Class taken: BE/ChemE CM 145

My advice: STAY AWAY FROM THIS CLASS

Dr. Chen is very intelligent and well-versed in her field. That being said, if you're an undergrad eager to learn more about molecular biology (like me at the start of the quarter), then be prepared to lose some interest in that field after this class. Her homework assignments consist of summarizing an article into one page and making your own graphic. It doesn't seem too bad but it is more time-consuming (and in my opinion pointless) than you may think at first. With her lecture slides, she throws a TON of information at you (there is a lot of extra research/industry-based info that I don't believe is necessary for this class) and this can (and for many, probably is) very overwhelming when you are studying for her exams (which are not fair in my opinion just based on her slides). I have to thank the TA Eugenia. For the second midterm and final, she gave practice problems that were very helpful for those exams, and I would not have survived the class if it wasn't for those resources. However, this brings me to another point: an effective professor should be able to present material in a balanced way-not too light and not too overwhelming. Dr. Chen definitely leans a lot more on the latter side, and until this issue is fixed (or a more fair professor teaches this class), I advise you to stay away and pick a BE/ChemE elective that doesn't make you tear your hair out as much. Electives should be there to pique your interest and make you think but also present material in a fair manner, and this is not what this class did.