hole.
Labs pile high, your tears will flow,
A lecture queen with doom in tow.
A genuine gadfly. Not in the philosophical sense but just a genuine pain in the ass. Post-lab takes six plus hours if you want to do well. I still have three more semesters with this witch. :(
Extremely unreasonable labs and assignments. Her one credit labs require more work than any three credit class at BC. Instructions are unclear and grading criteria is never stated. Says she doesn't give any A's and B's are the highest grade she'll give. Her TA's and lab instructors tell us to not even try as we'll get a B, behind her back.
This professor is by far the WORST instructor at BC. She seems to take pride in making the class as miserable as possible, with intentionally vague instructions, impossible grading criteria, and and lack of support for students. Questions are met with sarcasm or dismissive responses, and she seems to delight in watching students struggle.
Lynne, why? 1 credit course. 4 hours/week. 2 hours of outside homework MINIMUM. She purposefully makes the TA grade as hard as possible. You are penalized for asking questions.
Was it the worst thing ever? No. You get through it, especially if you have friends in it too. But IT DOESN'T NEED TO BE THIS HARD! Or at least give 3 credits like bio.
She literally wants you to do bad bruh. Also if you get Michael as your TA you're also screwed, he's pretty passive aggressive and istg he just plays candy crush in class. Really look to your peers for help and any upperclassmen that knows what they're doing. Also in pre labs write way more than you think you need to
Loved my TA. Shout out my goat Tevin. Barely talked to Lynne, but she is such a meanie beanie (can't use other words to describe her). She wants people to struggle but thats similar to most classes here at BC. I would recommend putting in a good amount of work on the labs. The workload is more than some 3-4 credit classes.
I don't think I've ever hated anything as much as chem lab. I've even had a conversation with one of the longstanding bio professors about how they think the chem labs are horribly run. If you're a freshman who has just been scared by her torture, I promise it gets better once you're done with her labs.
Unfortunately, no STEM student can escape the wrath of this evil creature (human would be a strong word). YOU. WILL. SUFFER. For 2 years of your life, 5 hours of your week will be lost to the abysmal hell hole otherwise known as Merkert. Lynne Oconnell doesn't feed off of food and water, but the souls of poor innocent premed students.
Roses are red. Violets are blue. Lynn o'connell is a bully, and she she'll punish your TA too. Don't be fooled by her stature, for your soul she'll truly capture. From the fires of hell this beast has risen to make chem lab your personal prison. Forgot happiness and joy, professor o'connell is out to destroy.
Lynn O'Connell is the reason why my hair has started thinning at BC. She probably made a voodoo doll with it and stabs me multiple times while I do Chem Lab.
one time the TA accidentally left the live security camera feed lynne watches us on on the projector screen. we might be doing experiments but it lowk felt like we were the ones being experimented on...
Lynne O' Connell lurks in the back of lab like a boxtroll. God forbid you miss one day or the chem lab will blow up with you inside of it. Lynne O' Connell killed my kids, she killed my dog, and most importantly, Lynne O' Connell was the sniper that missed Donald J Trump. Iconic that she sells her own book as required material I fear I do stan.
Dr. O'Connell would literally sell my soul for a room temperature truely before she even considered not curving down. Anyways lowkey iconic tho like I fear I do stan a problematic queen.
Switch out of pre-med while you still can. I'd rather walk through the depths of hell than attend lab. I entered lab with the sun up and left 4 hours later in the darkness with my spirit broken, mentally and physically exhausted, and feeling lost in life. Lynne scares me to my bones-she lives in my nightmares.
- Beware of curving down.
- Is there even a lab that gives students pre-lab assignments?
- The labs are needlessly long, and experiments are jam-packed.
- Calibrated peer review.
- How to even get on her good side???
(in the initials)
I didn't realize I could despise something this much until I experienced Lynne O'Connell's chem labs. WAY too much work with impossible grading criteria and unclear instructions, all while making students compete for grades. My advice is to not stress about it because it is only one credit and you will perform the same no matter how hard you try.
