caliguy said:
) caliguy said:
markboonya said:
alohadolphin15 said:yay for sfsu post bac
finished my first semester and i'm going to be continuing this fall (for the next 2 years). I majored in bio so i'm definitely looking for upper div classes to boost my gpa. Here's what i know/heard about classes
- weinstein for immuno (whom marboonya was referring to) is teaching this coming fall
- heard that denetclaw for cell bio sucks (though i'm probably going to have to take it) b/c he can't convey information in a concise manner; the preferred prof for cell bio is Auleb who teaches in the spring
- Routman for Evolution: i heard is a pretty good/easy class (he teaches for both spring and fall)
- chu for molecular genetics: i heard she is pretty good teacher, and that b/c she's kinda young and sorta new... she still has a lot of excitement for teaching and for helping her students, pasion who i also heard was a really good professor for this class typically teaches as well... but she's on sabbatical for the year to finish up her research
- ramirez for virology (and microbial physio in the spring): i heard is a pretty demanding professor. definitely NOT an easy A, but a lot of people enjoy learning from him b/c he DEFINITELY makes you learn your material. I sat in on the first day of his microbial phy class and he has a really intense teaching style which i foresee could either make someone feel stressed out.. or well rewarded so long as they kept up with the class. He's a really good lecturer but i'd take caution when choosing to take any of his classes
- EASY A classes to the EXTREME:
* HIV/AIDs the modern epidemic w/ A. Auleb (not to be mistaken for the cell bio guy, she's his wife): class is computer based, w/ online quizzes you can retake over and over till you score a perfect
* Human Sexuality: is a completely an online course taught by Auleb
(A. Auleb is really passionate about her topic and is on the front lines of HIV activism which i think is really cool... but b/c the class is ridiculously easy, the structure of the class makes you lazy and at times made me feel like I was wasting my time... it's a big class that fulfills some university requirement, so you'll see people from all different majors which to a certain extent explains why it's structured the way it is. BUT in the end i got my "A" and i did learn something to a certain extent. i would definitely recommend taking one of her classes to boost up morale
* Human Physiology Lecture w/ Sassi i heard is EXTREMELY easy as well... weekly quizzes and no midterms. she however is not teaching it this coming fall... Breckler is. and what i know about Breckler (i had her for vertebrate histology, which is also a good class, but is not necessarily an easy "A", though i heard she did 85% for an "A" when i took it) is that she is a great teacher (able to explain this really well), but she is at sometimes scattered.. i found myself correcting her at times. Physio is her phd, so she seems to really love it, so hopefully the class would be taught well.
* i also heard that endocrinology was really easy, i don't know with whom... but that's all i've heard
ok that's all i know, hope this helps. there are also other SFSU threads so you should definitely do a search. also, i decided to do a master's in cell and molecular bio starting this fall (though i'll be doing post bac work simultaneously) so if you wanna ask about that also... feel free
did you take anatomy lab? cuz if you did... i can tell you how vert histo is compared to Cal's anatomy lab... it's sooooo much better at SFSU. at Cal, IB131L is BOTH anatomy and histology, which is difficult b/c there is SO much information. Consequently my grade sucked (i got a C+) and i HATED the histology section b/c it was so poorly taught. b/c vert histo at state is simply histology only, you get the chance to really know the material well, and I found it to be a lot easier b/c 1) the lecture/lab is in a really intimate (almost the entire class were UCSF post bacs too which was kinda cool) and 2) breckler likes to teach. I really liked my vert histo class and found that this second time around i was able to excel =) ... but that may also be because i now LOVE the subject and I used to do histo-techniques in my lab that i just recently quit (in the IB dept) in the springtime... vert histo is listed as a t/th 4.5 hour class. it really doesn't take that long at all, everyone gets out in about 2 hrs. so if you're concerned about maximizing units in the least amount of time... you could probably overlap another class during the latter portion of the class.caliguy said:
alohadolphin15 said:yes i had to take lab simultaneously. so you went to cal? go bears!
for HIV/AIDS and human sexuality: b/c they are listed as BIOL, thus in the biology dept... they're consiered part of your BCPM. i talked to barry rothman (the pre-med/post bac advisor about this b/c he was the one who originally recommended the class to me), and that is what he told me. One thing to be wary about, that another advisor of mine (who i actually trust very much)... is that you should mimic your years in post bac as though you were in medical school. the idea behind this, is that you're trying to prove to med schools that you are just as good academically as other med students... take home message: yay for "easy A" classes... take the bull**** ones so long as you accompany them with "hard core ones" that look good. if you find an "easy A" that looks damn good on paper (ie: that one physio class and maybe endo) ... even better
psych classes:... i don't think they're part of the BCPM... dont do it!!.. =P jk nah fer real.. prioritize taking upper div classes in the BIOL dept.. there's plenty to select from... esp in the fall.
