<p>@cocoamix: “resident” probably refers to a california resident (means you’ve been here for a while and your family pays taxes, etc.)</p>
<p>
Professors will post up their websites on EEE sometime mid September and there you will be able to find the syllabus which says what books go with that course. Alternatively, sometime in september the [UCI</a> bookstore](<a href=“http://book.uci.edu%5DUCI”>http://book.uci.edu) will activate coursebooks for the fall where you can go to the Coursebook section of the site, and search for coursebooks by class.</p>
<p>
As a soon to be senior Bio major I would say that is quite a misconception. While that may be true for some lower div classes such as Bio 98 (Biochemistry), all the upper div bio classes/labs that I have taken (6 total) are not rote memorization, they require quite a lot of problem solving/application which some people who rely on memorizing have a hard time with. </p>
<p>
Take ratemyprofessor.com with a grain of salt (more like a handful of salt). Many of the people who post are strongly for or against a professor because the people who are not super passionate about the professor but still liked them tend not to be motivated to write a review. It is much better to ask fellow students who have taken that professor before what they think. I have had several experiences that run contrary to the prevailing opinion on ratemyprofessor.com</p>
<p>
+1000. To any new bio major at UCI, you really should take advantage of Bio Peer Tutoring. All the tutors have excelled in the course and can tell you exactly what you need to do, all you have to do is ask 
Don’t wait around and only go to exam reviews, go the the weekly tutoring sessions, even if you don’t think you need to it reinforces all the material well and can greatly improve your grade.</p>
<p>Depending on the number of tutors for the class there are 4-8 hours every week of free, high quality tutoring while LARC will offer you 3 hrs/week for $100 (if they don’t raise the price again)</p>
<p>Since zotzotzot13 recommends asking student fellow students about the professors, I want to ask youuu guys!!!
Who would you recommend for
Bio 93
Chem 1a
Writing 39b
I want a teacher who is easy to talk to (not intimidating) and teaches well. Of course I also want one with an easy class :}</p>
<p>I would recommend Dr. O’Dowd for 93. She is amazing , one of the best profs at uci, wins the annual teaching award quite often. She is very approachable/ easy to talk to. Her class is no cakewalk, but I think her quality is worth more studying than what you would need for the other set of professors (Dr. Wood and some others I think). She is probably one of the few on ratemyprofessor that has consistent amazing reviews</p>
<p>The professor reaching the second half with her, Dr. Edigner, normally teaches Bio 97 (genetics) I think it is her first time with 93, but the second half of 93 is mostly basic introductory genetics so she should be quite high quality as well.</p>
<p>good luck with chem1a, I didn’t like any of the gchem profs I had, and they seem to get mixed reviews :(</p>
<p>For the first day of instruction, what if we don’t have classes on Thursdays? Do we still have to go?</p>
<p>Did any of you guys have professor brindley for chem 1A? Of so how is she? Only 1 person rated her on ratemyprofessor so I’m not so sure.</p>
<p>@cj03612: you don’t have to go to campus if you don’t have class on the first day of instruction. </p>
<p>@cocoamix: I’m surprised she’s a professor. She was a TA for my chem 1C class last quarter. She filled in for my professor twice during the quarter. She lectures by using a combination of powerpoint and pen/paper, and she actually knows what she’s doing. The only negative thing about her is that she seemed to think very little of us, and sometimes she came off as a bit rude when responding to students.</p>
<p>@POPPED:</p>
<p>Would you say it’s a wiser choice to choose Brindley over Gorodetsky, Arasasingham, and Mukamel?</p>
<p>I’ve heard nothing of Gorodetsky, but after looking him up ([Gorodetsky</a> Group | Biomolecular Electronics](<a href=“http://gorodetskygroup.org/about/]Gorodetsky”>http://gorodetskygroup.org/about/) which lead me to [AlonGorodetsky</a> - Yeshiva University - RateMyProfessors.com](<a href=“http://www.ratemyprofessors.com/ShowRatings.jsp?tid=1379350]AlonGorodetsky”>Alon Gorodetsky at Yeshiva University | Rate My Professors)), I wouldn’t be against taking him. </p>
<p>Many students have complained that Mukamel is disorganized and that he isn’t very coherent. Arasasingham is known to be one of the harder, if not hardest, of the gchem professors. </p>
<p>I just looked through Brindley’s 1A chem page ([Chemistry</a> 1A Summer 2012](<a href=“http://sites.uci.edu/brindleychem1a2012/]Chemistry”>http://sites.uci.edu/brindleychem1a2012/)), and her midterm seems pretty straightforward, which makes sense since she seems like she would base her tests off of problems from the textbook.</p>
<p>I would definitely choose Brindley over Mukamel and Arasasingham, but I’m not sure if I would choose her over Gorodetsky.</p>
<p>
ditto, I had a much harder time in his chem1c than chem1b (Potma). I didn’t take 1a.</p>
<p>Okay, thank you very much!
At least I know the two I should avoid. :)</p>
<p>I have another question. I know the writing class you get assigned is randomized. If you happen to get a boring theme, is the only way to switch through waitlist? What are the chances of that happening? Which writing theme did you get and did you enjoy it? :)</p>
<p>The writing classes are only random during the fall quarter. Winter and spring writing classes release the professor/theme ahead of time, so you could always opt to start writing in the winter. The only way to switch would be through waitlist, and that is pretty risky since writing does fill up fast, so you might end up not in a writing class at all. I had crime noir as my theme for 39B, and the theme was fairly enjoyable, considering how much I dislike writing.</p>
<p>So, the only safe option is to stick with your given theme?</p>
<p>Essentially, yes. I wouldn’t recommend switch writing because of a theme since you might end up liking your theme, although I do think that attempting to switch because you have a bad professor would be a good reason to try.</p>
<p>Ah, thank you very much!</p>
<p>when i filled out my financial aid i marked that i would be living “off campus” because at that time i was planning on renting a room 10 minutes away from the school. now because of money issues, i think it’s best for me to just commute and live at home. will the school ask for a proof that i am living off campus? i’m afraid that they will reduce my financial aid if i change my living status to “at home with a parent.” do you guys think i should just keep it as “off campus” or change it?</p>
<p>hi i want to know what the difference between lecture labs discussions, etc. and if I’m taking general chemistry1a do i need to take a lab lecture and discussion? I’m really confused hopefully you can help me.</p>
<p>For the gchem series, you take the lecture and a discussion each quarter for your freshman year. The lecture is basically a lecture lead by a professor in a large lecture hall. The discussion may or may nor be mandatory depending on the professor, but it is basically a weekly gathering between a smaller group of students and a TA in which the TA will review what you have either learned or are going to learn during the week. For gchem labs there are no discussions/lectures (but do note that there are for other labs); instead there is a weekly four hour lab that requires you to carry out an experiment. Typically, you need to come to lab with your prelab written up, you will then write down observations/data during the lab, and then the following week you will be required to turn in a post lab report. For the gchem series, you take labs 1LC and 1LD during the spring quarter of your freshman year, and then the fall quarter of your sophomore year, respectively. If you are a chemistry major, you take the chem major lab (M2LA, etc) that correlates to the lecture (so M2LA with chem 1A). Hopefully this helps!</p>
<p>I wait listed for writing 39B and I’m first on the list actually! Do I have a chance of getting the class? And should I enroll to a diff class still just in case I don’t get writ?</p>
<p>^Yes. Also, go to the first day class for a couple of writing sections you want. A lot of students (freshman especially) are too lazy to attend and they get dropped.</p>