It's amusing to see that this awful director is still the head of Chem labs at BC. I'm a 2020 grad and remember distinctly how arduous Chem labs 1 & 2 were - it was a lot of busy work and not much application of the course material. Orgo labs were a little more fun, and physics labs even more. And looks like she's still as evil as ever in 2024...
Boston College should be ashamed that they allow such a villain to direct undergraduate chem labs. I hate my life because of Lynne. I hate chemistry because of Lynne. I hate STEM because of Lynne.
She is the human equivalent of a gallstone. She is a diabolical presence in the laboratory and emits an aura of terror in the dark corners in which she lurks. She is the only professor in all of Boston that lowers earned grades, as we were "doing too well". A single, one credit lab took me more hours than an entire semester of chem. God speed.
Prof. O'Connell single-handedly is responsible for the majority of every STEM students' stress. The amount of work and time needed for this course just for 1 credit is just absurd. Her grading criteria is extremely harsh and purposely does so overall grades can be lower and TA's don't have the power to actually do anything about it. THE WORST OAT
Lynne O'Connell is not right for this position. This is supposed to be a general chemistry lab and she is trying to treat it like the NBA finals game 7. She told TA's to grade harder because people were doing too well in her class which makes absolutely zero sense to me. She doesn't care if kids are succeeding or not. She destroys confidence.
I came into freshman year with hope for this world. Lynne O'Connell crushed my dreams, aspirations, ability to love, and made me yearn for mercy. My tears filled the beakers alongside chemicals, my pleas for mercy lost among the noise of American Chemistry Society videos. Beware of this class.
Lynne O'connell as a person is not as bad as people say. The grading is a massacre and the time commitment is ridiculous however (4 hours of outside work plus 3 hours in lab each week). It is a toxic environment and the TAs are clueless and mean for the most part. Lab is the only part of my week I dread.
For a one credit course, this class has an absurd amount of work. For what should be a learning experience, Dr. O'Connell expects students to come into Gen Chem Lab with the knowledge of a PhD candidate. Numerous pop quizzes that nobody knows about, and she is incredibly rude to students and TAs. Labs do not align with course content at all.
A first year chemistry lab should be an opportunity for students to experiment with chemistry principles in a fun learning environment that rewards effort, interest, and hard work. Absolutely none of that happens in Prof. O'Connell's labs. The TAs fear her almost as much as the students, and there is no flexibility or forgiveness with the grading.
Literally, take anything else. She is a spawn of the devil and is literally praying on your downfall. She wants you to do poorly and then try and get better, but asking for help takes points off. Absolutely terrible class. There is a reason her name starts with L.
Lynne O'Connell gives out an absurd amount of work for the pre-labs and post-labs. I should not have to spend 4 hours working on a post-lab for a one credit class. Lower the workload Lynne!! :(
probably the worst class I've ever taken. Lynn is rude and disrespectful to both students and teaching assistants. She forces TAs to harshly grade busy work and you learn nothing.
this class is the worst. everything is overcomplicated and made to be more difficult than it needs to be. the actual content of the labs isn't super difficult but it is difficult to complete assignments in a way that earns you a good grade because grading is so particular. so awful.
Gen chem lab and orgo lab have made me so miserable. It is TOO MUCH WORK for a 1-credit class. Grading criteria is not great at all, if you do not have a good TA.
No No NO NO NOOOOOOOOOO. Unclear instructions, useless busy work, awful grading, no real material being learned. This is the worst course ever. And it's only for 1 CREDIT.
Lynne O'Connell is the bane of my existence, the antagonist of my nightmares, and the source of my eternal suffering. She possesses no capacity for empathy. She has no morals. She is completely unfazed in the face of human anguish and misery. This is not hyperbole, she is truly despicable. I fear that her evil has no limits...
She forces the TAs to grade ruthlessly for no reason. She is very rude and unhelpful. Only advice I have for people is don't blame your TAs for your grades, they are forced to be harsh, I'm sure they want to give you better grades but she won't let them.
While Professor O'Connell doesn't actually 'teach' anything and is just the head of General Chemistry Labs, she's very unapproachable and makes the TA's grade very difficultly. I spent more time studying for this lab than I did any other class.
kinda alot of work considering its a 1 credit intro lab. pray you get a decent ta or you're screwed. overall a very unenjoyable and unnecessary stressful/tedious class.
