I loved taking this class with Professor Austin! Aside from the course material, there was a presentation that we had to do over Zoom, which was a great break from the course. Dr. Austin was very approachable, and she was very knowledgeable about the course material. She was also very understanding throughout the quarter and offered to drop our lowest midterm for us. Certainly not a walk in the park, but very fair class with a lot of opportunities for extra credit. Dr. Austin clearly cares about her students. Would highly recommend anyone to take this course with her. The TAs were fantastic as well, and they explained all of the material really well.

Professor Austin is a superstar. Most of this class is about showing up and understanding lectures, and for sure understanding discussion. I had Evgeniy for a TA and he was incredible, very clear and each discussion he fully explained through each figure of the paper. You have to ask questions in discussion to really get a good understanding. Tina Austin's lectures are good, she uses her slides and verbal explanations a lot. Austin loves feedback forms, and this is the attendance every class and discussion. For my quarter, half of the classes were online. Attendance is important. Participation is important, she asks a lot of questions during lecture and she appreciates you answering even if your wrong. The homeworks are based around discussion and lecture, so take good notes. The midterms were challenging, I got an A on the first one and didn't get a grade back on the second one (TA strike) but it was bad. I studied around two days before each midterm. The final was multiple choice because of the strike too, but Austin was super gentle with how in depth the cumulative questions are. Overall a great, enthralling, and very informational class. Don't miss out on taking Tina Austin if you can help it, she's the greatest.

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!

Dr. Austin's class was great! Her passion for the subject is evident, and it significantly increased my interest in the field. What stood out the most was her unwavering support for her students. Dr. Austin genuinely cares about our success and understanding, lectures have interactive polls or supportive videos to help us understand the topic. The lectures were filled with relevant and fascinating information about current stem cell knowledge and events, making the complex topic of stem cells more approachable and interesting. She presents the information in a way that is easy to understand, and she's always willing to clarify any doubts.

Dr. Austin's helpfulness extends beyond the classroom as she offers extra credit opportunities that reinforce our learning and give us a deeper understanding of the material. This approach not only helps students who are struggling but also enriches those who are already doing well. The course workload is reasonable with a lot of the work being extra credit and nothing feeling like "busy work."

Lastly, Dr. Austin enriches the class by bringing in fantastic guest speakers who are leaders in their field and have very informative and engaging talks. I highly recommend her class to anyone interested in this cutting-edge area of science.

Professor Austin was the best professor I have had at UCLA so far. She is extremely approachable and structures the class in an engaging manner that helps dumb down the complex material. Definitely would recommend this class with Professor Austin if you're MCDB or MIMG and need to take 165A for a core class.

I personally really enjoyed Dr. Austin's class this quarter and felt that she was a great and understanding professor. The class centered around a central theme of research which for our quarter was aging. We began by watching a seminar by another UCLA professor about his recent work which I found very interesting and spent the next few weeks deconstructing his findings and experimental techniques. Along the way we completed group worksheets which I felt were fairly graded and eventually finished with an online quiz. Dr. Austin offers a ton of opportunities for extra credit usually in the form of additional worksheets as well as an extra credit quiz whose points would be added to the first pretty much guaranteeing you got over 100% on it. At the end of the quarter the professor returned for a question and answer seminar which was really cool as he was very passionate about his research and excited to answer questions. Dr. Austin also gave us extra credit if we asked a question.
Additionally, the class focuses a lot on teaching you how to give presentations which I felt was very unique and extremely helpful for future classes here at UCLA and outside of school. Going into this class I was a very nervous public speaker and this class did a great job in helping me feel more comfortable giving presentations. For our first presentation we had to give a "TED Talk" about a research topic of our choice relating to the central theme of aging. Dr. Austin provided us with a ton of sample presentations from students in the past which was extremely helpful and gave us the option to record the presentation in zoom if we didn't feel comfortable presenting in front of class. We also gave a "Chalk Talk" with a partner to an imaginary 9th grade audience which I actually had a lot of fun with. Dr. Austin allowed us to be creative and gave us a lot of leeway in how we structured our presentation. We were able to use props or give out prizes for audience interaction which made watching other group's presentations a lot more entertaining.
Dr. Austin was very good about being clear with deadlines, as everything was posted in the syllabus at the start of class and we were able to choose the dates we wanted to present well in advance. The class pretty much finishes in week 9 when you give your presentation which was really nice as I had time to study for my finals for other classes. I would definitely recommend taking this class with Dr. Austin as all the extra credit she gives makes it a great opportunity to learn how to give effective presentations in a low stress environment where getting an A is very doable.

