Sunday 24 August 2014

Things I wish I knew since First Year....

Academic/ Research

  • Professors are humans too. Well duh. But that means they are approachable. If you have questions, go to their office hours during the year not just right before exams. Often they are enthusiastic to chat about their research and their experience in academia and/or industry.
  • Undergraduate Research Opportunities give undergrads in all faculties the opportunity to design a project proposal with the help of a graduate student/post-doc and present a poster at the largest undergrad multidisciplinary research conference in BC. (http://uroubc.ca/)
  • Find a mentor through the Tri-Mentoring Program which groups a junior undergrad + a senior undergrad + a professional. (http://students.ubc.ca/career/community-experiences/find-a-mentor)

Recreation

  • Drop-in activites like badminton, basketball, volleyball at the BirdCoop +  UBC Aquatic Centre (swimming) & Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre (ice skating) are all free to students. 
  • Want to join yoga classes, but not sure if you can make the weekly commitment? UBC Yoga Club offers $2 classes for those with a yearly ($10) membership. www.ubcyogaclub.com/ 
  • Want to try ballroom dancing? Check out UBC Dance Club for cheaper dance classes. www.ubcdanceclub.com/

Money

Food

  • Living at Vanier or Totem? It is ALWAYS cheaper eating at the dinner hall because you already pay overhead fees of around $1000. If you don't want to sit inside, sign-up for the eco container program and you get a free reusable container (that they wash for you!). 
  • If you don't mind a short walk, consider going to the University Village Food Court for cheaper and better food. The stairs going down to the food court is to the right of the McDonalds. 
  • Vegetarian or Vegan? Or simply like vegetarian food? Considering visiting Sprouts in the basement of the SUB or Seedlings on the top floor of Koerner Graduate Centre. Note: cash only! Sprouts also hosts Community Eats every Friday where lunch is by donation. Bring your own container. 
  • On the other end of campus and looking for healthy sustainable options? Visit Agora Café (run by LFS students) on the lower floor of H.R MacMillan Building for baked goods, breakfast, or lunch. Their granola bars are to die for. Bring your own container/mug for a discount.
  • Triple O’s Tuesday Special: $3.33 for a cheeseburger
  • Cheapest dining option: pack your own lunch. There are microwaves on the main floor & basement of the SUB, main floor of IBLC (near Ike's), 2nd floor of Abdual Ladha Science Student Centre, and probably way more hidden away on campus. 

Sunday 17 August 2014

MICB 201 & MICB 202

MICB 201 (with Dr. Wade Bingle)

  • Course Taken: MWF 9am (January, 2014 - April, 2014)
  • Format: Lectures with occasional written homework assignments which he hands out in lecture. He has a lot of iClicker questions throughout the term (around 50) for participation marks. The exams (midterm, final) are not cumulative but there is still a lot of material. Both finals are all multiple choice with the very annoying “1 answer above is correct, 2 answers above are correct, 3 answers above are correct, all above are correct, none are correct” answers occasionally. 
  • Textbook: UBC Coursenotes (bought from Microbiology & Immunology Student Association), it is quite dense and hard to read. Often, previous editions can be used...ask the prof to be sure. 
  • Class Average: 71%
  • Personal Experience: Dr. Bingle's lectures are not as in-depth as what he expects in exams. Make sure you study from the course notes. He does not hold regular office hours, so if you need help email him to book an appointment. He posts his completed lecture slides before each lecture. I found the way he explained some concepts such as REDOX reactions more confusing than it actually should be. 
  • Advice: If you do not have to take this course for your degree, I do not recommend taking this course as an elective. 