For a 1 credit class, there is way too much work and the labs are 4 hours. The labs do not align with the lecture and are hard to complete. The worst academic experience at BC by far. It is unfortunate that pre-med students are stuck with her for two years for gen chem and orgo.
I was hospitalized and got a Dean's note to excuse my absence from the class. In the words of Dr. O'Connell, "I don't care." Was penalized for being absent, despite doing make-up labs and completing all of the coursework. I've never been treated with more disrespect.
TL;DR : I was hospitalized. I was punished for it.
She doesn't actually teach anything, but she does orchestrate the labs. I spend more time doing work for this 1 credit class than my 4 credit calc II class and the post-labs for this class are incredibly long, frustrating and unclear. Prof O'Connell is not very understanding and encourages the TAs to grade very strictly.
This professor doesn't "teach" anything at all. She walks in once every lab for 15 seconds and says nothing. The online lab workbook "ELN" is useless, unnecessarily difficult to maneuver, and extremely tedious to fill out "correctly". The grading in the course is EXTREMELY TRIVIAL, and you don't learn anything of value. Lynne is uncompassionate too
You'll have to have her for GenChem lab, which she supervises but is taught by graduate TAs. Nothing good about it, but prepare for the suffering and you might survive.
Lynne's instructions on the lab are incredibly unclear and the post labs are so difficult and pointless as they have nothing to do with what is learned in class. She is in charge of every chem lab so unfortunately as a pre-med you have to deal with her. Prepare yourself if you are entering Gen Chem because lab is harder than the course itself.
Prof O'Connell runs the most vague and frustrating lab. The instructions in the post-lab are often incredibly confusing, and leave students wondering if they've completed the assignment correctly. Pre and post-labs feel like busy work rather than learning. As a freshman, it's disappointing that this is my 1st lab experience.
BUSY WORK! There is far too much useless, nonsensical fluff that students are forced to do that are extremely time consuming and worthless (especially given that Labs are 1 credit co-requisite courses). She is the facilitator of all Chemistry labs so there isn't even a way to avoid her if you are a STEM student.
Prof. O'Connell is probably one of the worst people in the entirety of Boston College. Every single lab is passionless, and written with incredibly frustrating, and vague instructions. This class is purely to meet requirements, and not much learning gets done. The post-lab and pre-lab assignments are pure busy work, and can take up to 3-4 hours.
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99 of 99 reviews
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man, this was a significant part of my suffering freshman year. absolutely inefficient and unreasonable to be in a lab for hours with additional lab work for only 1 credit. the chemistry department made me burn out and it felt like hell. truly would never recommend. i pray for you all.
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sonion bear
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Son I'm crine
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2021 grad here. Took the labs from 19 to 20. The fact that this page has been regularly updated with similar responses over the last 6 years till now... Chat, does anyone know what makes her still in this lab's throne, and how?
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Something needs to change about the BC Chem Lab department. I get chem being a "weed out" class for pre-meds, but the labs are absolutely absurd; points taken off with no explanation on labs and presentations. Get told I write too much, and then write less, and then get told that I don't write enough. Part of the reason I am transferring elsewhere
Read 94 more reviews
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I took this class with Spinnenweber as a TA for Ulishney, and he consistently gave 8/10 with no comments. I asked him for comments, and he said the exam lacked evidence, but when I pointed to a direct quote I had memorized, he said, “It must have just been a general feeling he had when reading it.” Bruh... PRAY HE'S NOT A TA AGAIN
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If you ever think you've written enough, think again. If you ever think you might receive an actual decent grade, think again. IF YOUR NOT CURRENTLY IN THE CLASS AND THINKING OF TAKING IT, think again. Worst class I've ever been in. Made me transfer to CSOM.
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Lynne isn't the issue with GenChem 1 lab. The policy of this college is the real issue; she's just doing her job, man. That being said, 1/40 people getting an A should not be allowed. It's ridiculous and not reflective of the 8+ hours a week of work put into a 1-credit course. Unfortunately, mandatory for many students, the policy should be changed
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Huh I thought Encore was the only casino in Boston until I went through Lynne's chem labs. Her chem labs are like a Roulette wheel: no matter how hard you try, you will still lose points for random reasons in unexpected areas, and it's futile to ask anything. We invest so much money here and what do we "win" in return? Below are all the prizes.
