I am a second year, Neurobiology, Physiology, and Behavior major at UC Davis. I am struggling to get above average grades. For science courses I end up getting a C no matter what. Thought I finally got a B for one of my science classes this quarter, but ended up 3 points away. I put in a transfer application to CSU Sacramento. I was just wondering if CSU courses are generally easier than they are at Davis.
I have overheard that people speculating that upper divisions at UCs are not as difficult, is this true? I wouldn’t want to transfer then find out from my friends that it got much easier once they got to upper division courses.
While I can’t speak to your major I would say that generally UD are easier because they try and weed people out in the LD. Only the strong survive. However, others may have more direct knowledge re your major.
Upper division courses have more advanced material, but most students in them are in the major, meaning it is the subject that they are most interested in.
Lower division courses have many students who are undecided and not sure if they are interested in the subject, as well as those who need them as peripheral requirements to their majors. Also, if you are in general chemistry, general biology, or organic chemistry, you will be in pre-med-heavy courses (at any college), and such courses will have heavy grade competition (pre-meds basically need all or mostly A grades to have any realistic chance of medical school).
CSUs do have relatively voluminous general education requirements, so consider whether you will need to take more general education courses if you transfer to CSUSac versus if you stay at UCD.
For your major at UCD, the BIS 2A Biology course and the CHE 2A/2B courses are notorious weed out classes for al the potential Pre-Med, Pre-Dental etc… students along with the Organic chem series. Doing well grade wise is always tough, but if you understand the material, this will help you greatly in your upper division courses. As @ucbalumnus stated that the students in the Upper Division courses are also the students that are interested in the material. So many majors are required to take these lower division courses as pre-req’s that the competition is tough. My older son had to push through these courses for his major and did find that his upper division courses were easier for the most part.
My niece is a First year Biology student at SDSU and she is complaining about how difficult the Basic Chem and Biology courses are there so I think you need to continue staying on your path at UCD. What is your ultimate goal with your major?
I’m looking at going to Physicians Assistant graduate school after my undergraduate studies are through. The average GPA is a 3.3 for science majors, but pulling these C’s with all these general science classes isn’t going to cut it, so I am exploring all my options at this point.
Thank you for your comment, it really ddi help me!
Have you availed yourself of all the resources on campus such as tutors, professor or TA office hours? My son thought he could tough it out the first 2 quarters but he eventually found that going to the tutoring center and office hours did help. He breezed through AP Biology and Chemistry in HS and was pulling C’s and B’s for these classes also.
Yes, unfortunately I’ve exhausted all resources provided to me. I’m sure they are helping a great deal, but still pulling C’s or low B’s in these classes, which is very upsetting because it is not for a lack of effort on my end, which is why I’m considering transferring, but I don’t want to if I will see no award for my efforts. I did great with AP classes in high school, passed mostly every AP test I took, but these exams in Davis are just ridiculous!
My dd graduated with a degree, at Davis, in NPB and performed extremely well because she went to tutoring. (She got into every grad program which she applied to including USC and UCSF.) She went to all of the tutoring sessions and to all of the office hours. They prepared her well for all of her tests.
Her elder sister and the med students, at her lab job, recommended that she go daily to tutoring, which she did. You have to find the GA’s that are really good at explaining the subjects, and also refer to the supplemental texts, which no one purchases except the grad assistants. The tutors will explain all of that to you.