MICB 202 (with Dr. Georgia Perona-Wright for Immunology, Virology & Dr. Tracy Kion, Bacteria)

  • Course Taken: MWF 9am (September, 2013 - December, 2013)
  • Format: Typical lecture-style course with no homework. The course is split up into 3 sections. The midterm covers the Immunology part while the final covers the Bacteria and Virology part only. The exams are all multiple-choice (BUT be warned, it is not easy). There is quite a bit of content, but I found it extremely fascinating especially the immunology part. 
  • Grading Scheme: Midterm (32%), Final (64%), Participation online (4%)
  • Textbook: UBC Coursenotes. If possible, buy it second-hand unless the notes drastically change. Ask the prof if you are unsure.
  • Class Average: 73%
  • Personal Experience: Both Dr. Perona-Wright and Dr. Kion are extremely knowledgable. Seasoned lecturers, they are great at presenting the material. They both post their lecture notes and final copies of their lecture notes. Be warned, the lectures never cover everything you need to know. It is important to know the Coursenotes extremely well since the exams are all MC. Some people preferred getting a textbook too, but I found just studying from the Coursenotes worked just fine. If you have questions, the discussion boards are monitored by the TA and both profs hold weekly office hours. Some students found Dr. Perona-Wright's Scottish accent difficult to understand, but often the vocabulary is up on the lecture slides anyways. 
  • Advice: This is a great course if you are curious about the basics of immunology, viruses, bacteria not necessarily just for MICB majors. For immunology, it does not go into too much detail but it gives a great overview of the entire immune system. For viruses and bacteria, we focused on a couple specific types such as HIV and Polio. 

CHEM 233 & CHEM 235

CHEM 233 (with Dr. Gregory Dake)

  • Course Taken: MWF 10am (September, 2013 - December, 2013)
  • Format: Class time was used to complete worksheets and students were suppose to watch the online lectures on Connect before each class and do the corresponding reading quiz which had ~5 questions. The online lectures ranged from 15 minutes to 45 minutes. The optional Sapling homework (~10%) could be for marks if the homework grade improved your overall grade. At the beginning of certain lectures, there is a timed quiz. They are typically announced at the end of the previous lecture, but sometimes there are "surprise" quizzes. These quizzes are usually good practice for midterms in terms of difficulty & speed. They are great indicators if you are keeping up with the course. 
  • Grading Scheme: In-class 10 minute quizzes (around 14 total), online reading quizzes, optional Sapling homework that can be for marks, 2 midterms, final
  • Textbook: Organic Chemistry by Klein (I got my looseleaf + solution manual for $80); I did not use if often, if at all
  • Class Average: 72%
  • Personal Experience: Dr. Dake's in-class quizzes are excellent representations of the midterms & final especially the ones right before the exams. These quizzes always happen at the very start of lecture, so do not be late. Don't stress if you do poorly since they are not worth a lot of your overall grade. Dr. Dake realizes his quizzes are difficult, so the quiz marking scheme has a "participation" component to them as well. The worksheets we got in-class were useful, but only if you watched the lecture beforehand. Dr. Dake held weekly office hours. While I never went, I heard he is always willing to give extra practice questions to those who ask. He is also great with answering questions on Twitter (and making unhelpful, but amusing remarks about the exams such as "3000 characters on the midterm"). In lecture, he is quite sarcastic, and I found him hilarious. 
  • Advice:  PRACTICE! This is not a cram-able course. If you do not understand something, clarify right away. Everything is built on concepts learnt before especially the first month. I suggest redoing your in-class quizzes especially those at the end of term because they are often great practice. Make sure you are used to working quickly since the exams are on the longer side of things. The online problem sets are also great to work through especially with a friend.  
  • While it isn't an impossible course, a lot of people struggle with this course. This isn't a course about memorizing specifics, but rather recognizing and applying patterns. Also the new style of teaching (flipped learning) was a bit of a shock, and the amount of material posted online made the entire course feel a bit disorganized. This is definitely a course you should put more effort into. There is always the option of taking CHEM 233 in the summer, so you can devote 100% of your effort into it. 

CHEM 235 

  • Course Taken: Wednesday 2pm (January, 2014 - April, 2014)
  • Format: The first couple labs are used to teach you techniques and your final product does not count for marks. Basically this is the time for you to mess up and learn from your mistakes. Later in the term, the crystals you make will be judged for quality and ranked among your peers. Don’t be alarmed if your technique mark seems quite low (7/10 is the norm). The lab prep work and reports are extremely simple. There is a practical final (in-lab) and a written MC + open ended final (outside of lab time.
  • Textbook: Lab manual available at UBC Bookstore. You need to rip out some pages to hand in. 
  • Class Average: 74%
  • Personal Experience: I enjoyed this lab. The TA's made the whole experience as stress-free as possible. If you mess up (spill your sample, your crystals won't form), your TA is your saviour. They have tons of tricks up their sleeves to help you savage what you can. 
  • Advice: I suggest studying for the written final since there are a lot of specific details asked.