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Lab experience depends HEAVILY on your TA. The class isn't very hard just extremely annoying with a lot of work for a 1-credit course. Expect up to 7 hours a week of work outside class. I lucked out with my TA and didnt have a difficult time, but Ive heard horror stories about many TA's.Grading is ridicously harsh and most people end up with a B/B+
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Prepare to fear her.
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Very TA dependent. Was a disproportionate amount of work being a 1 credit class
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send this witch to the nursing home already
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Seriously, the amount of health and STEM dreams in young adults she has tampered with might be more than the amount of meals I've had since birth. As an educator, this is crime. Lynne, you deserve to be a sinner of the history of BC.
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Class is so incredibly poorly outlined. Lost so many points for things that neither the TA nor I could even understand. Dreaded every minute of this class and so did everyone else. Only 1 credit but be prepared to spend 7-8 hours outside of class on this fake excuse of a lab
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She's lowkey intimidating and scary and when she walks around lab and comes to your fume hood your heart stops. I personally don't understand what is so awful about her though, but she did not teach my lab it was a TA.
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I cried during both Chem and Orgo lab for two years straight. Actually the worst environment I have ever been in. Grades so harshly. Just terrible, toxic environment that is cultivated. Worst 3-4 hours every week. Dreaded horribly by every person I know. I get shivers just remebering. Average is a B and so easy to do worse. The TAs hate their job
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The safety goggles, slightly steamed, Reflect a class, utterly reamed. We yearn for clarity, a guiding light, But Lynne O'Connell's teaching isn't quite... Well, let's just say, we learn online, And pray our grade, will someday shine. For general chem, a trial it seems, Lost in Lynne O'Connell's foggy dreams. Lynne ur not the best teacher.
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Lost 1 point (20% of a grade) for saying I thought something was difficult :(. It was a wrong opinion apparently.
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i was jaywalking to get to class and the newton bus skidded to a stop right in front of me. i was very disappointed
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Do you hear the people sing? Singing a song of angry men? It is the music of a people Who will not be slaves again! When the beating of your heart Echoes the beating of the drums There is a life about to start When tomorrow comes!
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After the first week, I stopped looking both ways when crossing the street, because I'd rather be dead than go to chem lab.
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she buns and i dont even have her
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This class must be revised. The labs have absolutely no relation to the material taught in class and feel excessively long and pointless. Grading is x/5 on labs and full points are taken for trivial or subjective reasons. For a school that I chose for interesting and meaningful classes, this stands out as a strong outlier to that generalization.
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She grades based on a ridiculous idea that only a few students can receive an A. I had people in my lab arbitrarily get lower grades so that the chemistry department can appear to have prestige. It's like they don't realize people in premed attending a rigorous institution are going to perform better than a normal distribution.
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BC chem lab is the most poorly run organization in world history. My parents pay 100k a year for Lynn O'Connell to make me contemplate suicide every monday night. She makes me embarrassed to be a BC student and has made me an alcoholic with no will to live. Thank you Lynn O'Connell
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Miserable human that gives attitude with every question asked. Lab was an honest waste of time. God forbid you ask questions to your TA you will get points deuced from your grade. Everything dumped down the sink
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How can you take BC seriously when this joke of a person is running the program? Sure it's a weed out class, but there's a fine line here that she is nowhere near to.
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She grades harsher than people rate her on Rate my Professor.
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Horrible idk
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Lynne is feared by all and respected by none. Labs are a catastrophic waste of time, confusing, and irrelevant. If you ask questions, you get points off. You will dread lab every second of the week. Only one credit but more work than half of my other classes. Still wondering why BC hasn't done something to fix this embarrassment of a program.
