n In response to Daniel Stein’s Letter to the Editor concerning “unconscionable” requirements for Psych 101 students, (“Required psychology experiments are unfair,” Sept. 13, p. 6) I am inclined to say, “Cry me a river.”

I graduated from Metropolitan College with a Bachelors Degree in psychology two years ago. I had taken Psych 101 at a small liberal arts school before enrolling at Boston University, and I had to participate in a study being run by a team of students and faculty.

It took all of 25 minutes. I filled out a survey, answered a few questions and at the end, I was given an explanation of the study. Not only was it quick and painless, but it gave me an idea of what it would be like, in later years, to do research of my own. 

To my knowledge, there are no experiments conducted at BU that involve public torture, emotional abuse or humiliation of any kind. You may even get paid for your participation in some studies. So I think you’re going to be just fine. Also, just because your parents pay BU $4,000 to take a class, it doesn’t mean you won’t be “inconvenienced” in some way. My advice is to drop the class if you don’t like the requirements, but keep in mind that the class replacing it might require you to do other “stuff” too.

Matt Roselli

MET ’04