Sell cluster textbook at a low price. Feel free to contact me (Huaiyao Qiu) through phone:********** or email me: *************. By the way, it is a very good cluster, well organized and interesting.

This cluster is the ONLY cluster that students don't complain about getting "cluster-fucked." You don't have to do readings, the TAs are easy-going (i recommend Marla Scwartz) and the material is interesting, covering a variety of topics. I would recommend it to all freshmen!

I thought Professor Stolzenbach did a great job of organizing this cluster. You can always count on him to email you with the latest announcements as well as keep the course website up to date. And although I never actually sought any additional help from him outside of class, I was always under the impression that he'd be happy to do so.

The class itself was not particularly difficult. I actually did all of the readings for the first 5 weeks, which I found extremely helpful for understanding the material in discussions and lectures. For the next 5 weeks though, a lot of the readings consist of "online report cards" regarding water problems which really weren't that helpful if you go to lecture regularly. I only ended up reading about half of them.

And be sure to go to lecture as much as you can. Occasionally, there will be "special" lectures which basically mean attendance checks and these do affect your participation grades. The first time I ever skipped a lecture(in the entirety of my time at UCLA) was for this class, and rather appropriately, happened to be one of those "special" lectures, which ended up making me a single point away from a solid A. Granted, you can't really predict when these lectures will be held, but every little point helps, right?

I mainly took the cluster for the science GE's that it fulfilled, and to be honest, unless you're really interested in the topics, that might not be enough for you. While I really enjoyed the first 5 weeks of material(regarding ecology and taught by Professor Nordby), I found myself bored by the final 5 weeks of material(though I don't think that this was Professor Stolzenbach's fault). I actually decided not to continue with the cluster for that reason, so be sure to consider your interest in the cluster above anything else.

At the beginning the course seems easy by having a great lecturer, easy to understand topics and good set of students. After a while you start to notice that the work starts to pile off. This GE cluster is NOT worth it if you want an easy GE. Seriously. You have about 5 write ups, 2 midterms which are hard, and a final which covers everything. And it was only 5 units when I took it. The exams are long and they want super detailed questions. Don't believe students who say they loved this class because they were probably of the only 2% who got A's.

The TA I got wasn't very good either. He would just mention some things and make use leave after just being in the class for 15 minutes (discussion being 2hrs). SO please don't take this GE. Find other easier science GEs that are known as "easy GE". If you want your first quarter to start in the right track dont take a GE its VERY time consuming!!!!

Professor Stolzenback is awesome! He's a great teacher, very informative and knows his subject (water/civil & environmental engineering) well. Also he cares a lot about ensuring that every one of his students has ample opportunity to pass the class. He frequently sends email announcements, always puts his ppt lectures online, and during lectures he always points out questions that are going to show up on the midterm and final tests.