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impossible to ever get an A, and possibly the worst program at BC. the TAs have no idea what theyre doing and lynne is rude
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Professor O'Connell will crush your soul, Her grading's savage, her heart's a hole. Labs pile high, your tears will flow, A lecture queen with doom in tow. A genuine gadfly. Not in the philosophical sense but just a genuine pain in the ass. Post-lab takes six plus hours if you want to do well. I still have three more semesters with this witch. :(
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Extremely unreasonable labs and assignments. Her one credit labs require more work than any three credit class at BC. Instructions are unclear and grading criteria is never stated. Says she doesn't give any A's and B's are the highest grade she'll give. Her TA's and lab instructors tell us to not even try as we'll get a B, behind her back.
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This professor is by far the WORST instructor at BC. She seems to take pride in making the class as miserable as possible, with intentionally vague instructions, impossible grading criteria, and and lack of support for students. Questions are met with sarcasm or dismissive responses, and she seems to delight in watching students struggle.
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Lynne, why? 1 credit course. 4 hours/week. 2 hours of outside homework MINIMUM. She purposefully makes the TA grade as hard as possible. You are penalized for asking questions. Was it the worst thing ever? No. You get through it, especially if you have friends in it too. But IT DOESN'T NEED TO BE THIS HARD! Or at least give 3 credits like bio.
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She literally wants you to do bad bruh. Also if you get Michael as your TA you're also screwed, he's pretty passive aggressive and istg he just plays candy crush in class. Really look to your peers for help and any upperclassmen that knows what they're doing. Also in pre labs write way more than you think you need to
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Loved my TA. Shout out my goat Tevin. Barely talked to Lynne, but she is such a meanie beanie (can't use other words to describe her). She wants people to struggle but thats similar to most classes here at BC. I would recommend putting in a good amount of work on the labs. The workload is more than some 3-4 credit classes.
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I don't think I've ever hated anything as much as chem lab. I've even had a conversation with one of the longstanding bio professors about how they think the chem labs are horribly run. If you're a freshman who has just been scared by her torture, I promise it gets better once you're done with her labs.
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She teaches lab. She's not evil, she can be nice, but she's a stickler. Her job is to weed and does weed well.
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Unfortunately, no STEM student can escape the wrath of this evil creature (human would be a strong word). YOU. WILL. SUFFER. For 2 years of your life, 5 hours of your week will be lost to the abysmal hell hole otherwise known as Merkert. Lynne Oconnell doesn't feed off of food and water, but the souls of poor innocent premed students.
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Roses are red. Violets are blue. Lynn o'connell is a bully, and she she'll punish your TA too. Don't be fooled by her stature, for your soul she'll truly capture. From the fires of hell this beast has risen to make chem lab your personal prison. Forgot happiness and joy, professor o'connell is out to destroy.
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Even she's too evil for hell, they sent her back. Now we suffer.
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Lynn O'Connell is the reason why my hair has started thinning at BC. She probably made a voodoo doll with it and stabs me multiple times while I do Chem Lab.
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one time the TA accidentally left the live security camera feed lynne watches us on on the projector screen. we might be doing experiments but it lowk felt like we were the ones being experimented on...
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i hate lynne oconnel
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Lynne O' Connell lurks in the back of lab like a boxtroll. God forbid you miss one day or the chem lab will blow up with you inside of it. Lynne O' Connell killed my kids, she killed my dog, and most importantly, Lynne O' Connell was the sniper that missed Donald J Trump. Iconic that she sells her own book as required material I fear I do stan.
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She's that evil character Tina Fey played in the muppets but if she was off the substance
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wouldn't want this women around my kids ngl
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Lynne O'Connell mentally broke my roommate. He used to be fun and outgoing, now he is an empty husk of a person. RIP
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I still see her shadows in my room.
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Dr. O'Connell would literally sell my soul for a room temperature truely before she even considered not curving down. Anyways lowkey iconic tho like I fear I do stan a problematic queen.
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Switch out of pre-med while you still can. I'd rather walk through the depths of hell than attend lab. I entered lab with the sun up and left 4 hours later in the darkness with my spirit broken, mentally and physically exhausted, and feeling lost in life. Lynne scares me to my bones-she lives in my nightmares.
