Fresh Faces: New Semester...

February 7, 2010 9:26 PM

New Semester...

The fourth week of the spring 2010 semester is already starting, and I already feel behind. Maybe I did overestimate my own abilities, but I'm determined to keep with it. Mostly I feel like certain things shouldn't require that much time, yet they do. For example, none of the other notetakers for ASUC lecture notes spends over five hours on an hour of lecture. Yet I'm just too stubborn sometimes, and I want to please the professor, which is basically impossible to do. I'm just trying to hang in there for now. In contrast to last semester, most of my classes are not science-based at all. I am taking two science classes, partly because I haven't declared my track and those are the only spring classes that will satisfy both (that I haven't taken already). I am currently taking MCB 102 (biochemistry), NST 160 (human nutrition, etc., etc., etc.), French 116A (16th century lit), French 147 (sociolinguistics), French 161B (Mazarin), Anthro 114 (history of anthropological thought), and Music 144 (University chorus). I'm also in the university wind ensemble, but I'm not enrolled in it because I can't.

The thing that I am really, really hoping to do right now is declare my track. I am looking to declare the dietetics track, and I have contacted Mary Mead, the dietetics director, as my major advisor Melissa Pon told me to do. Nonetheless, after two tries over the past month, I still haven't received a response. Melissa says she is probably too busy. I can understand that, but I really want to get this track declaration over with. I am just too full of anxiety right now, not knowing how it would turn out. I heard that dietetics doesn't take that many students, and although my GPA is pretty high, my C in Chem 3B is likely to not make a good impression, especially since that was one of the few classes they specifically tell us to complete with a letter grade before declaring. Also, I was told that Mary Mead doesn't like simultaneous degrees, much less a triple major, so I don't know how that declaration will turn out either. I just want to get my track declaration and simultaneous degree petition over with, with definite results so I can know what exactly I am doing with my years of education, instead of taking random classes. Plus, people in my French and anthro classes always ask me whether I'm majoring in that area, and I don't quite know how to answer.

So, with classes themselves, I feel like I'm behind in a lot of reading, and I'll try to catch up as much as possible. The dilemma is always between doing the reading for tomorrow or doing the ones missed from the week before. Right now I should be studying for my MCB 102 quiz tomorrow. I hope I will get into a steady pace in a couple of weeks, when my first midterms will be. Incidentally, two of my first midterms fall on the same day: MCB 102 and NST 160.

In terms of course material, the most interesting and most difficult would definitely be NST 160 (I like two of my French classes and anthro too, but I feel like a CNR blog has no place for that). Anyway, the full title of NST 160 is Human Nutrition: normal physiology and pathophysiology of disease. I have found before the course started that there is almost no information whatsoever on this class. No one talks about its level of difficulty, the course material is ambiguous, and the professor is not even on ratemyprofessors.com. This class does not use a textbook. Instead, the professor (at least this one) uses lecture slides and supplements them by a bunch of articles. Personally, I find the lectures difficult to keep awake in, partly because the professor tries to cover a large amount of material in a very short time and partly because 101 Morgan at 3pm has got to be the stuffiest place on campus. Reading over the lecture material before hand definitely helps. But the material is pretty interesting, and this professor speaks with the coolest accent :) We started off talking about taste receptors and amino acid sensing, and have gone to obesity, Circadian rhythms, etc. I find it interesting what random things could be tied to obesity. That being said, this is definitely a hard class, especially since I haven't fulfilled the prerequisites (MCB 102 or NST 103) and am probably one of the only second-year students in that class.

Anyway, I should probably get to doing my reading for tomorrow....and studying for my quiz. If anybody has questions about things, I've got a lot of the administrative and academic procedures figured out for both CNR and L&S (long live Internet), and I know a bit about EAP as well. And if anyone has questions about any of the classes I have taken, feel free to ask.

Oh, and also, if anyone is incidentally taking anthropology 1 this semester and needs extra help, notes that are essentially grammatically correct transcripts are available at notes.berkeley.edu . They are also available for NST 160 and MCB 102.

Jade Liu | Permalink | Comment on this article | Comments (2)

Comments (2)

"I am currently taking MCB 102 (biochemistry), NST 160 (human nutrition, etc., etc., etc.), French 116A (16th century lit), French 147 (sociolinguistics), French 161B (Mazarin), Anthro 114 (history of anthropological thought), and Music 144 (University chorus)." WHY are you taking 7 classes Jade?!?!?

Posted by Amelia | 2010-02-08

Wow you are smart.(compliment) IS MCB 102 really time consuming?

Posted by Andrew | 2010-02-08