Very disorganized. Overcomplicate concepts in an intro class. The experiments she design barely match lectures. Has a lot of attitudes. Practicals are hard to study for. She really doesn't deserve this job.

May be one of the most disorganized people for this job. She is in charge of coordinating the lectures and labs for intro bio classes and fails to do so well. The class is over complicated and the lab doesn't match the class at all. During my final she repeatedly screamed out errors she made on the final in a disruptive way. Very negative person.

I'm going to come off as so extra but I swear, this is most disorganized class that I've ever taken w the most disorganized lab manual that I've ever read. The lab manual constantly has conflicting information in it, is written out of order, is so grammatically incorrect and vague, etc. yet we are graded on our knowledge of extremely specific info

Trust me, too much work for 1 unit class. Lab manual is so unorganized

Several videos to watch in order to take a weekly quiz, reading the lab manual before lab, a ridiculous amount of questions in the manual that you need to answer, two practicals, and a fat research project without ANY guidance and sources that hardly make sense or cover necessary material. Good luck!

negligent, incompetent, disorganized, lazy

She has written down on the course policies that she gives makeup exams but she doesn't. Says you can contest your grade but when I complained about a grading mistake on my practical (and I'm 100% sure), the staff refused to fix it. Reuses questions she threw out other quarters because 1/2 students got another very close answer.

too much work! should be worth way more than 1 unit!!!!!!!!

The literal worst, the labs are completely disorganized and the practicals test on tiny details with not enough time to answer the questions. The manual is horrible, and there's no guidance on the research project. WAY too much work for 1 unit.

If I could rate her a zero I would

The actual worst, she overcomplicates the lab practicals to the point where they're more difficult and time consuming than the actual classes. The lab manual is disorganized and barely corresponds to lectures anyways. Probably the worst person they could have chosen to organize the intro bio labs.

Totally unorganized, making the material which was clear in lecture more confusing. Many of the questions she writes dont feel fair and her grading policy is rigid for a 1 unit class. If you every have her, Im sorry

They changed the format of the bio labs, and I had hoped that they would be better, but in fact, they have become worse! The grading scales are harder, and the lab practicals are no easier than before. Unfortunately there's no way to avoid this class if you're a bio major, so good luck and may the odds be ever in your favor tbh.

The class wasnt well run but not necessarily that difficult besides that. Dr. Nguyen didnt do her PhD in a molecular biology field, which was apparent when she tried do discuss even intro molecular biology topics, and especially more obvious in hindsight as you go on to upper div MCDB classes. Not the same level of quality as other UCSB profs.

literally the worst and least organized professor ever, does not respond to emails, is NOT understanding, changed the grading policy mid quarter to be less accommodating during the pandemic, and is m o n o t o n e

Class is terribly organized, she doesn't respond to emails, changed grading policy to be harsher mid-quarter during a pandemic, even though the class uses 3 different websites to turn things in, all with different times due which is extremely confusing and difficult to keep track of. She is also uncaring and unsympathetic to student hardship.

If I could give her a zero I would. She is by far the worst faculty member I have ever had experience with at UCSB. This class was horribly organized, had unclear requirements, and Dr. Nguyen displayed a complete lack of compassion for her students on several occasions. I was actually excited to this class but this professor ruined it. TA was nice

Lacks empathy and contributes to the (minimal) toxicity in the bio major. I dont understand how she has a job considering the immaturity and lack of self-awareness that she has. How did she even end up running the Intro Bio Labs? I cant believe the intro lab classes for the most impacted major on campus is this disorganized. UCSB deserves better.

Half the class was accused of cheating on the last day of the quarter so no one could do anything about it. She didnt respond to the emails. Left us in the dark. Some got letters saying it was a mistake on their end. All exams had multiple mistakes they refused to fix. Waited to very last minute to submit final grades so we could not protest.

Not good at her job. Has made multiple mistakes such as telling people incorrect grade cut offs and accusing people of cheating and later admitting it was her mistake. Makes you feel like a number. Weeder class

The Biolab classes (1LL and 2LL) are horribly organized and a huge waste of three hours every week. This class also has super strict rules on grading and attendance and they will almost never make an exception for students under any circumstance. The only upside is that the final exam is a group test in 2LL.

