I really liked this class! I had it with Prof Hsu, Prof Soroosh, and Prof Hahm. They alternate in lecturing. I do agree that you should be interested in the topic to have a good experience in this class. The class was around half biology, but it was pretty interesting even coming from someone who has always hated bio. I had Joseph Zoller as my TA who was very well versed in the biology part, which helped a lot with comprehension. Questions were encouraged, though lecture always went pretty fast. The slides were posted afterwards though, so you could just go back and fill in the gaps. There were a few cool socials where they bought us food or cookies. I appreciate the interdisciplinary aspect of this class and the fact that there were multiple professors. I recommend taking!

This is more of a review of the cluster overall rather than just Dr. Hsu. But I will briefly overview each professor throughout. First thing is, which almost every other review has said, you really need to be interested in the content to do well in this class. Although the work itself isn't extremely difficult if you do the bare minimum (like me, who didn't do the readings and barely paid attention in lecture) it's super important to do a lot of studying before the exams. Since I took this during COVID, the exams were online and the hardest part was the time limit. It's kind of ridiculous to only give 60 minutes for 65-75 questions that are a mix of mc, t/f, and short answer. It's open note but the time constraint really prevents you from checking notes or even reviewing your answers. I kind of bombed the first exam but that's mainly because I didn't study. REALLY MEMORIZE THE LECTURE SLIDES. The textbook readings really aren't necessary but the pdf/article readings tend to be 2-3 questions on the exams. The absolute worst part about this class is communication and grading. I would definitely recommend the class if their grading wasn't driving me crazy. It takes them 5 weeks to grade a 2 page essay and they tend to submit grades last minute. And they are awful with communication and instruction. You write 3 essays first quarter and they barely give any guidance. TA is important too because some grade harder than others (mine took 2 points off bc I didn't capitalize one of my sources o_O). In terms of professors, Dr. Hsu was probably the most interesting, Merkin taught policy which is boring but she did a good job, and Whittaker taught the bio part, which is the hardest content of the class but he explained it well. Honestly this class is hit or miss. At times I was ready to drop this cluster and just take GE's but the service learning may be a benefit. Also if you want to minor in gerontology this cluster covers all its pre-reqs.

Professor Hsu was a very engaging and clear professor. Many of the concepts discussed in class are easy to relate back to "real life." He is very approachable and will answer almost any question you have and provides accessible office hours do ask anything else.
The class itself is relatively easy to manage, particularly in comparison to the other clusters. Attendance is counted for the discussions which are supposed to last two hours but typically are done in one. Cheng as a TA was fantastic as he kept the discussions fun and informative; discussions actually felt like a good use of your time.
While taking notes in class is always a good idea, the professors always post the slides from that lecture on CCLE after class so you can go back and review later.
As many mentioned, the grading system is kind of weird. The first "real assignment" is a paper on Ageism, around two pages long, which is returned around week 5. By week 10, you really only know the score from that paper and the first midterm (around 30% of the entire grade). I would not say that the grading system should deter you from taking the class though.
I would recommend taking the class if you actually have an interest in human aging. You will be provided many resources and have some pretty good professors.

As a professor, Hsu is really great. He is really engaging with his students and lectures calmly and slowly with enough detail without being boring. He’s a great guy.
As a class, it’s quite painful. The readings are doable at first but get increasingly longer as the quarter goes on to the point where I gave up reading because of how long it takes. Also, as the previous review noted, the grading is absolutely horrendous and is a huge reason as to why I would stress all the time over this class. The assignments weren’t as difficult, but when you’re waiting weeks just to get back a grade on a two to three page essay, you start getting anxious about your grade. There’s no reason why they waited until the last days before grades were due to upload the remaining 80% of assignments, most which I am definitely sure were graded some time ago (one was a presentation that was graded on the spot! and it still took them weeks to just put the grade up). The grading is super annoying but if you put in the effort and see the inquiry specialist for feedback on assignments, you should hopefully do well. The readings aren’t super important but they include a couple questions in the exams regarding them. Overall an eh class.

This is a review of Cluster 80A as a whole rather than just of Dr. Hsu. This class is actually a joke. The class has 126 students, 3 professors, 3 Teaching Fellows, and 1 Inquiry Specialist, yet they still manage to grade things unjustifiably slow. There is no reason why it should take them 6 weeks to grade one three page paper and 3 to grade a 45 question midterm. The exams aren't too bad though. Even though the assignments themselves aren't horrible, it's their grading that will kill you. I got marked down for starting a paragraph on a new page? I still don't get it. If you can, do not take this class. It is not worth the work and the hassle, you are much better off taking an easy GE, do not make the mistake I made.

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ABSOLUTELY HORRIBLE. I was so excited to take this course as an incoming freshman, hoping to learn more about elderly people and generational effects. THIS CLASS WAS ENTIRELY SCIENCE -- we learned about mitochondrial buildup causing senescence of cells that results in aging. SO BORING, if you do not enjoy science do not take this class.