PHIL 433A

PHIL 433A (with Dr. Johnna Fisher)

  • Course Taken: MWF 12pm (January, 2014 - April, 2014)
  • Format: Lectures are very informal, with lots of discussion (depends on your class though).There are three 1-hr “midterms” worth 20% each and a final worth 40%. The first midterm is open ended, short answers. The last two midterms are case-studies. The final is a combination of a case study and open-ended, short answers. 
  • Textbook: “Biomedical Ethics: A Canadian Focus” It is written by Dr. Fisher herself. The textbook is actually a composition of varies articles on different stances on biomedical ethical issues with a summary-like introduction at the beginning of each chapter. It doesn’t matter which edition you buy.
  • Class Average: 73%
  • Personal Experience: Dr. Fisher definitely has very strong opinions in biomedical ethical issues, but she is extremely open-minded in terms of listening to your side of the argument as well. Just be prepared to argue back with strong logic! Her TA is also great at marking (fast, pretty fair). I found this class interesting and I enjoyed most of the readings. Dr. Fisher believes in answering any/all questions the students have, so sometimes it may get frustrating if “irrelevant” questions are asked. There are a lot of science students in this class, and Dr. Fisher acknowledges that. This isn't like a typical 400-level philosophy class in terms of amount of essay writing, and she marks on a bell-curve so that the average for each midterm is around 70%. 
  • Advice: I highly recommend this class for anyone science students interested in topics such as abortion stances, allocation of resources, and end-of-life decision making etc. In exams, Dr. Fisher is looking to see if you understand the main conflicts in each topic, so it is important to add definitions of everything. For example, if the case study is talking about physician assisted suicide, I would suggest adding the definitions of euthanasia and suicide, voluntary and involuntary as well. I found writing the case studies very similar to writing analysis to science data. 


CHEM 205 & CHEM 211

CHEM 205 (with Dr. Guillaume Bussiere)

  • Course Taken: MWF 8am (January, 2014 - April, 2014)
  • Format: Typical 1 hour lecture with biweekly online homework questions that were for marks (around 15% of final grade). For these questions, you get 2 tries each and your mark is the better of the two. Keep in mind the questions vary slightly each time where the style/format is the same, but the actual numbers are different. The rest of the marks come from the midterm and final which is cumulative. You get quite a comprehensive formula sheet/ reference materials for exams.  
  • Textbook: I didn’t bother. The lecture notes are great and there is also an online textbook on Connect. 
  • Class Average: 78%
  • Personal Experience: Dr. Bussiere teaches exactly what you need to know for exams. He does not go into unnecessary details; however, you can always ask him questions outside of class. While I found it hard to keep engaged (woot! 8am classes), he is always available for help outside of lectures. His office hours are Monday to Friday from 2pm-5pm...just walk right into his office situated in the lab, and he'll most likely be there. This class is pretty straight forward (especially the first unit, thermodynamics) if you are comfortable with manipulating formulas. Otherwise, there are a lot of practice questions available on Connect. 
  • Advice: The exam questions are quite similar to the homework questions, so try not to be lazy and ask your friends for the answers. This is definitely a class that you can easily get an A in with a little effort.  