Easily one of the worst professors at UCSB. Both of the Intro Biology lab courses are incredibly disorganized. It's almost like Alice was the only one applying to be the head of the bio department and UCSB was stuck with hiring her. If she can get a job, anyone can >:(

Insane amount of work, very disorganized, the work we are doing seems pointless

MCDB 1LL is way too much work for 1.5 units. In the first week during Winter quarter of 2022, we were doing remote learning and the LURE project drafts were so confusing, as no experiment videos were provided and we were just doing worksheets based on numbers/data given to us. The pre-labs are also tedious and time-consuming.

Honestly just awful in so many ways. Terrible PDF assignments that force students to buy Adobe Acrobat and then bait them into clicking links that make them lose all their work (this happened to me and many other classmates). Having to pay for the stupid lab manual that she probably makes thousands off of. Stingy and inaccessible. Horrible prof.

Makes a class that's supposed to fun ridiculously complicated and tedious instead. Way way way too much work for 1.5 units and essentially an online class. Worst class I've taken here so far.

I am speechless. I have never encountered someone who couldn't care less about their students. MCDB 1LL is my villain origin story and I have never felt more misery. She never responds to emails and her videos are less than helpful. Do not get me started on the pre-labs. The questions are awfully worded and the answers are not clear either.

It's bad. The pre labs are borderline ridiculous. The questions are so out of date that they still ask about covid green badges in pre lab quizzes. It just feels like they are so unprepared to teach this class. Even my TA is confused by the organization of this class. Also we are writing a poster about a lab we will never do. Weird.

This is literally a made up class. We write a research poster on research we did not do. The in person labs are an actual joke. This is a waste of three hours every week. And don't get me started on the horrible organization and direction of this class and the stupid pre-lab quizzes. I am sorry if you have to take this class.

What hasn't been said? The fact every bio student pays to go through her courses is a crime. She makes me want to self-immolate in front of Bio2, or wherever her office is. When a TA posts a rating saying the prof Is bad, it's bad. Sorry to every other bio student. Prepare yourself. I agree w/ "this is my villain origin story".

I honestly have no words. To sum it up, I'll give you this: It was so confusing that my entire lab class was under the impression that we would eventually DO the worm lab at some point, and were not informed that we would never actually do it (and were supposed to work off the old data the WHOLE course) until week 8. WEEK. EIGHT.

The most stupid thing about MCDB1LL is the poster. We didn't do this experiment at all, but instead, the poster, which relies entirely on the editing process, gets the biggest score. It's really stupid and disgusting.

Does not respond to emails. If you want to talk to her you have to somehow get her attention outside of class and even then, it's impossible to get a hold of her. I emailed Nguyen 4 times about the same subject at the beginning of the quarter and continued to get zero response. Eventually gave up and stopped asking questions- really disappointing.

This class was extremely unorganized and it had us make a research poster on a lab that we never even got to do. The labs themselves are really easy, but the pre-lab assignments take like ten attempts to get full credit b/c of how difficult they are.

She cancelled 2 weeks of class because it rained for 1 day, so we didn't do an experiment or any science. Instead she gave us 10 year old videos from other professors to watch online as a substitute for teaching us anything/giving us hands-on experience. We spent our in-person "lab" time making an 8th grade science fair-caliber poster on Powerpoint

Ugh I thought MCDB lab was disorganized but just wait until you get to EEMB lab. My EEMB T.A. has no idea what's going on (she wasn't helpful), can't answer any of my questions. Like how am I supposed to write my 6pg paper when no one knows shi Istg I just can't with her anymore. Was pretty easy depending on TA. MCDB better than EEMB.

I don't even know where to start. It's like she intentionally makes her classes, which are supposed to be easy intro bio topics, the most confusing/unclear courses possible. She throws sooooo many busy work assignments at you, including a research paper with the most confusing instructions I've ever seen.

Soooo unclear about the directions for the research paper assignment + the whole class is just busy work. Don't even get me started on EEMB3, a class with fascinating content that she made terrible by giving a cumulative/in-person final that covers stuff we barely talked about--my quizlet for the class had more than in ochem and biochem combined!!

This class is so dumb. The entire class is busy work that no one explains. The final project is even dumber than the in class labs and no one has any idea what we are doing. Please send help.