thx for ur helpcaliguy said:I didn't take the lab cause i heard it was hard at cal but I took the lecture which was very easy. I'm thinking about a psych course cause some dentist schools which i may apply for require it and i heard that regardless of how a course is listed, if its description is "science" enough, then it may count. Yea, i know i'm supposed to take a heavy courseload to show med schools i can handle it so how many units u recommend? Also, do you know if i can take regular genetics and then molecular genetics or would that look like i retook the same course? Aslo, have you took cellular neuroscience taught by rothman and if so how is the difficulty of that class... in general are the classes a lot easier at sfsu compared to cal? wut was ur major at cal, i assume mcb or ib...
alohadolphin15 said:
caliguy said:
markboonya said:
it's actually pretty competitive to get into classes. i think all the Cal peeps jumped on the bandwagon and found out about how great sfsu post bac was or something b/c it's kinda ridiculous the class shopping you have to do during the first week of school. the bad thing about that is that it makes classes so much harder to get into.... the good thing is that once class gets rolling, the post bac people tend to be really friendly and great to study with b/c they empathize with your situation caliguy said:
alohadolphin15 said:all the classes i took had a waitlist. the fact that you couldn't get on a waitlst probably means that the class is crazy full.
don't get discouraged though. it's just like Cal where you have to just wait it out and keep attending the class until you get in
here's are some tips for the first few days of classes:
1) BRING MULTIPLE COPIES OF YOUR UCB TRANSCRIPT!
- professors are sticklers to prerequisites!!!! the FIRST thing they will tell you will be that if you don't have the prereqs you can't be in the class (which will actually open up room b/c people enrolled will have to drop)
- if you don't make a prerequisite, it's not yet the end of the world. SOME professors are "semi-lenient" ie: although cell bio was required to take developmental bio, she told me that the biochemistry class I took was sufficient enough).
2) you may want to PRINT OUT COURSE DESCRIPTIONS (from the ucb general catolog) for any of the classes you wish to use as a prereq. not all prof's want this, but some will especially when a class is full and the prof is trying to get rid of as many people as he/she can (ie: b/c microbio at Cal is listed as Public Health 162, the prof questioned it's validity as a biological science class and requested to see a course description)
3) if all is equal and you're simply competing for a space... DON'T GIVE UP (until maybe the 3rd wk of class). Also, e-mailing the prof saying how much your interested in the class after say 2 days of waiting might be helpful. I did this and the professor actually extended her class size simply to let me in!
4) although you're competing for a space... DON'T BE TOO PUSHY WITH THE PROFS!! professors will be on edge looking through transcripts and hearing the same stories about how someone really needs to be in the class, so simply be considerate yet assertive. and if you're trying to see if a similar class satisfies a pre-req, DON'T be snooty about it. (i heard some post bacs before trying to weasle out of pre-reqs to professors by saying, "but c'mon i majored in bio at berkeley" which i personally think sounds lame b/c it implies that sfsu is less of a school.
5) if you're class shopping for 2 different classes that occur at the same time and one of them happens to be a lab... it's probably more worth it to focus on getting into the lecture class. labs are harder to get into than lectures. a prof can always extend the class size of a lecture whereas a lab is limited to the actual number of stations there are in a lab bench. you can still try getting into the lab, especially if you're really interested in it and want to take it that bad... afterall, iprof breckler did extend her class size despite the lab being full simply to let me in.
6) if you're successful and a prof adds you to a class he/she will give you an "add sticker ** look for the sticker... YOU WANT A STICKER! and make sure to use it right away so you don't lose your spot
7) since you're a registered student KNOW YOUR SFSU ID # (it's 9 digits and it was e-mailed to you a long time ago)... this will make things easier!
8) **SET UP YOUR SFSU E-MAIL ACCOUNT!! even if you don't check it... you will need it to get wireless internet access on campus in case you have a laptop **
9) GET A STUDENT ID CARD both open university AND registered students can get one. You'll need it to use the computing center in the library
10) Library is 24 hours year round!! pretty cool huh... we didnt even get that at cal
It's pretty crazy... i swear that for the upper div bio classes at sfsu, at least half of the class are post bacs
ok that's all. sorry if this is long... let me know if you need any other words of wisdom
