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Dibs Fall 2026

ASTR 3

Nature of the Universe

Lecture, three hours; laboratory, two hours. Not open to students with credit for or currently enrolled in course 81 or 82. No special mathematical preparation required beyond that necessary for admission to UCLA in freshman standing. Course for general UCLA students, normally not intending to major in physical sciences. Introduction to vast range of cosmic phenomena including planets in our solar system and beyond, stars, supernova explosions, black holes, galaxies, and universe as whole. P/NP or letter grading.

Course statistics

Predicted GPA
3.25
n = 2,422 · 12 terms · ± 0.011
A range
50%
of letter grades
Taken P/NP
8%
92% of those passed
D / F / W
4.2%
incl. withdrawals

Sections in Fall 2026

Sections offered, with live enrollment and predicted GPA
Section Status Enrolled Seat risk Meets Instructor Predicted GPA
Lec 1 Open
96 of 127
76% full
 could fill MW 9:30am-10:45am Gatkine, P.
3.25n=2,422 · course average
Lec 2 Open
100 of 131
76% full
 could fill MWF 11:00am-11:50am Shapley, A.E.
3.14n=240 · this instructor

Enrollment history

Final enrollment per term, averaged across that term's sections. Four years deep, summer excluded. Per-section live curves are on each section page.

  • 15721F
  • 15522W
  • 7122S
  • 11922F
  • 15323W
  • 8523S
  • 13823F
  • 14124W
  • 16024S
  • 11624F
  • 12925W
  • 10025S
Enrolment by term: 21F 157, 22W 155, 22S 71, 22F 119, 23W 153, 23S 85, 23F 138, 24W 141, 24S 160, 24F 116, 25W 129, 25S 100
Peak 160 Most recent 100 in 25S 12 terms on record

Grade distribution

  • A+ 277 · 10.4%
  • A 558 · 21.0%
  • A- 376 · 14.1%
  • B+ 325 · 12.2%
  • B 299 · 11.2%
  • B- 176 · 6.6%
  • C+ 123 · 4.6%
  • C 109 · 4.1%
  • C- 81 · 3.0%
  • D+ 15 · 0.6%
  • D 24 · 0.9%
  • D- 5 · 0.2%
  • F 54 · 2.0%
  • P 203 · 7.6%
  • NP 18 · 0.7%
  • S 2 · 0.1%
  • I 12 · 0.5%
  • DR 4 · 0.2%

Grey bars are non-letter outcomes — P/NP, S/U, incompletes. They are excluded from the GPA entirely rather than scored, because counting a P as a 4.0 would be a fabrication.

By instructor

Instructor Predicted Raw n Terms A range
TURNER, JEAN L 3.38 3.38 398 3 51%
LARKIN, JAMES E 3.20 3.20 381 3 46%
FITZGERALD, MICHAEL P 2.96 2.95 324 4 35%
YU, TZE YEUNG MATHEW 3.46 3.47 279 2 66%
TREU, TOMMASO L 3.21 3.21 269 2 52%
SHAPLEY, ALICE EVE 3.14 3.13 240 2 40%
SALTZBERG, DAVID 3.28 3.28 204 2 55%
RICH, MICHAEL 3.07 3.05 187 2 41%
TURYSHEV, SLAVA G 3.67 3.71 140 1 79%

“Predicted” is shrunk toward the course average, which is itself shrunk toward the department — so an instructor with a handful of students sits near the course mean rather than topping the list.

By term