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- Beware of curving down. - Is there even a lab that gives students pre-lab assignments? - The labs are needlessly long, and experiments are jam-packed. - Calibrated peer review. - How to even get on her good side??? (in the initials)
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I didn't realize I could despise something this much until I experienced Lynne O'Connell's chem labs. WAY too much work with impossible grading criteria and unclear instructions, all while making students compete for grades. My advice is to not stress about it because it is only one credit and you will perform the same no matter how hard you try.
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Qualitative Analysis :(
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It's amusing to see that this awful director is still the head of Chem labs at BC. I'm a 2020 grad and remember distinctly how arduous Chem labs 1 & 2 were - it was a lot of busy work and not much application of the course material. Orgo labs were a little more fun, and physics labs even more. And looks like she's still as evil as ever in 2024...
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Boston College should be ashamed that they allow such a villain to direct undergraduate chem labs. I hate my life because of Lynne. I hate chemistry because of Lynne. I hate STEM because of Lynne.
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She is the human equivalent of a gallstone. She is a diabolical presence in the laboratory and emits an aura of terror in the dark corners in which she lurks. She is the only professor in all of Boston that lowers earned grades, as we were "doing too well". A single, one credit lab took me more hours than an entire semester of chem. God speed.
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The worst professor I have ever had. I would not wish her class on my worst enemy.
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Lynne O'Connel Killed my dog
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Calibrated Peer Review.
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Prof. O'Connell single-handedly is responsible for the majority of every STEM students' stress. The amount of work and time needed for this course just for 1 credit is just absurd. Her grading criteria is extremely harsh and purposely does so overall grades can be lower and TA's don't have the power to actually do anything about it. THE WORST OAT
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Lynne O'Connell is not right for this position. This is supposed to be a general chemistry lab and she is trying to treat it like the NBA finals game 7. She told TA's to grade harder because people were doing too well in her class which makes absolutely zero sense to me. She doesn't care if kids are succeeding or not. She destroys confidence.
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Never took her but had to rate her a 1/5.
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Shorty was the reason why I started college as premed and am somehow now working in business.
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Makes Lab 10x harder than it needs to be. TAs are just as bad.
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No
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I came into freshman year with hope for this world. Lynne O'Connell crushed my dreams, aspirations, ability to love, and made me yearn for mercy. My tears filled the beakers alongside chemicals, my pleas for mercy lost among the noise of American Chemistry Society videos. Beware of this class.
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Lynne O'connell as a person is not as bad as people say. The grading is a massacre and the time commitment is ridiculous however (4 hours of outside work plus 3 hours in lab each week). It is a toxic environment and the TAs are clueless and mean for the most part. Lab is the only part of my week I dread.
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I would give her a zero if I could. She has completely destroyed my confidence in myself and made me switch majors all together.
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For a one credit course, this class has an absurd amount of work. For what should be a learning experience, Dr. O'Connell expects students to come into Gen Chem Lab with the knowledge of a PhD candidate. Numerous pop quizzes that nobody knows about, and she is incredibly rude to students and TAs. Labs do not align with course content at all.
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A first year chemistry lab should be an opportunity for students to experiment with chemistry principles in a fun learning environment that rewards effort, interest, and hard work. Absolutely none of that happens in Prof. O'Connell's labs. The TAs fear her almost as much as the students, and there is no flexibility or forgiveness with the grading.
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The only class that purposely grades harsher to keep a certain average of scores. This one-credit class takes more time than gen chem itself.
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Literally, take anything else. She is a spawn of the devil and is literally praying on your downfall. She wants you to do poorly and then try and get better, but asking for help takes points off. Absolutely terrible class. There is a reason her name starts with L.
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Lynne O'Connell gives out an absurd amount of work for the pre-labs and post-labs. I should not have to spend 4 hours working on a post-lab for a one credit class. Lower the workload Lynne!! :(
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The absolute worst. Labs are pointless. Graded impossibly hard.
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probably the worst class I've ever taken. Lynn is rude and disrespectful to both students and teaching assistants. She forces TAs to harshly grade busy work and you learn nothing.
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this class is the worst. everything is overcomplicated and made to be more difficult than it needs to be. the actual content of the labs isn't super difficult but it is difficult to complete assignments in a way that earns you a good grade because grading is so particular. so awful.