CHEM 211 (with Dr. Russ Algar and Dr. Nunez)

  • Course Taken: Tu/Th 8am (September, 2013 - December, 2013)
  • Format: This course included iClicker questions, online homework questions (~weekly), in-class reading quizzes (individual and group), midterm, final, and a lab component. You get two tries for the homework questions which are typically harder than exam questions. The midterm and final format is a "choose your own question" style where you have to choose 2 out of the 3 questions to do from each section. You don't get a calculator for the exams, but the numbers are extremely easy to work with. 
  • Textbook: Quantitative Analytical Chemistry (Harris). I did not use this except to do the pre-readings for the in-class quizzes. 
  • Class Average: 74%
  • Personal Experience:
  • Lecture: Dr. Algar's lecture notes cover everything you need to know. He posts a preliminary version of his notes before each chapter and then he also posts his final lecture notes at the end. I found his iClicker questions extremely well thought out. Dr. Algar is a good lecturer that likes to incorporate a couple sarcastic comments here and there. He is very helpful during his weekly office hours. The TA for the course also holds office hours, and she is extremely knowledgable about the course and the topic. 
  • Lab: There are weekly labs with accompanying lab reports. These lab reports tend to take more time since there were multiple discussion questions as well as a lot of analyzing you must do with your data. Make sure to answer the discussion questions extremely thoroughly and show ALL your sample calculations. Be sure to get familiar with Excel, it will save you a lot of time. If you do not know how to use Excel, ask for help or read the very thorough lab manual. Dr. Nunez (the lab prof) can be easily found in the lab or in this office. He is also very helpful with answering questions. 
  • Advice: Do the practice midterm and final. The exams were quite similar in terms of style. For homework questions, don't be afraid to go to TA's office hours since she is extremely knowledgable and great at explaining trickier concepts. This course has a heavy workload. Unless you are interested in analytical chemistry, I would not suggest this as an elective. I took this course because I wanted to keep my options open in case I wanted to switch my major to Medical Laboratory Sciences.  

Saturday 16 August 2014

BIOL 200 & BIOL 201

BIOL 200 (with Dr. Ninan Abraham)

  • Course Taken: Tu/Th 2pm-3:30pm (September, 2013 - December, 2013)
  • Format: Typical 1.5 hour lecture with iClicker questions for participation. There is also a weekly tutorial component worth 25% of your final grade. During tutorial, you will have 4 chapter quizzes and a news article assignment. The quality of the tutorial really depends on your TA and your section. Some sections are really enthusiastic with lots of discussions while some sections are half-dead. 
  • Grading Scheme: Tutorial mark, midterm, final (you are allowed a double-sided 8" x 11.5" hand written cheat sheet for all quizzes & exams)
  • Textbook: I didn't bother to get the textbook. There is a extremely thorough set of notes on Connect even though the site itself is quite confusing to navigate. 
  • Class Average: 68% 
  • Personal Experience: In general, this course is very similar to BIOL 121/SCIE001 except with 100% focus on cells. Topics included targetted transport into ER, mitochondria, nucleus & interpreting gels. Especially at the beginning of term, there is a lot of overlap from first year which made it a bit boring. Dr. Abraham is a great lecturer that keeps his students engaged. He has nice analogies, excellent iClicker questions and a fun personality. I personally wish his lecturers had a more consistent "storyline" because sometimes I found they bounced around a little bit too much. His office is a bit tricky to get to (LSC, requires an access card), so he is often available after lecture to answer questions. Dr. Abraham tries to posts his notes by 11pm the night before class. Some people thinks he speaks too fast, but as a native English speaker I thought his speed was normal. 
  • Advice: Write your own notes after each chapter. It will make studying for the final much easier than trying to navigate through all those links on Connect. During the exam, READ QUESTIONS CAREFULLY before answering. The exams are open-ended with an essay question, so it is important to try to hit as many "learning objectives" as you can while explaining your reasoning. Throwing in as many definitions as possible is often a good strategy. 

BIOL 201 (with Dr. Richards & Dr. Jeter)