Just spent three hours in a lab counting animals on a picture and then plugging the results into the same equation over and over... I don't know how she manages to absolutely ruin one of the most interesting/easy lab series

She seems nice as a person but honestly it feels like her courses were designed to suck all the interest out of the students. Why do we have so much busy work? Why do we have to spend hours writing essays on a research project we didn't even do?

Literally learned nothing this entire course. Full of busy work with terrible organization. There were little to no guidelines on the one single project we were assigned for this class. A major headache of a class and the administration made it so much worse.

I have her for EEMB 2LL and EEMB 2. She seems like a nice lady at first but her classes have been the worst I've taken here at UCSB. Lab is tons of busy work with unclear instructions, absolute waste of time. Lecture has 3 classes' worth of info smashed into one with cumulative 125 question final. Absolutely drained any passion for learning.

She really took the challenge of making these weeder classes the most unenjoyable classes

All the labs and classes were a mess. Most of the time for exams we are left in the dark. Expectations of the material we need to know is unclear and the lectures are a mess. Your grade is basically just based on exams. If you can take the other eemb professor. Their class has better structure and direction.

Joke is the only good word. No organisation, no clear expectation, a huge mess. Nguyen is not accessible out side of class room, she's like a ghost who tries to haunt down every possible student who needs to unfortunately cross paths with her. Lazy is pretty nice in this case when it comes to exam in which every question was copy pasted.

A genuine just joke of a class. Don't take this class seriously or try to learn anything, even if you try it's so unbelievably managed that you won't, period. The only thing redeemable about this class is that everyone gets A's if you turn things on in time, which is a little sad. Hopefully one day UCSB intro bio can be free of Alice and the "team"

Lame class that everyone has to take. Everything is very scuffed and you will be unsure of a lot of things. Post-lab and Pre-lab questions suck and are poorly written/wrong. Easy class if you listen to the TAs and follow their directions.

Does not respond to emails, very unhelpful. Pretends to be a resource for students to reach out to via the "Intro Bio Team" but refuses to help students, posts practice tests with incorrect answer keys, does not respond to any emails/will not meet with you if you have questions. Unhelpful and honestly just rude.

One of the worst human beings I've ever had the misfortune of meeting in my entire life. Not only is she hard to reach outside of class (which she doesn't even teach herself), she is also EXTREMELY insensitive. You can't miss any labs unexcused. My boyfriend thought he had covid and she still made him go to his lab because he didn't have a DR note

This is a joke of a class. The department is very strict about turning in labs and every time we have gone in for a lab, it is a waste of time. She has students conduct experiments knowing the equipment does not work and then marks students off for being late or not turning in a lab with very strict and not lenient policies. VERY poor quality class

Absolutely abysmal class. Only 1.5 units but the biggest hassle of a class. O chem lab is ten times easier and more fun. Least enjoyable class I have taken. Intro bio team is not helpful at all with turning in assignments late, getting excused absences, etc.

if I could give 0 stars I would. probably the least empathetic person you'll ever meet in your life. and the lab manual, quizzes, and poster project are all very poorly written. on the good side, it's easy as long as you don't miss a deadline.

WORST professor in the MCDB department. Has no sense of social skills whatsover, and is not lenient to different circumstances. Never met a "professor" like her before. DO NOT recommend! Would rather take this class at cc than here. Not a great coordinator, the worst by far at UCSB.

I don't really know where to start... she is extremely power hungry and bureaucratic. I had an instance where a TA told me something regarding the course policies and I took it to be truth (as one does). Turns out that wasn't the case and when I did everything else right (turned in my assignment EARLY) she didn't listen during our meeting at all.

I have never had the misfortune of dealing with such a terrible person until I had to take a class the Alice Nguyen was in charge of. She is the most unaccommodating person if you have to miss any classes and she doesn't allow you to make up any grades if you do. Avoid any classes with her name attached at all costs.

Honestly so so so unbelievably unfortunate that Alice heads a lot of the prerequisite classes for Pre-Biology majors because she is just so unaccommodating. I'm not sure why she makes everything so difficult and gives me the impression she does not care for the students taking her class to succeed. All of these reviews about her are 100% justified.

