Anonymous asked: i'm going to be a npb major at davis this year and i'm soo excited! any advice? i know it's a tough major :/

Welcome to Davis, anon! I hope you’re enjoying yourself so far! I know NPB can be really intimidating (hell, it sounds intimidating—Neurobiology, Physiology, and Behavior!), but don’t let that stop you from enjoying your education. Yes, the classes can be demanding (NPB 101, I’m looking at you), but they’re always interesting, and I can guarantee that what you learn will be absolutely worth it :)

I can definitely go on and on forever about this topic, so if you’d like something more specific, don’t hesitate to drop me another ask :) For now I’ll keep it general so I don’t bore you to death Most of the information here applies to the other biosci majors as well, so keep that in mind!

First of all, take it slow! Adjusting to college is hard enough, but Davis ups the ante a little with the quarter system. Hopefully, you’re starting off with the CHE 2 and MAT 17 series; beyond that, you don’t have to worry about any other science-related classes for now! Too much science in one sitting will probably burn you out, and chem is enough of a problem on its own. Take care of some GEs or try out some electives you’re interested in; there’s plenty of time to buckle down later once you’ve adjusted.

Figuring out when to take what classes is kind of scary when you’re not sure how difficult everything is going to be! (I can make a post about that later if you’d like, but it’d be long as hell ;;) I would definitely pay a visit to NPB advising when you get the chance. Our advisor for NPB is Debbie Abbott in 180 Briggs, and I believe she has walk-in advising on… Thursdays in the morning? Anyhow, stop by the office and you can either talk to her or to one of the peer advisors on staff if you have more pressing questions.

Professors I recommend? Definitely Enderle for CHE 2 (his tests can be difficult but his teaching more than makes up for it, and the same goes for Nasiri); Toupadakis and Lievens are okay too. If you can get Kouba for MAT 17, DO IT. He’s absolutely hilarious, he makes calculus easy to understand, and if you’re still having trouble, his office hours are definitely worth it (he likes to trade candy :B) I don’t know much about the other professors but ratemyprofessors should have some useful info.

You won’t have to worry about NPB classes until 3rd and 4th year, but I would tackle your core classes (101, 102, 100, and 101L) 3rd year and the rest of the upper-div classes 4th year. Weidner, Bautista, Hahn, Adams and Liets are all excellent and teach a number of NPB classes, so look out for them in the class schedule!