Katie: Academics at University of the Pacific

The following is an computer-generated summary of the video transcript.

Hi. My name is Katie, and I am a second year 2+3 Pre-Pharm student. And today I'm going to be doing an academic review of UOP. So, first off, I want to start off by giving some very generic, basic information that can be found online. But in case you haven't seen that, I just want to provide it here really quickly. There is a 13 to 1 student to faculty ratio, and the average class size is about 19 students. And what I do like about the smaller classes is that you get to know the professor is more. They get to know you more. You're just not a number or a person on a roster. But you're a person with a name and they know you by name. And especially if you go to office hours or seek supplemental help, they'll know your name even more. And I find that to be a really cool aspect, especially when school was physically in person. Sometimes I would run into teachers on the way to other classes. I'd be like, "Hey!" and they'd be like, "Hey, Katie, how you doing?" You know, we just have a conversation and I really liked that aspect of the professors knowing who you are as well as being able to establish a relationship with them, which will be very helpful in the future. For example, if you want to ask them for a letter of recommendation later. And for the one and I guess a half almost, I'm on my second year, years that I have been taking classes at Pacific, I can say that I've enjoyed all of my science classes pretty much. There are some that I like more than others. I think that's just a personal thing. For example, I'm not the biggest fan of physics. It's just not my cup of tea. But I still enjoy science as a whole, and I've been getting a lot of value from the science classes that I've been taking. Especially this semester. I'm taking three science classes. I'm taking O-Chem, Micro and Physics. So it is a lot, but I'm really excited and happy that I'm able to take the classes that interest me. For those classes that aren't necessarily your cup of tea, it really, really does help that the professors do show excitement about their classes and that excitement kind of bounces off of you, and it just makes me feel really excited because I feel their energy. It gets translated into me, and it makes me want to learn. And I really like that aspect about how professors are enthusiastic about the subject that they are teaching. And for those moments that it's feeling really hard, just know that there's so many resources for you. There's so many! Like professors have office hours and they are so willing to help. Just pop in. It's especially easy now in Zoom - you just click on a link and there they are right there and you can ask them all your questions. And some professors also have these supplemental learning opportunities. I don't think that's the right word, but basically what I'm referring to is, for example, in my Gen Bio class, the professor that I had held problem set sessions every Friday. These were completely optional, but they did help with exams a lot and helped kind of reinforce that information into you. So if professors do stuff like that, I highly recommend going to them. There are also a lot of other resources besides the professors themselves, such as TAs and tutors. There are a lot of TAs and tutors. I know that for Micro, my professor has made a list of all these people for us with their Zoom links, which makes it super organized and helpful. And I really appreciate that there are other people, there are other students who have went through this and are willing to help students who are currently going through it, and they are really helpful. So I would also highly recommend going to them if you need help. So I really hope this video helped you get an idea of the academics at Pacific, and I really hope to see you back again for my next video!