WORST CLASS IVE EVER TAKEN. If you would like to sit in a classroom and fall asleep from boredom to the sounds of your professors indoctrinating your political and using vague terms and refusing to explain them, then this is the class for you. I was so excited to learn about aging, elders, and generations, but instead I learned about how horrible every place that isn't L.A. is. They take FOREVER to grade your assignments. By week 10, the only thing in the grade book was a paper from week 2 and a midterm from week 5, and that one just because students begged for their scores. I had to switch to pass/no pass to protect my GPA because I had no idea what my grade would be even during finals week. I urge you, PLEASE DON'T TAKE THIS CLASS. I took the time to write this review, so I can save future freshmen from the horrible fate I suffered taking this class.

I had Paul Hsu, whose lectures were ok but extremely boring. I also had Artin Soroosh, who literally went through his slides faster than the speed of light and didn't give us a chance to take notes, and Aryun Hahm, who would go off of her slides and say random things which really threw everyone off. The class used the most vague terms and would not describe them at all.

Not to mention, this class was HIGHLY POLITICIZED. If we were not bashing one political side, we were talking smack about people who vote a certain way or people who don't live in California. If you would like to become indoctrinated and not be allowed to have a mind of your own, I recommend you take this class.

My TA was Joseph Zoller, who happened to be the worst public speaker I've ever witnessed -- he gave most of his lectures turned around with his back to the class and at one point I had to ask him to speak up because I couldn't hear his voice.

All in all, the professors really could have made this class fun but instead they made it a place of misery that I dread showing up to. I am dropping this class next quarter.

very easy A. i’m just stupid and didn’t study for the exams lol. the male professors are SUUUUUUUUPER fast tho.

(This is a review of the 1st and 2nd quarter) Overall, I was very neutral about this class. There were some parts that I really liked, and other parts that I didn't like. The class was about 1/2 biology and 1/2 policy & society. I really liked the bio aspect of the class because its important information to know, and so learning about aging, what impacts it, how to age better, and the latest research was really interesting. The guest lectures were usually pretty good, and I felt lucky to be able to learn from them (with a few exceptions.) The main components of the class consist of essays and tests.
The tests are open note and often directly from the lectures, so it was really nice to have a class that I didn't have to worry about as much in terms of midterms/finals. The essays are also usually 2-3 pages and on easy research topics, with the exception of a large project that we did in the first quarter. There are also a couple group presentations, but they aren't a huge percentage of your grade and are really short.
The parts that I didn't like about this class was the service learning and the lectures, especially first quarter. Many of the first quarter lectures were really dry and also very slow. Dr. Soroosh fits a lot of information into one lecture, while Dr. hahm and Dr. Hsu like to go painfully slow. However, many of nonbio presentations are pretty much common sense, so if you want to skip lecture on those days and just watch it from your computer I would recommend doing that, otherwise you'll be bored out of your mind.
However, my least favorite part about this class was service learning. We got paired with two random older adults that we had to talk to on zoom for an hour each week during the 2nd quarter. While I do see the benefits to this, I just don't like how they use the interaction to aid in our learning. It kinda feels like they're exploiting the older adult, since the older adults don't know that we are participating in the program as part of a class and FOR A GRADE. It was really awkward to have to explain this to my older adult. It was so awkward that I didn't tell my OTHER older adult (yeah, we have to talk to two), and she was under the assumption that I needed a mentor/grandmother figure. Furthermore, it isn't realistic for them to assume that all interaction will be over once the program is over. Both of my older adults want to keep talking every week after the program ends and are planning on taking me out to dinner. While I did enjoy talking to my older adults every week, it was a big time commitment and something that I had to put A LOT of energy into. I also feel lucky that I got paired with older adults that were semi easy to talk to. I know some people who got paired with older adults that are very hard to talk to, let alone talk to them for the entire required HOUR. Personally, I would have loved to volunteer in an elderly home and talk to multiple older adults at the same time and help out running activities and other things. Talking one on one with a stranger over zoom for a whole hour is just difficult and awkward.
HOWEVER, this class satisfied three GEs and two requirements, which was very nice come enrollment time. Basically, since you're already guarunteed a spot in the cluster, you don't have to scramble for classes or settle for shitty ones like other freshmen. It satisfies writing II and the diversity requirement. If your a prospective freshmen, I reccomend taking a cluster that satisifes GEs that your major doesn't satisfy. It will help you out a lot!

This class was fine. It was really easy to understand and follow, but I would say this class has a whole lot of information to memorize. Our midterm/finals were open note in person (mcq + fr questions), so not too bad but still hard. I think the only problem was that the class was like 2 hours and that's a long time. I feel like around 30 minutes, I zoned out. All the professors are super nice and good with communication (Soroosh, Hsu, and Hahm).