Julia Wittes

This class is very much a "drinking out of the firehouse" class. So rather than knowledge, you are always swarmed by a need to do well. I took this class as I am very interested in genetics but with 4 midterms + a cumulative final - its just not worth it and probably killed any interest I had in the class in the first place. The instructors just glaze over the concepts in class and then expect you to somehow know everything during a time-crunch exam, which all just snowballs and isn't fun at all.

approaches to genetics, bacterial genetics, methods of research, etc.

General and more complex genetics concepts ex. recombination, pedigrees, mendelian inheritance, non-mendelian inheritance,

Interesting class but taught in a not super engaging way. There is a lot of content that you need to know and explanations of practice problems are subpar so you have to teach yourself a majority.

I probably wouldn't recommend this course to another student (if its not part of your requirement). There are four midterms, the final is cumulative, and there are almost bi-weekly take home quizzes. In terms of workload, this course is extremely time consuming, which is exacerbated by the fact that it is also very problem based. There is essentially 1 pset every week, and if you fail to go to the optional recitations to review them then they get very confusing. I was staying on top of the material the entire semester, and I pretty much never missed lecture, but even then I felt slightly overwhelmed by the amount of material and problems I had to complete. However, on the flip side, I really enjoyed the in-class activities and particularly the discussion about the ethics of Crispr/Cas9 as I feel like most STEM classes don't really take the time to discuss the implications of the material they are teaching. I definitely feel way more confident in genetics topics, and I particularly think that this course would be good for those who have a research interest in genetics, as opposed to a pre-medical interest.

I would take this class if you need to for an upper-level course - but don't take it for fun. If you really like genetics that much, you can learn it online tbh and you'll get more out of it.

Probably the least painful core Bio class!

The subject itself is so interesting, and the course really makes me feel dissuaded from pursuing further studies in genetics

The class is a lot of work and while they curve very well, I would not say that it is worth the effort unless one wants to go into genetics or requires this class.

You will be stressed about the exams but there is a pretty generous curve