  • Course Taken: MWF 10am (January, 2014 - April, 2014)
  • Format: Lectures with iClicker questions and 4 mandatory tutorial sessions which counted for participation marks. There was also a weekly weekend reading quiz (due Monday morning) on BioChem Portal for marks. Unfortunately, the BioChem had a lot of glitches. 
  • Textbook: Principals of Biochemistry 6E by Lehninger; by purchasing the mandatory online portal, a e-textbook is also provided. 
  • Class Average: 73% 
  • Personal Experience: The 4 mandatory tutorial sessions consisted of us doing worksheets with a TA lecturing in between. I did not find these sessions helpful. However, the rest of the time there were optional tutorial sessions where you could go in and ask for help on problem sets. 
  • Dr. Jeter taught majority of the course (except for animal metabolism). He is extremely enthusiastic and likes to stay after lecture to help clarify concepts. I found his analogies a bit confusing though due to his tendency to oversimplify. In his online notes, he liked to leave a lot of blank spaces for students to fill in. I had trouble filling in everything before he moved on. In addition, he doesn't like to post his final set of notes and he often jumped around in his slides during lecture. 
  • Dr. Richards taught the animal metabolism section of the course. He is a great lecturer with a bit of a "theatrical" flare. I enjoyed the way he summarized the concepts from the last lecture at the beginning of each class. He is also very helpful outside of lectures. I found his posted notes very useful plus he posts any in-class corrections & handwritten diagrams online right away. He liked giving the online practice questions as homework. The next class would have iClicker questions of some of the questions he assigned. These iClicker questions would be for marks. 
  • Advice: Do the practice questions with the reference materials that will be provided on exams. It is a great way to prepare for exams since you will be familiar with what you need to memorize and what will be given. 

Friday 15 August 2014

Science One

What is Science One?

Officially, it is a "75-student, innovative first-year undergraduate course [which] presents the traditional disciplines of biology, chemistry, mathematics and physics in a unified, integrated format that fulfills second-year"

For more official information, visit https://www.scienceone.ubc.ca/home/index.php.

Unofficially, it is considered the "elite" first year program at UBC. Even though tons of extremely smart students choose not to go into Science One because they
  • Are worried about their GPA
  • Want to use their AP/IB credits
  • Want more flexibility in their schedule
  • Etc....
Science One tends to attract students who have done well academically in high school and enjoy challenging themselves. Or those who are too lazy to figure out what courses they need to take since Science One gives you the pre-reqs for any second year Science program. 

Course Taken: September 2012 - April 2013 (Timetable 3)

Format: 14 hours of lecture in 3-4 hour sections from Monday - Thursday, 1 hour of tutorial, 3 hours of physics & chemistry lab respectively. There is also a separate 3 hour biology lab (BIOL 140) only during Term 1. 
  • Lecture: Specific lecturing schedule will be sent out each week, but normally each section is split up into 1 hour or 1.5 hour chunks with 10 minute break between each. All your lectures will be in the same room at IBLC (library), right beside Ike's Cafe. 
  • Tutorial: Tutorials are pretty chill with rarely any homework to hand-in. Most worksheets are simply for participation. Subject for tutorial changes every week, but typically it is used to address the tricky concepts through more hands-on approaches like computer simulations or models. 
  • Bamfield Trip: At the end of September, Science One goes to Bamfield Marine Research Centre on Vancouver Island for 4 days, 3 nights. It is a great opportunity to see B.C forests and ocean. It is also a great bonding opportunity. A lot of students brought their textbooks and homework. I only brought my math assignment and BIOL 140 stuff. While I had to catch up a bit on Monday, I thought it was worth it.  
  • Physics Lab: There is no prep or homework component to this lab. You just have to arrive to lab prepared to work. A major objective for this lab is to learn statistics, so during the lab you are required to take multiple measurements using different machines and calculate various things (wavelength, resistance, etc). 
  • Chemistry Lab: There is a bit of prep involved and you are required to answer a couple questions after the lab. At the beginning of each lab, there is a lab quiz. These quizzes are timed and I found them a bit stressful. They were not overly difficult, but the entire atmosphere is quite tense.
  • BIOL 140: There is a lot of work involved with this lab. A lot of Bamfield activities are dedicated to this lab course and you are suppose to take notes during the Bamfield trip (I did not). After the trip, you are expected to perform literature research on an organism, design and conduct a SIMPLE experiment with the organism, and then write a final report. All writing assignments must be extremely thorough. They are quite picky regarding citations. If in doubt, add in the citation.
Profs: There are typically 2 profs for each subject. These profs are extremely approachable and love to teach. Most of the profs will sit at the back of the classroom during all the other lectures, so feel free to ask them questions during the break. 