Professor Austin is awesome! She is super welcoming and friendly. Her lectures are very engaging and she really encourages participation. Lecture content is super interesting and she makes it easy to follow, even if you don't have a science background. During every lecture she recaps the past lecture, which is really helpful for reviewing material. She also hosts office hours before midterms where she reviews all of the lecture content which are really helpful. Lectures are very engaging and there are often polls and discussion questions.

Professor Austin was a great professor, definitely one of my favorites at UCLA so far. Although the class was tough, especially for students like me who did not have as strong as a research background, Professor Austin did everything she could to make students learn a lot from the class and come out of it as better scientists. You can definitely tell she cares deeply about her students and their learning in the class. She consistently asked for feedback and actually implemented what students told her could be improved on. She always allowed students to feel welcome participating and voicing their opinions and thoughts during class, which I found to be refreshing, especially since so many professors at UCLA tend to just lecture without allowing for student input or participation. The research proposal and presentation were the two most time consuming assignments, and students who started them later on felt rushed. However, if started when the assignments were given, many students including myself felt that we were given an adequate amount of time to complete them. In terms of grading, throughout the quarter, the TA had given most students lower than expected grades, which many students were frustrated about. However, Professor Austin recognized this issue, listened to the feedback that the students gave, and corrected it by hiring a different grader to grade the assignments in a more fair manner. She also gave lots of extra credit assignments that were basically guaranteed points so long as you completed them. Because of this, I feel that people ended up with grades that they were ultimately happy with and reflected the effort they put forth in the course. Overall, I definitely feel that I learned a lot from this class. It helped me grow as a researcher and I find myself understanding my work in the lab to a greater extent after taking this class. It was difficult at times but ultimately worth it, and if given the chance, I would take the course with Professor Austin again.

Professor Austin was overall a great professor. Students complained about due dates being randomly assigned but everything was clearly stated in the syllabus and no due dates changed. I would suggest following the syllabus throughout the quarter and you will stay on track. She offered SO much extra credit. If you do all the extra credit and put effort in your presentations you will have nothing to worry about. She was also very friendly and approachable. At the end of the quarter you will have a ted talk as well as a chalk talk. I really enjoyed the ted talk and had a lot of fun with it. You can submit a video for this or do it in person but she provides many examples from past students which was a huge help. I came into the class really worried about the chalk talk because it is a 6 minute presentation in person. But, I ended up having a lot of fun with it as well because she gives you a lot of freedom to do whatever you want with the topic and engage with the class. If you are a nervous presenter, you will not be after leaving this class. She makes it a very laid back and fun environment for presenting and meeting your peers. When students expressed their stress for the chalk talk, she even pushed back the due dates. She is accommodating and listens to feedback. I feel much more confident in my presenting skills especially with presenting my research in the future. It is an essential skill and I wish more classes made us learn these skills. Overall, it is a great intro class to the minor and it is just a small taste of the presenting we have to do compared to 193H and 194H.

This class was all around a nice experience. Very manageable workload, fair tests, interesting content, and an understanding professor/TA made for an overall great experience.

There isn't much else I have to say; if you're looking for a class to take and are interested in stem cells, regenerative medicine, or biological science at large, I'd definitely recommend this class!