I went into this class as a non-STEM major, and while a class on stem cells seemed daunting, learning complex and relevant topics was a rewarding experience for me. Professor Austin is wonderful--she is knowledgeable and passionate about the material. Although this class is a GE, there are a lot of MCDB/STEM majors. The professor is aware of that, and at times, I felt overwhelmed as some bio topics were briefly glazed over in lecture. However, going to the professor's office hours and asking the TAs questions helped close that gap. There are numerous opportunities for extra credit, and all of the assignments, quizzes, and presentations are manageable.

I never felt like my time was wasted or that I didn't gain anything from this class. The professor changes the material each quarter and makes it relevant to current day. This quickly became my favorite class. Also, the professor selects very committed, helpful TAs.

I also want to mention that Professor Austin really values participation. I personally went to all of her office hours + occasionally raised my hand in class; I want to emphasize how important participation is to succeed in the class. She actually cares about her students and makes a note of the ones who are participating and trying to engage with the material. All in all, would recommend.

What can I say!!! Dr. Austin is one of those professors that you will never forget in your life. This woman is absolutely incredible. She made MCDB 50 so so so so fun and interesting. She is extremely knowledgable and laidback. She gives a SHITTON of extra credit assignments like its insane lol. Just do the HWs on time and do well on exams and you'll be fiiineeee. Also, she selects amazing and very chill TAs so you'll have a very chill class. I took her class as an elective my last quarter at UCLA and it was the best decision I made in my life. Crying cuz I didn't have her teaching me biochem :((((

(If you get a chance to take her, DO IT non negotiable!!)

Also, PARTICIPATION IS IMPOrTANT. Dr. Austin has a different way of teaching which I love. She turns the class into a big discussion so you get to hear many viewpoints. Please participate a lot. Y'all love to talk a lot so this is your chance to have a great conversation with a great audience :)

This class was great. Workload is very manageable. Professor uploads notes for weekly content covered which was incredibly useful and helped narrow down what you were supposed to focus on in class so you dont need to take notes during lecture and can just listen. TA discussions were incredibly helpful and reinforced content gone over in class weekly and highlighted what you should know for quiz and exams. Highly recommend showing up for discussion before quiz's and exams as they really prepare you for them. If you arent related to anything bio related this class is very light on the bio topics and doesn't require any background knowledge on topics and helps introduce you to a ton of new content that is pretty interesting. Class is basically half Bio and Half ethics and everything is interesting enough to remember. If you need to take a GE and dont want to be bored to death take this class. Extreme amount of extra credit and the professor genuinely wants you to succeed and get an A in the class with grading being readjusted in weight to better benefit students. Professor also adjusts course to do what students are interested in she included multiple lectures on new content because people had stated that they wanted to learn about x topic. Highly recommend taking this course you wont regret it. Teaching team for this class want you to succeed and get an A which i cant state is the goal for every class.

I took MCDB 138 with Professor Austin and it was honestly my favorite class at UCLA. Not only did Professor Austin do a fantastic job covering developmental bio, she also cared deeply about her students. One time I asked a few questions during class about the lecture content and Professor Austin reached out to me after class offering additional help with the course material.
As for grading, I thought it was very fair since we were provided extra credit and our lowest graded midterm was dropped. Professor Austin also gave us the opportunity to give a short presentation to the class and allowed us to be very creative with it. She also made it easy to study for the class since she posted weekly notes with all the content we needed to know for the midterms and the final.
I recommend attending Professor Austin's office hours because she's incredibly helpful at explaining and clarifying anything from her lectures. Attending discussion was also really helpful because my TA made sure we were prepared for all assignments and exams. During week 10 the class TAs also hosted a Jeopardy game during discussion to help us review for the final exam.
The class was very interesting and fair in terms of grading. I highly recommend taking Professor Austin’s class if you have the chance.

I'll Split this review into two parts:

The class: Personally, I found the class content very boring. I didn't have any other options for GE's to take, and I wished I had another option. The class was very boring, and the wording on the exams was so weird. However, she offered a lot of extra credit throughout the quarter. I definitely recommend going to the discussions because the TAs were really helpful (shoutout to my TA Justin S, he was the goat). If you're a person who likes to skip classes and stuff, you can skip some of the lectures, but you need at least 40% attendance for full points. The discussions on the other hand, were super helpful. There was a presentation, and they made some grading changes to make it easier to get a higher grade, which I was grateful for. The workload was very low however doing every extra credit (which i highly recommend) can take up some time, so if you don't care about the content and want a low workload GE, you should take this class.

