This current quarter, I took Geography 7 with Professor Shin. Note, within the available courses from the BRUINwalk perfunctory drop down, Geog 7 is not listed. Is this due to the fact that even BruinWalk does not wan't to recognize the existence of this course, or if its relative newness is demonstrated both here and in the novice-like adaptation of Geog 7's corresponding upper-div.

This class will indeed truly vet you, you who think you know what GIS is about, or that you find it interesting. Granted, after being nearly completely through this course, the jargon and soul-sucking minutiae expose you well to the world of GIS. That world is a computer lab. Indeed, to extrapolate on that theme, what you learn in lecture and what you apply in lab are from completely different universes.

Indeed, lab-work is done with near exclusiveness on a program known as ArcGIS or ArcMAP. Being huddled in a computer classroom, to perform the various labs (which, curiously enough, the professor has had copyrighted as if he needed to show how static these labs have been {the copyright has a two year old date}, one finds this course to be more akin to ITT Tech than an instructional course in a research university.

As for the Professor himself, as a person, there are certainly no complaints. He is a swell guy, and has a very casual style of teaching. Although he purports to be more accessible in Office Hours, he is only available outside of this small window, via telephone...his office phone..which he is bound to near around office hours..that overlap probably has not escaped him. His email is easily found, however, in that you need only juxtapose a surname with the first letter of the first, with an @geog.ucla.edu.
-Such is every other Geography staff member. I only communicate this, so that he may communicate more.

In general, the course takes GIS, which is a relatively simple concept, and drowns it in needless detail, which distracts a fraught mind when it is necessary to learn about this otherwise fascinating subject.