ASTR 5
Life in Universe
Grades
3.41
Average grade awarded in ASTR 5. Not a student rating: this is what the grades were.
In the A range
63%
of the 1,856 letter grades
D, F or W
4.0%
of every letter grade awarded, plus withdrawals
Taken pass/no pass
8%
90% of those passed
The registrar's own records: 1,856 grades over 14 terms, Fall 2021 to Fall 2025. Every instructor is pooled here.
What is inside that record
1 of those terms is a summer session, and summer sessions are counted here.
The table below splits them, and term averages across those 14 terms ran 2.48 to 3.86.
Historical grades for all professors, across recorded terms. The course summary above includes all professors.
- A+ 288 · 15.5%
- A 572 · 30.8%
- A- 309 · 16.6%
- B+ 170 · 9.2%
- B 169 · 9.1%
- B- 100 · 5.4%
- C+ 83 · 4.5%
- C 63 · 3.4%
- C- 27 · 1.5%
- D+ 11 · 0.6%
- D 17 · 0.9%
- D- 13 · 0.7%
- F 34 · 1.8%
- P 140 of 2,028
- NP 15 of 2,028
- S 2 of 2,028
- I 15 of 2,028
Percentages are of the 1,856 letter grades. Grey bars are non-letter outcomes: passes (P), no-passes (NP), satisfactory (S), and incompletes (I).
How the non-letter outcomes are counted
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 GPA | Raw | n | Terms | A range | Workload | Fall 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RICH, MICHAEL reviews ↗ | 3.49 | 3.49 | 727 | 5 | 63% | very light | not teaching it |
| TREU, TOMMASO L reviews ↗ | 2.97 | 2.96 | 400 | 3 | 44% | light | not teaching it |
| NAOZ, SMADAR reviews ↗ | 3.78 | 3.80 | 301 | 2 | 89% | - | not teaching it |
| MCLEAN, IAN S reviews ↗ | 3.78 | 3.82 | 176 | 1 | 86% | very light | not teaching it |
| HANSEN, BRADLEY M reviews ↗ | 3.35 | 3.34 | 150 | 1 | 53% | very light | not teaching it |
| MALKAN, MATTHEW ARNOLD reviews ↗ | 2.67 | 2.48 | 65 | 1 | 25% | heavy | not teaching it |
| CIURLO, ANNA reviews ↗ | 3.39 | 3.38 | 37 | 1 | 59% | - | not teaching it |
Why Predicted is not the Raw average
“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.
Grade records describe outcomes. For what a course is like to take, read student reviews written on dibs below or follow the separate external review link.
Workload and assignments
Reported assignments across instructors and terms. This term's syllabus may differ.
No assignment details are available in this review summary. Based on 120 reviews; source checked about 2 months ago. Missing details do not mean there are no papers or exams. Check the current syllabus.
In Falls
Ran in 5 of the last 5 Falls.
From the terms dibs holds, which start in Fall 2021 and exclude summer. A department can run a course in a quarter it never has before.
From the registrar's catalog
Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour. No special preparation required. Topics include formation and evolution of Earth and Sun, life on Earth, origin and evolution of life, solar system, habitability, extra-solar planets, search for intelligent life in universe, and interstellar travel. Draws primarily from astronomy and biology but includes some chemistry, geology, and physics. P/NP or letter grading.
Sections in Fall 2025
From the people who took it
Student reviews
What taking ASTR 5 was like: the work, the teaching, and what students wish they’d known.
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