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Simply Horrible
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Gen chem lab and orgo lab have made me so miserable. It is TOO MUCH WORK for a 1-credit class. Grading criteria is not great at all, if you do not have a good TA.
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No No NO NO NOOOOOOOOOO. Unclear instructions, useless busy work, awful grading, no real material being learned. This is the worst course ever. And it's only for 1 CREDIT.
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Lynne O'Connell is the bane of my existence, the antagonist of my nightmares, and the source of my eternal suffering. She possesses no capacity for empathy. She has no morals. She is completely unfazed in the face of human anguish and misery. This is not hyperbole, she is truly despicable. I fear that her evil has no limits...
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She forces the TAs to grade ruthlessly for no reason. She is very rude and unhelpful. Only advice I have for people is don't blame your TAs for your grades, they are forced to be harsh, I'm sure they want to give you better grades but she won't let them.
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While Professor O'Connell doesn't actually 'teach' anything and is just the head of General Chemistry Labs, she's very unapproachable and makes the TA's grade very difficultly. I spent more time studying for this lab than I did any other class.
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unnecessarily hard for a 1 credit class
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kinda alot of work considering its a 1 credit intro lab. pray you get a decent ta or you're screwed. overall a very unenjoyable and unnecessary stressful/tedious class.
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For a 1 credit class, there is way too much work and the labs are 4 hours. The labs do not align with the lecture and are hard to complete. The worst academic experience at BC by far. It is unfortunate that pre-med students are stuck with her for two years for gen chem and orgo.
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I was hospitalized and got a Dean's note to excuse my absence from the class. In the words of Dr. O'Connell, "I don't care." Was penalized for being absent, despite doing make-up labs and completing all of the coursework. I've never been treated with more disrespect. TL;DR : I was hospitalized. I was punished for it.
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WORST PROFESSOR AT BC. DON'T TAKE HER. NEVER. IF YOU ARE STEM / PRE MED THEN RIP.
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She doesn't actually teach anything, but she does orchestrate the labs. I spend more time doing work for this 1 credit class than my 4 credit calc II class and the post-labs for this class are incredibly long, frustrating and unclear. Prof O'Connell is not very understanding and encourages the TAs to grade very strictly.
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This professor doesn't "teach" anything at all. She walks in once every lab for 15 seconds and says nothing. The online lab workbook "ELN" is useless, unnecessarily difficult to maneuver, and extremely tedious to fill out "correctly". The grading in the course is EXTREMELY TRIVIAL, and you don't learn anything of value. Lynne is uncompassionate too
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So much busy work, don't really learn anything. GRading scale is such that you could lose 2 points (out of 5) for one simple mistake on lab reports.
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Simply busy work. No actual information being taught in any of her labs. This is the main reason the BC Chemistry department is hated by freshman.
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You'll have to have her for GenChem lab, which she supervises but is taught by graduate TAs. Nothing good about it, but prepare for the suffering and you might survive.
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Lynne's instructions on the lab are incredibly unclear and the post labs are so difficult and pointless as they have nothing to do with what is learned in class. She is in charge of every chem lab so unfortunately as a pre-med you have to deal with her. Prepare yourself if you are entering Gen Chem because lab is harder than the course itself.
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Prof O'Connell runs the most vague and frustrating lab. The instructions in the post-lab are often incredibly confusing, and leave students wondering if they've completed the assignment correctly. Pre and post-labs feel like busy work rather than learning. As a freshman, it's disappointing that this is my 1st lab experience.
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BUSY WORK! There is far too much useless, nonsensical fluff that students are forced to do that are extremely time consuming and worthless (especially given that Labs are 1 credit co-requisite courses). She is the facilitator of all Chemistry labs so there isn't even a way to avoid her if you are a STEM student.
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Prof. O'Connell is probably one of the worst people in the entirety of Boston College. Every single lab is passionless, and written with incredibly frustrating, and vague instructions. This class is purely to meet requirements, and not much learning gets done. The post-lab and pre-lab assignments are pure busy work, and can take up to 3-4 hours.