Textbooks: I got all my textbooks used via Facebook. Often, the older editions are fine. If in doubt, just ask the profs by sending them an email. The only textbook I did not use was the Biology one. I found myself just Googling topics rather than reading the textbook. An easy way to save money is to not buy your textbooks new from the bookstore.  

Class Average: 76% (class size: 68)


Questions I often get asked as a "Science One Survivor": 

Is Science One super hard and only geniuses can do it? Will my GPA be super low?

    • Science One is challenging. Basically imagine taking 4 honours classes as one program. While individually the material may not be super difficult, time management is probably the biggest challenge.
    • As for lowering GPA, that is a difficult question to answer. Everyone has a different experience transitioning into university. While Science One may seem harder than general science in terms of work load, it also forces you to have good work habits and stay on top of your courses. Good work ethic is the key to good marks not necessarily the program you are in. 
What is the workload like in Science One? Can I do extracurricular activities?
    • The workload is definitely more than any other first year program that I know of. It is definitely manageable. Learn to pick and choose what is important. For example, I never did any of my biology pre-readings since biology was my best subject; however, I spent extra time on math. Even if it may seem overwhelming at first, remember that your peers are always willing to help and your profs' door is often open.
    • As for extracurriculars, it is possible to engage in some. I wouldn't suggest doing too much in your first term as you are working out how UBC works. As I mentioned before, time management! Some people do orchestra, various Ubc clubs, or volunteering in labs. Also if you are living in Rez, there are lots of ways to get involved as well. 
 What is the benefit of doing Science One?

    • Science One helps build up your connections with your peers. It also gives you the opportunity to know your profs extremely well. I have directly benefited from being in Science One with the reference letters for awards. Science One also gives you the chance to do your own research project which helps you build up your troubleshooting skills.
    • Other benefits include having two study rooms reserved for Science One students, having Facebook groups where the profs answer questions there, having midterms in-class rather than at 8pm.
Does everyone have AP/IB backgrounds? Am I at a disadvantage if I don't?
    • A lot of kids have AP/IB backgrounds, but it may not be that helpful especially in math. While it may be nice going into Science One with some basic knowledge of integral calculus, it is not necessary. The style of exams, lectures, tutorials are quite different so that often levels out the playing field a bit. Don't be afraid, most people are smart but not geniuses. Imagine taking the top 20 students in your high school. You have the really good memorizers, the great writers, and the hard workers, and the one kid who somehow does amazing while going out every night.  
What was my favourite part of Science One?

    • My favourite part was getting to know everyone really well especially after the Bamfield trip.  It is even more beneficial in later years when you know so many people that you can ask for help/ advice. It is almost a guarantee that every one of your core classes will have someone from Science One in it.  
What was my least favourite part of doing Science One? 
    • Least favourite was not having as much choice in my electives because of the standard timetable.
 Any advice for prospective Science One students?

    • Relax. Enjoy the experience, don't stress too much about your grades. Don't get buried in your books all the time. Of course study and do what you need to do to learn the material, but also don't forget to enjoy life as a college student. Get to know your profs/classmates, learn a new skill

Science One tends to be a humbling experience. If you need to be the top student, this probably isn't the program for you. A lot of my friends have stated that they feel like the environment is overly competitive (in a subtle way). So it depends if you excel in this type of environment. Also keep in mind, the dynamic various from year to year. 

Thursday 14 August 2014

Course List and Schedule

Courses I've Taken (Credits):

  • BIOC 302 (3)
  • BIOL 140 (2)
  • BIOL 200 (3)
  • BIOL 201 (3)
  • BIOL 300 (3)
  • BIOL 301 (3)
  • CHEM 205 (3)
  • CHEM 211 (4)
  • CHEM 233 (3)
  • CHEM 235 (1)
  • CPSC 301 (3)
  • ECON 101 (3)
  • MICB 201 (3)
  • MICB 202 (3)
  • MICB 301 (3)
  • MICB 302 (3)
  • MICB 306 (3)
  • MICB 322 (3)
  • MICB 323 (3)
  • MICB 325 (3)
  • MICB 401 (3)
  • MICB 402 (3)
  • MICB 406 (3)
  • MICB 412 (3)
  • MICB 418 (3)
  • MICB 430 (3)
  • MICB 447 (3)
  • MICB 449 (6)
  • MUSC 150 (4) *2 terms*
  • PHIL 120 (3)
  • PHIL 433A (3)
  • SCIE 001 (25) *2 terms*