Absolute joke of a coordinator. She split a single course into 3 different professors, already confusing students, and 1 of the professors is teaching ENTIRELY on zoom. 0 accessibility, 0 transparency, 0 accommodations, and honestly the worst professor in all of UCSB. You cannot avoid her classes, but hopefully she loses her job one day.

Literally the WORST HUMAN to ever grace ucsb campus. is the least understanding person and hardly responds to emails on top of how HORRIBLY she coordinates classes. My house literally flooded and she said It wasn't fair to other students for me to submit my assignment late. (bro my house flooded). awful courses for an awful coordinator

Literally the meanest professor/coordinator ever. Every single class I have taken run by her had something go drastically wrong (like having 800+ students take a final 3 times). She also has 0 empathy for students, almost didn't excuse my friend from a lab because she couldn't send her a LITERAL OBITUARY fast enough.

The definition of "this is just a job". She's not even a real professor, just a coordinator. Unfortunately, that means a lot of the planning for these intro level mcdb/eemb classes get handed to her, bureaucrat-style. Terrible communication, if you reach out to her either in-person or by email, good luck getting a response back.

She don't provide what student need: I have no idea how to do the programmins for statistic analysis, but I can't find any guide for this. If you get sick and miss a lab, drag your tired body to get the doctor note. Since without it you will lose whole credit for the lab, and there is no compensate lab or lowest one drop, so say bye to your A!

Alice is literally so terrible and mean. She wants all the bio students to suffer and I truly feel like she wants to weed out as many people as she possibly can. I feel really sorry for you if you have to suffer through one of her classes. She has made me absolutely hate my major. So thanks for that!

Very poorly written/designed. Instructions could be way more clear. Lab videos are not in order/skips steps so it's more confusing than it needs to be and generally just not that helpful. Makes me miss gen chem lab because at least everything was clear.

This professor was not willing to work with students and made herself unavailable for comi

This professor was not willing to work with students. Her expectations are not reasonable. She asks more of students then she asks of herself. For example me and (over 10 other students) were completely unable to reach her. I think this is unacceptable behavior from a department head at a University such as UCSB.

My grandma died right before MCDB 1A midterm, i had to fly across the country for the funeral. Alice needed proof she actually died to not get a zero with no leniency. No obituary cause she was buried 24 hrs after death (jewish) & death cert would take weeks to get. I sent a picture of me at her grave, my family was in on it and we had a laugh.

Horrible. Expectations for research project in this lab were super unclear. TAs were clearly not communicated to well as they seemed confused too. Missed deadline by 10 min and was counted as a 0 docking a whole letter grade.

Most annoying class I have taken at ucsb. MCDB 1LL is an introductory lab course that is structured like a weeder class. Lots of mindless work. Grading is unnecessarily tough for a class that is so easy. Infuriating to get a 0 on assignments that you put time into because of a technicality. Put due dates in google calendar and you will do well.

The entire course is very confusing, with guidelines that are extremely vague. The grading is very tough, and simple mistakes in formatting is harshly punished, regardless of the actual quality of work. She seems like a person who wants to see you fail, and who will make things difficult for no reason in order to ensure that you fail.

just horrible no standards unclear instructions and cares more about technicalities then learning. makes me want to kms and drop out

This course is extremely frustrating. Instructions are very unclear, deadlines are ridiculous. Only given 48 hours to turn in lab workbook despite it taking over a month for it to get graded. Received 0% for an assignment that I spent hours on because of a technicality that was not clear in her horrible directions.

This whole course is in shambles. TAs are always unclear of how to set up experiments, but it's not their fault, because they aren't properly prepped. Unclear lab directions messed up our research poster project, which was a HASSLE for half the quarter. The actual biology was interesting, but the department honestly needs to scrap/rework this class

NOOOOOO! She sent out emails about tech issues happening but also still asked for proof of the tech issues, will give you 3+ grading criteria docs before giving any proper instructions on the finals, cannot hold herself accountable to save her life. Screenshot everything because she will blame issues on you before accepting she messed up.

It sucks I have to rate this class so low, because my TA was really good. The subject matter was not as interesting as MCDB lab, but the exercises were much easier since we got instant feedback/unlimited attempts. Nguyen is not very responsive, you should never ask for help unless really necessary. So many tech issues, and she's not very helpful.