The Professor: This professor had to be one of the most disorganized professors I had so far. Her lectures were very scattered, and it was hard to know what was important, what was due, and where to find things on the canvas. Her links never seemed to work, and she often very confused with her directions. I don't know how she had a 5.0 before I rated her, but she was very disorganized. She was so confusing with her wording on her exams, and the questions were not well thought out (you'll see what I mean when you take the fill in the blanks for the final). So, take this class only if you are passionate about the topic because it was a pretty boring class. It should be easy for most people though.

As a graduating math student, I really wish I had taken this course earlier. The course is made up of half biology and half ethics, which is not an easy task for a student who's not a bio-relative major. However, Professor Austin dropped the lowest midterm, giving students many opportunities to get extra credits. Therefore, as long as we actively complete the assignments on Canvas, we can get a good grade (please remember to check the "To-do" list on Canvas after every lecture, I almost missed an assignment deadline once).

Professor Austin and TA are nice and willing to spend lots of time answering each student's questions after each class. English is not my native language, so at the beginning of the course, I was worried that it would affect my communication with the professor and TA (one math professor in this quarter had difficulty understanding my questions, although he was also a good professor). But Professor Austin and my TA Justin have shown incredible patience and seriousness in this regard, answering every question I am interested in and remembering my foreign name, which all touched me a lot.

I feel Professor Austin really cares about each student's interests and feelings about learning. Even though the class is not a small size, she held a lot of interesting interactions in class and even reviewed lectures' content through a game in the last lesson, and all the winners could get one extra credit (even though I did not understand the rules of the game and therefore did not get any points, I was still affected by the happy atmosphere of the class). In addition, in this course, everyone will have a presentation assignment, and the professor and TA will give us suggestions on our speech and even introduce some students' speech content into the subsequent lectures and encourage us to discuss them further.

One thing that needs to be mentioned is that the professor invited many biologists to share the content, which was a relatively big test for me and a little too difficult. However, they have little impact on the score. Besides, hearing the ongoing research of these scholars and their stories and suggestions, I have a brand new understanding of the research in biology and the pharmaceutical industry, which has a profound impact on my future study and career planning.

For a student with no background in biology, this course is indeed a little challenging -- especially in the first two weeks I need to adapt to many biological terms and concepts (I even thought about dropping this course in the first week). However, if you find biology interesting, it is worth taking this course! Communicating with Professor Austin and TAs is always a good idea when you encounter difficulties. Justin and Steven, our TAs in this class, are very friendly and helpful. What I feel pity most is that the professor's Office Hour conflicts with my other class schedule because discussing with her and TA about my course problems and the ongoing lab and internship is my happiest academic time this quarter.

This is my absolute favorite class at UCLA. I truly got to know Professor Austin and she is just the most caring person. She constantly updates her lectures to match current findings, puts in the effort to remember all of her students' names, reaches out to students herself through email, invites researchers and doctors to talk to us, and remembers little details I tell her about myself. I definitely want to stay in touch with her even after this class has passed.

I did put in effort to go to every office hour and review my notes after every lecture and it did pay off. I highly recommend taking this class and using every opportunity you have to get to know the TAs and professor Austin. They are all so passionate.

Professor Austin's class was incredible in its ability to provide a diverse range of subjects on stem cells, while also discussing the interesting politics that are in their background! Professor Austin herself is a great lecturer who makes sure the class is engaging by providing really interesting topics from discussing plant stem cells in skin care routines, the genetic factors that led to iPSCs, and synthetic organoids used for research. Along with the collaborative and passionate TAs, this course of MCD BIO 50 is incredible to take, and is one I would absolutely take to prospective MCDB students!

Professor Austin is honestly one of the best professors to have for a class. She is great at teaching and truly cares about her students. The grading is very fair as well. The class itself is interesting, and isn't very hard. If you put the work in to study for the quizzes, midterm, and final, you will do great. Professor Austin also gives a lot of extra credit that help your final grade out a lot. I highly recommend to take MCDB50 with Professor Austin; it is simply great.

This course was informative, organized, engaging, and interesting! I love that Professor Austin updates her slides to current research and any new findings. Also, participation is very important for this course. I highly HIGHLY recommend going to office hours if you can. Professor Austin is very open to meeting new students and is helpful with any questions you might have. Another tip for exams is to go over the slides. There are things that are emphasized in lecture that you will want to take note of, as they will probably be on the exam. Make sure to allot a proper amount of time for studying by looking through the slides, discussion recordings, and info that was gone over during office hours.
Overall, I learned so much more about stem cells, and participating in class only helped me learn more. Professor Austin truly cares about student learning, so be vocal in class (when appropriate) for answering questions or taking part in discussions.
Another note: this class requires a short individual presentation via zoom. Be creative and add some personal elements to yours! These presentations, while they may seem a little intimidating, become a great way to get to know your peers and relevant topics more.
Definitely a course that I think everyone should take if they get the chance!