As many students have said, BR 10H is definitely a class that you will need to invest a lot of time into. The first three weeks are relatively chill as Dr. Spratford will give you an overview of the research conducted and you will have the opportunity to practice lymph gland dissections and handling fly stocks. However, after week 4, the workload will significantly increase as you will be writing an NIH grant proposal which took at least 18 hours for me to adequately complete. After that, you will most likely be going into the lab to flip your experimental stocks and doing dissections to collect your data for imaging. I definitely recommend doing this asap to prevent falling behind, as you can lose/butcher your lymph glands easily. The final was a Cell-style manuscript along with a Powerpoint presentation, which was slightly easier as you could take aspects from the midterm, but it still took a lot of time.

With that said, I have absolutely no regrets taking this class, as Dr. Spratford is beyond supportive of her students. She always emphasizes that she is available to help us whenever we need her, whether it be providing guidance on careers or writing recommendation letters. Her passion for her class and research is also infectious and I was always excited to learn something new each day. The class is also quite small (~24 students) so you definitely form a tight-knit group of friends by the end of the quarter. BR 10H is an incredible class for those who are passionate about wet-lab research and has given me the confidence to pursue this outside of the course.

I'll start first by addressing what many others have noted about this class: it is a [redacted] ton of work. Like a lot of work. I would consider myself to be relatively good at time management. I procrastinate sometimes, but not all the time. In this class, I worked ahead on many assignments / lab tasks and STILL found myself grinding until the deadline. The lab techniques are far from easy, some of which are usually assigned to MF graduate students (fine tissue dissection). To collect adequate data you really have to come into lab on your own time early in the quarter before the workload ramps up. The midterm is a full mock NIH grant proposal, and the final project is a final Cell-style manuscript that compiles all of the work that you do in the class.

With all of that being said, Dr. Spratford is literally the GOAT. I honestly can't envision myself having a professor even close to as good as her. Dr. Spratford invests herself in her students from beyond in a purely instructional standpoint. She is always excited to provide help, wisdom, or simply act as a person to talk to whenever you need it. I only felt more encouraged to accomplish something after speaking with her (whether that be refining a project or tackling the difficult data collection tasks). Dr. Spratford has also made it clear to us that she will be in our corner as our careers (in science or otherwise) progress.

Put simply, Dr. Spratford demonstrates an unparalleled commitment to her students. Bearing the intense weight of the course's workload is worth it for some of the highest quality education (and mentorship) that you'll find at UCLA.