This course is as rewarding as it is demanding, with a comprehensive workload that spans a wide range of material. Each week, we dive into a new chapter, complemented by mini-projects and weekly homework that keep you on your toes. The key to navigating this course successfully lies in diligent organization and timely completion of assignments.

Particularly time-consuming are the mini-projects, which can take upwards of 15 to 20 hours each. They underscore the importance of choosing your project partners with care; the collaborative nature of these projects means that the effort of each member directly impacts the collective outcome. It's an aspect of the course that can significantly sway your grade, especially if you're paired with less committed partners.

Professor Margulis stands out for his enthusiasm for the subject and genuine care for his students. He's approachable and invested in our learning, although he sets the bar high, expecting us to match his commitment. The course's challenge isn't rooted in the complexity of the material but in the volume and pace at which it's covered. Absorbing such a breadth of content within the 10-week timeframe is daunting, making it difficult to grasp the nuances of each topic fully.

It's worth noting that student reviews may not always provide a complete picture; there's a tendency for those who excel to share their experiences more so than those who don't. This skew can paint an overly positive image of the course difficulty. Another word of caution: if your background is in MATLAB rather than CS31, prepare for a challenging adjustment. MATLAB's syntax is notoriously user-unfriendly, adding an extra layer of difficulty to the course.

Margulis goes above and beyond to equip us with the tools for success, offering an array of resources like past exams and homework assignments. Despite this support, I found his exams challenging.

Given the intense workload, I'd advise against taking this course alongside three other engineering classes. It demands a significant investment of time and energy, particularly for civil and environmental engineering students, and balancing it with a heavy course load is a formidable task.

As is with all of his classes, professor Margulis organizes all the course content and logistics very well. His lectures can be dry sometimes, but as long as you try your best to pay attention, you'll realize that he explains things very clearly and well. What is perhaps the best resource in this class is his textbook, which is extremely well-written and is perfect for reading through for harder topics. This class involves a lot of MATLAB group work, but it's just being able to call and set up different functions to analyze watersheds. The homeworks also aren't too bad but can be tricky sometimes. His exams are extremely fair; if you study well and prepare a good cheat sheet, you'll do fine. Don't procrastinate on anything in his class. And overall, hydrology is actually pretty interesting.

Having taken so many disorganized STEM classes at UCLA, this is like a cool stream in the middle of the desert. Everything is so straightforward. It's ridiculously well organized. You never have to wonder what you have to do or what you'll be tested on. Do assignments on time. Study HW problems and examples given in discussion and you'll definitely be ready for the tests. He's not going to throw curveballs at you. Grade distribution is reasonable so not everything is based on tests. I don't even care about the subject material but this was one of my favorite classes I've taken. Margulis is fantastic. Don't overthink it.

This is the most organized class you will take up to this point here. Margulis designed every asset in this class from textbook to Matlab codes to homework and it's all free to download. Everything is connected together and if you read the textbook, you will understand the concepts, though the last few chapters were more heavy on knowledge and so tougher to get through. Weekly workload is extremely high with a homework assignment and Matlab project which could be overwhelming in the first few weeks until you start to understand what is going on but the work is very useful to learn and apply the concepts from class and visualize what is going on in a watershed.

Margulis was an amazing professor! This class is one the most organized and well prepared classes I've taken at UCLA thus far. The lectures were clear and informative, the assignments were quite intensive but not impossible, and as long as you studied for exams they were straight-forward and fair.
Despite taking this class during Covid, you could clearly see the effort put into transitioning this class online. I felt as though students were provided with more than enough resources to do well, and couldn't have asked for more. Definitely agree with the previous reviews!

Professor Margulis is incredible! I absolutely loved this class. I would always brag to my friends that I am taking a class on the water cycle, which is true, but it is a lot more than that.
Lectures were really good. Professor Margulis perfectly balanced quantitative and qualitative analysis through going over the math behind hydrological processes and then giving us a conceptual understanding using super helpful graphics and matlab graphs!
There was roughly 1 homework assignment a week that was half math and half conceptual questions. These were more theoretical applications of the material learned in class.
Then we also had matlab projects which is where we were able to actually see hydrological processes working in real life through analyzing watersheds in the sierra nevadas which contributes to our water supply. I really liked how there was this balance between theoretical and applied, quantitative and qualitative . It made the class way more interesting and enhanced our learning.
There were quizzes in discussion every week that made sure that you understood conceptually what was going on. As well, there were two exams, but the concepts were exactly what you would expect. If you understand the material and are able to do the homeworks and projects, then you'll be fine!
As well, Professor Margulis, basically created the class from scratch with his own code base and textbook that he wrote. It is unbelievable the amount of work that he point in to the class and it really shows with how amazing everything is.
Also, if you have any questions he is super helpful in office hours! Highly recommend!

C&EE 150 is one of the best classes in the civil engineering department. Margulis is an exceptional professor who gives crystal-clear lectures and is very helpful and friendly. He even wrote the textbook! The workload's a bit heavy, but you'll learn so much that it's fully worthwhile. You'll probably want to download all of the lecture material for FE prep and future reference because its so concise and easily-understandable. I can't wait to take another class with Margulis.

Margulis is a phenomenal professor. He built this class (CEE 150) from the ground up, even going so far as to write his own textbook (a PDF he provides to you for free) as well as a MATLAB hydrology model called MOD-WET that you use for each homework. He is a great lecturer and explains the material thoroughly, and is very approachable and happy to answer questions both in and out of class.

The homework incorporates MATLAB and is pretty time consuming. Because it is thorough, though, it gives you opportunities to explore each of the concepts he covers in lecture, plotting hydrologic values over time and space and seeing what factors influence them. Kind of like M20 in the sense that you often plot value and must explain their behavior.

His exams are, again, very well-written, and he doesn't surprise you with anything. As long as you know how to do the homework, you should be go to go.

Overall, very well-developed course from a great prof., can be tedious but you learn a lot. Couldn't ask for anything better!