When I took these courses: 

2012 Winter Term (September 2012 - April 2013)
Term 1: 
  • BIOL 140 
  • ECON 101
  • SCIE 001
Term 2:
  • PHIL 120
  • SCIE 001

2013 Winter Term (September 2013 - April 2014)
Term 1:
  • BIOL 200
  • CHEM 211
  • CHEM 233
  • MICB 202
  • MUSC 150 
Term 2:
  • BIOL 201
  • CHEM 205
  • CHEM 235
  • MICB 201
  • PHIL 433A
2014 Winter Term (September 2014 - April 2015)
Term 1:
  • BIOL 300
  • BIOL 301
  • MICB 301
  • MICB 302
  • MICB 322 
Term 2:
  • BIOC 302
  • CPSC 301
  • MICB 323
  • MICB 325
  • MICB 418
2015 Winter Term (September 2015 - April 2016)
Term 1:
  • MICB 306
  • MICB 402
  • MICB 430
  • MICB 447
  • MICB 449 
Term 2:
  • MICB 401
  • MICB 406
  • MICB 412
  • MICB 449

Wednesday 13 August 2014

MUSC 150

MUSC 150 (UBC Symphony Orchestra with Dr. Jonathan Girard)


  • Course Taken: Tues/Thurs 4pm-7pm for strings (September, 2013 - April, 2014)
  • Format: This is the UBC Symphony Orchestra which consists of mainly music majors (undergrads & grad students). There is typically one concert per month with the exception being February. In February, the orchestra plays in the UBC Opera Production which typically runs 3-4 nights. You are expected to have 100% attendance especially for concerts.
  • Audition: Admission is by audition at the end of August/ early September. Sign-up sheets are usually up by the last week of August. Look on the UBC Music Website for more details regarding auditions requirements. 
  • Class Average: 92% (not exactly sure how grades are given; however, there are seating auditions every couple of concerts) 
  • Advice: For a non-music major, I found some of the pieces extremely challenging (eg. Don Juan by Strauss). However, I enjoyed the change of pace from my science courses even though it was a bit time consuming. This is a great way to meet new people and keep up with your practicing. The annoying thing with the "late" rehearsals was that I had to reschedule 90% of my midterms. Dr. Girard was extremely helpful with explaining my situation to my science professors. 
  • Highlight of the course: We performed at the International Women Forum with Elaine Paige (First Lady of British Musical Theatre). UBCSO also went on a tour across BC/Alberta in April. 

UBC Student Ensemble Website: http://music.ubc.ca/student-ensembles/ 
UBC Symphony Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/UBCSO

100th Anniversary Rite of Spring Footage from our first concert
(after about 6 rehearsals). 


ECON 101 and PHIL 120

ECON 101 (with Dr. Ratna Shrestha)

  • Course Taken: MWF 9am (September, 2012 - December, 2012) 
  • FormatThe format of this course includes weekly Aplia quizzes (online), midterm, and a final. Aplia quizzes gave you 3 tries, and then it averaged all your attempts. I found his notes quite good and his exams fair. If you do his practice questions, you should be fine. His exam style consists of MC, fill in the blanks (similar to Aplia), and a couple short open ended questions. 
  • Textbook: Principles of Microeconomics, Canadian Edition 5E by Mankiw; if you buy your book used, make sure you take into account for the fact you need to buy an online Aplia access code. 
  • Tutorial: Our tutorial was optional, and I only went to the first one. ECON 310 is the upper-year equivalent as ECON 101 except it does not have the tutorial. 
  • Class average: 71% (highest grade, 94%)
  • Personal Experience: I found this class decently easy because I was comfortable with reading graphs. While I always went to lecture, I spent most of the time finishing my Aplia quizzes in-class. Dr. Shrestha speaks clearly and is easy to understand. For the midterm, make sure you are not late because our section didn't have enough seats and some people had to write their midterm standing up (we were in Chem D200 lecture hall that seats around 80ish people). 

