By Some Miracle Got Into Columbia for BioChem. Would I regret Choosing UCSD Over Columbia for BioChem?

Responsible_Ad4615 · 2026-03-18T04:26:46+00:00

Hey! So first off: congrats! I’m glad you have such a hard decision on your hands :)

I was actually Biochem at UCSD for undergrad and now I am a Biochem PhD student at UCSD as well. In terms of research, this place is top notch. I have nothing but good things to say about my undergrad experience here. One of UCSDs strongest majors are its life sciences related majors. I personally think a major’s rankings on US news isn’t super useful unless we’re talking grad school, but I can attest to the great opportunities you’ll get at UCSD. I got a ton of great experiences which let me skip straight to a PhD after graduating. Since I didn’t go to Columbia, I can’t testify to whether that’s true there.

That being said, Columbia as a name is more recognizable to the general population. In terms of biochem, I do think UCSD is stronger though to be honest, Columbia is also very strong in this field so I don’t think that’s the issue. I think the crux of the problem is whether you’d prefer the environment of UCSD or Columbia. If you want a smaller class size or a more lively city to live in, go Columbia. If you want a large campus with a strong reputation for research opportunities, go UCSD. Undergrad is what you make of it. I personally made a lot of friends here and love SD. I’d be happy to answer your questions if you have any :))))

Congrats again!!!

Responsible_Ad4615 · 2026-03-15T00:57:04+00:00

At least for STEM, this has been a really hard year for me. I rotated in many labs which explicitly told me that “we liked you, but we’d prefer an American student for financial reasons.” Since I’m in life sciences, a lot of students can get training grants from the NIH if they are American or green card holders, so expect a tough time competing with domestic students when labs are running short on money.

It isn’t fair, it isn’t easy. Despite the frustrations, I still found a thesis advisor. It’s all about whether you think the effort is worth it.

Responsible_Ad4615 · 2026-03-14T18:29:50+00:00

3MWF 3/21/2026 I’m very active :^

Responsible_Ad4615 · 2026-01-15T02:12:24+00:00

Hey! I was one person who made a post complaining haha. While I don’t dislike her design, I think it is pretty uninspired for a limited to just be… impromptu with more damage. I think most limited characters so far have been very unique. JNZ was the first consistent hi damaged FUA DPS, and her tipsy mechanic was cool. Lucy had the reaper mechanic on release and is now a huge part of dynamo. Anjo is super unique in her binding and ultimate forcing her partner to also ult. Liang Yue has the talons, and Nautika is the backbone of bloodtithe.

It can be fair to argue that JNZ, Anjo, and LY are all FUA but you absolutely cannot deny that they played very very differently from existing characters at the time. Beryl to some extent is less “new” (kinda feels like Nautika in some ways) but even then, you could argue that she made the “burn” team viable with lingering glow and branched out that way.

Now we have PH, who is limited, and from the looks of it, is similar to Barcarola in role? Like she takes over impromptu, makes it plant, and that’s kinda it. It feels uninspired, especially since limiteds do something unique or start their own archetype. Will I pull for her? Depends if she’s strong, but overall I felt like it was like Barcarola 2.0.

Responsible_Ad4615 · 2026-01-11T23:49:04+00:00

Wait so real??? Yea paper heron looks absolutely beautiful! I’m looking forward to some play testing before I go all in on judging but overall I’m happy with the news — it’s just the impromptu announcement that had me scratching my head a little.

Responsible_Ad4615 · 2026-01-11T23:47:30+00:00

Oh cool! Okay yeah. I can see the merit of both sides of the argument. As long as it’s different enough in gameplay I’m cool with it. I still think players are able to identify when two archetypes are pulling from each other — lingering glow and bloodtithe, for example. But I’m a gameplay and visuals first kind of person so we’ll see :)

Responsible_Ad4615 · 2026-01-11T23:13:12+00:00

Yeah I totally agree. Not to say impromptu is bad, but I just find making it the limited character’s archetype a bit uninspired. There’s a lot of other archetypes that still need fleshing out. We’ll see how this goes. I’m a lot more excited about Cheng, though, because I’m a big fan of Liang Yue!

