Dr. Ho is, without a doubt, my favorite professor at UCLA. While other reviews provide a great overview of the course structure, I wanted to share my perspective for any psychology majors considering taking her lab class: DO IT!

As someone planning to pursue clinical psychology and counseling, I didn’t expect to enjoy the research aspects of psychology as much as I did in this class. I always found research, and especially coding, intimidating, but Dr. Ho’s teaching completely changed my perspective. She has a way of making complex topics, like coding, approachable and manageable. No matter your skill level, she’s incredibly patient and always makes time to help.

One of the highlights of the class is how Dr. Ho ties the content to her own research and professional experiences, using anecdotes that make the material more engaging and relatable. The small class size (about 25 students) is another plus, you’re able to build genuine connections with like-minded peers and with Dr. Ho herself, which is such a refreshing change from large lecture halls.

I can’t recommend this class enough.

During this class, we spent a lot of time in RStudio, and prior to this class, I was not too fond of programming research because I was simply not good at it. However, the experience I had in your classroom changed my perspective through the way you taught and how you truly displayed a sense of care. I enjoyed my time in the Franz Hall Computer Lab and am proud to say I have the basics of R Studio under my belt. In addition, I really enjoyed the content that she taught and felt that I garnered a tremendous amount of knowledge with the active learning layout that the lecture had.

I really enjoyed this class and would recommend. It is not to too much work, no tests, just participation and a partner project. Professor Ho gives the data for the project, and a lot of class time to work on it. Professor Ho is really understanding and even gave us candy on Halloween! I took this to fill my lab requirement but found it to be really engaging and I learned a lot. It is a smaller class, I was lucky enough to get off the waitlist, so I would prioritize this if you are interested!

Wow, what can I say. Dr. Ho is an amazing professor, her lecture presentations clear and concise, never boring with the research and excitement she shares with the class. The class content is interesting, and the fact that we learn about a variety of adolescent psychiatric conditions that draw in the biology and computer science fields really adds a spark to learning! Take this class as your laboratory requirement for psych with Dr. Ho!! No exams, only paper, research presentation, and some R coding that is super simple to follow along with (no prior experience needed!)

Overall, solid class and really great professor. I took this class thinking it would be somewhat like a mock clinical practice--using screening and diagnostic tools as well as creating treatment plans, etc. Instead, it was more focused on analyzing and conducting research using R. This was a little tough for me because I had never learned R (my PSYCH 100A course was taught in Jamovi lol), but Professor Ho was very accommodating and spent a lot of time catching us all up to speed. She was super kind and patient, and didn't make us do anything too crazy with the programming. She did not grade harshly but did expect you to pay attention and participate in class discussions, which were engaging. Being in her class, it felt like she had an awareness of how students were feeling and wanted to help them succeed, which was much appreciated. The workload wasn't very heavy, and the final research paper was really satisfying-- we had to work with a partner (we got to choose), but my partner was great and we got a perfect score. There were no exams or quizzes in this class and it wasn't recorded.