Intro and Contact Info

Hi!

Inspired by “idm 04” (http://idm04.wordpress.com) I decided to follow in their footsteps and create my own blog as I finish my BSc at UBC.

Background Photo: credit goes to MW Davidson (any guesses what it is? hint...the name of this blog might be a clue)


Who Am I? 

Local Vancouverite that graduated in 2016 from UBC Microbiology & Immunology. Currently, I am studying a PhD in transplant immunology at the University of Cambridge. I enjoy long walks on the beach, skiing at Whistler, surfing, camping, classical music, and board/card games.

Contact Information: 

Emailmicroinquiry.ubc [at] gmail.com

Feel free to email me if you have any questions about UBC, Science, Microbiology & Immunology, undergraduate research, music, Vancouver or anything you think I might be capable of answering. Even if you don't think I'm capable of answering your question, shoot me an email--you never know unless you try. 


Academic Background

I am one of the few lucky people who knew since elementary school I wanted to be a "scientist doctor not a medical doctor". Of course back then I had no idea what that truly meant except that I got to put this cool "PhD" tag behind my name. Nonetheless, this led me to attend a couple science seminars and conferences during my last two years of high school. 

Two of my favourite seminars include Child & Family Research Institute (CFRI)'s Mini Med School (http://www.cfri-training.ca/public-events/mini-med-school) which is a series of talks dedicated for high school students & the general public as well as the 2012 AAAS multi-disciplinary conference held at the Vancouver Convention Centre. It was at these events that I got a taste of what science means beyond your local science fair. A standout presentation for me was Dr. Colin Ross' talk about adverse drug reactions. This got me reading about immunology, adverse drug reactions, and transplantation. My "reading" involved a lot of flipping through Nature or Science journals looking at the pretty diagrams. I also applied for CFRI's summer studentship for high school students in 2011 (unsuccessful) and 2012 (success!). I worked in an immunology lab over the summer and I stayed in that lab as an undergrad until the end of my second year. 

In grade 12, I applied to UBC (only realistic choice) and Yale (random whim since a lot of my friends were applying to US schools). While I was waitlisted by Yale, I was accepted by UBC Sciences and UBC Science One. I chose to do Science One because I wanted to go to Bamfield and I liked the smaller class sizes. I went to Science One Term 2 conference and I liked the people and profs I met there which helped cement my choice. In Science One, I became interested in physics and math. While I continued working in the immunology lab from before, I liked how clean and precise math and physics were. 

Majors I considered included biophysics, microbiology & immunology (naturally), medical laboratory science, and biotechnology. In the end I chose MBIM because it was a topic I was comfortable with. The reason I didn't choose biophysics was because it seemed like the major consisted of mainly physics classes with some biology classes. I was not interested in quantum mechanics, but only the ways which physics/math would help answer some biological questions. In addition, biophysics is a rigorous program that didn't allow a lot of room for immunology courses/ seminars. If the entire program was an integrated program of physics & biology with a more biology focus, I would have probably chose that instead. I didn't choose Medical Laboratory Science because again it didn't allow me to take as many immunology courses as I would have preferred. The only reason why I didn't choose the biotechnology program was because I had to spend my second & third year at BCIT and I wanted to live near campus with my childhood friend. I regret not taking a CPSC course in first year because otherwise I might have chosen the MBIM + CPSC Combined Major route.  

Over the summer between my second and third year, I got accepted into the MBIM Honours and co-op program. I contemplated for a week about whether or not I should participate in the co-op program. In the end, I decided not to do co-op because I felt I had enough research experience to be able to find my own (non-industry) job without paying the extra co-op fees. I chose to do MBIM Honours rather than "regular" MBIM because there was a lot of MICB courses I wanted to take anyways, so I might as well get the little extra wording on my degree. I've heard there is little/no difference between Honours or not provided you do some type of independent research project.