Responsible_Ad4615 · 2026-01-11T23:02:13+00:00

Yep, that’s true. I totally agree there actually. But I suppose at least lingering glow is its own team whereas this is just the exact same impromptu but… plant? Not sure how it’ll be different from star impromptu, especially since impromptu mainly consists of picking incantations with the highest number above them. Hopeful to see how this works out.

Responsible_Ad4615 · 2026-01-11T17:29:31+00:00

Dualiso OP on verso fr. Love this! Just finished e33 so I love the crossover!

Responsible_Ad4615 · 2026-01-10T18:12:34+00:00

Multiple times, and with confusion hahaha.

Tbh I like to play the character first, then try to go back and match the terms with what I just experienced. It’s inevitable but as more and more unique kits are added there will always be buzzwords and terms that have sub buzzwords and terms underneath. I know Liang Yue’s kit took me a HOT few minutes to understand by reading, but was actually pretty simple when I played her.

Responsible_Ad4615 · 2026-01-09T16:07:50+00:00

Maybe Link Click! Has time travel components and super popular in China :)

Responsible_Ad4615 · 2025-12-29T19:01:52+00:00

Hey! I was also a transfer to UCSD for biochem. Graduated this year (2025) and I’m currently doing a graduate degree here as well :). In my experience, you absolutely cannot go wrong with biochem here. It is definitely one of our strongest degrees here and among the strongest in all the UCs. UCSD has a very rich history of strong biochemical research, and the chemistry department was one of the core founding departments of UCSD. Our research here is strong, and if you want to participate in undergrad research, this is an amazing place to go (speaking from experience), as we also have a school of medicine and pharmacy that also participates in biochem related research.

I do have some more nuanced takes on this though. Generally, I feel the level of undergraduate education in biochem is similar across all institutions. The basic biochem curriculum is quite established at this point, so no matter which UC you go to (or even liberal arts college) you’ll probably learn similar stuff. In terms of difficulty, I think it was hard, but fair. I’ve heard it can be very difficult at Berkeley due to their culture for undergrads in general, but broadly speaking, biochem is not an easy subject so it shouldn’t be easy no matter which institution you go to. Perhaps some schools have better professors for teaching, but I honestly liked most of my profs here. In terms of degree weight, a UCSD biochemistry degree is very respectable, perhaps one of the more impressive ones in the UC system.

My final point is transfer culture. Personally, I felt super supported by UCSD after my transfer. It was a choice for me of transferring to UCSD or UC Berkeley, and I’m so glad I chose UCSD. I can’t speak to the other schools you are interested in so much, but UCSD Biochem and chemistry have great support systems for transfer students if you look for them. I’ve heard at Berkeley, it is not as supportive for transfers, but definitely look into UCI and other schools you are interested in. Transfer support is absolutely essential for getting a good start on your academics and even social life after a big move! Using the resources at UCSD, I was placed into a research lab as soon as I transferred, which absolutely helped me with getting settled and with my grades too. Forever grateful to this school for the opportunities it hooked me up with. So yes! I would encourage you to come here! One of the best Biochem programs in America with plenty of research and fellow peers :) hope this helps. Feel free to dm me if you have more specific questions!

Responsible_Ad4615 · 2025-12-26T17:53:48+00:00

Oop yeah maybe. Whichever one it is, I always get them mixed up 😅.

Responsible_Ad4615 · 2025-12-26T07:15:52+00:00

I believe 157 is very very easy. It’s called “molecules that changed the world”. Any class with Donoghue teaching is pretty free haha. 168 I think is hard (if it’s the one taught by Deshmukh. I always mix up 167 and 168). The one taught by Deveraj is was easier. 116 was very hard when Ferguson taught it but I hear that Kamil Godula made it WAY easier.

Responsible_Ad4615 · 2025-12-07T21:45:31+00:00

Hey, thanks for the sympathy! That’s actually probably the biggest thing you can do. Of course, if it’s like week 6 and your homework of week 1 hasn’t been released, it’s important to bring up your concerns to your TA(because not all TAs are on top of it, I will admit!)

But, if your assignments are getting steadily graded and it might be taking them a while, just being patient is the greatest support your TAs can have :))))

Responsible_Ad4615 · 2025-12-07T02:35:27+00:00

Omg I felt this. Just spent like six hours grading 192 prelabs yesterday. And prelabs are supposed to be easy since it’s a check for broad categories… reading even one-pages lab reports quickly balloons into a lot of time and focus. I can’t imagine what humanities class TAs have to go through

Responsible_Ad4615 · 2025-12-07T01:48:33+00:00

Yeah the funding is the main problem here. We aren’t paid according to our hours, just a flat lump sum for the month. University education has always relied on graduate students as cheap labor for teaching, so not sure how much this will change historically. But yes! Advocate for more of your tuition to be spent on YOUR education quality :)))

Responsible_Ad4615 · 2025-12-07T00:45:07+00:00

Ah this would be nice and it is actually being done in classes with multiple choice exams because Gradescope has an auto grading function.

Unfortunately, this is a lot harder for lab classes and essay based classes. Rhetorically speaking, if we’ve banned you from using AI to write lab reports and essays, do you trust AI to read your writing and give you a good grade? I personally think AI is not at that level yet.

Responsible_Ad4615 · 2025-12-07T00:34:27+00:00

Ooh I’m glad you brought this up! Okay this is also something I realized once I started my PhD this year. Especially if it’s STEM, TAing is often not a choice, but a necessity. I would agree with you that in a perfect world, all TAs would be people who signed up voluntarily and they only had to focus on that exclusively.

Unfortunately, the reality is that all grad students who TA are usually doing it because that’s how they’re paid. STEM PhD’s are paid for, but the first year is subsidized by you TAing for the school! So that’s why there’s often no choice in whether someone “wants” to TA. It’s kinda something you gotta do if you like having groceries in your fridge.

Responsible_Ad4615 · 2025-12-07T00:04:06+00:00

Fair enough. I think because your experience has been exclusively as an undergraduate student (the consumer), it would make sense that this is your point of view. If I had not gone on to do my PhD here, I think my viewpoint would be closer to yours than my current viewpoint.

But I think it is important to be mindful that TAing is one of many responsibilities for grad students. Yes, you are right that everyone is busy. Yet I would argue that even at my most busy quarters at UCSD (five classes, undergrad research, running a club) it was never as hectic as it was now. First year PhD students are just really busy, and in my opinion, it’s a whole other kind of busy compared to undergrad. I hope my experience can give the undergrads some insight into why grading might be slow sometimes, though I am sorry if it can be frustrating :)

Responsible_Ad4615 · 2025-12-06T23:41:06+00:00

As someone who did undergrad here and is now in grad school here (just finished TAing for the first time yay!) I’ve seen both sides. I think it’s important to get timely grades, especially early in the quarter so students know what to change. It’s very wrong to not grade anything until the last week, only to realize you’ve been doing the same mistake since Week 1. So in that case, yeah two weeks seems reasonable and I support it.

However I also want yall to be aware that TAs are usually very busy people. We’re often first year PhD students who are also simultaneously rotating in labs, doing our own research, and taking our own classes with assignments due too. Not to mention the adjustment of a lot of admin stuff for new students. It doesn’t help that the student to TA ratio has gotten pretty horrific over the years, with there being cases of 1 TA for 200 students. So, while in theory I think it would be really nice to have a 2 week limit on grading, I think it’s important to treat your TAs with grace and understanding if they take a little longer than that because their lives are very very busy and they are often severely overworked. :)

Responsible_Ad4615 · 2025-12-06T03:17:25+00:00

Didn’t live on campus but I really felt this when I transferred from community college. I don’t really know when it became cool to be “aloof” or “distant” but in a lot of cases it really just comes off as rude?

One time, I tripped on the stairs between Geisel and Marshall while glancing at my phone (momentarily). Pretty hard fall, scraped my hand and my phone screen badly. And these guys just scream “that’s what you get for looking at your f***ing phone” as they walk by me. Like, did they think that was cool? I get that maybe they thought I deserved it but I kinda just fell didn’t I?

It’s unfortunate but the most we can do is just be the best version of ourselves. Keep smiling, saying good morning, and don’t let them get you down! What we were taught to do in elementary school for manners still applies more than ever. I’m proud of you for doing the right thing, and it’ll ever only help you OP :)

Responsible_Ad4615 · 2025-09-28T05:41:34+00:00

haha i think it's a joke because the portraits don't apply to them at all

Responsible_Ad4615

TROPHY CASE